Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 1P.M.  - Luncheon Meeting, Fellowship Hall at West Point Christian Church, West Point, VA

Topic:  TBA

Speaker: Author, Professor and VWC member, John Conlee

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JOHN CONLEE is a Professor of English at the College of William and Mary, where he has taught for many years. His primary field of teaching and research is English Medieval Literature, with an emphasis on Middle English poetry, Middle Scots poetry, the Arthurian legends, and Chaucer. He has edited important scholarly texts on The Prose Merlin (1998), The Poetry of William Dunbar (2004), and on Middle English Debate Poems (1991).

Conlee has a longtime interest in the history of Children’s Literature and has contributed several articles on children’s authors to various reference works. He also has a strong interest in baseball fiction and films, an interest which he has successfully integrated into his current teaching and research. He is also developing his interest in Celtic Studies, focusing on the earliest surviving Irish and Welsh literary texts.

John grew up near San Diego and attended the University of Southern California; he has graduate degrees from the University of Illinois. At William and Mary he directed the graduate program in English and twice served as Chair of the English Department. He has been actively engaged in Study Abroad Programs and has taught in several summer programs in the U.K., particularly in Cambridge and Bath In addition to academic publications, he is the author of a series of short novels-- e.g., The Dragon Stone and A Cup of Kindness--which focus on King Arthur and Merlin and especially on King Arthur's dog Cabal.

DIRECTIONS

West Point Christian Church (The bully pulpit of CBW Member, Pastor Bill Palmer) is located at 290 W. Euclid Blvd. in West Point. >From points west, take I-64 to Exit 220 (Route 33). Follow Route 33 into West Point via the Pamunkey River Bridge. Immediately after you get off the bridge, turn left at the first signal onto Main Street–King William Ave. (Route 30). There is a Rite-Aid on the corner where you turn. Go about two miles on Route 30 to W. Euclid Blvd. and turn left (look for a Catholic Church on the left just before the turn). Go one block to West Point Christian Church, on the left.

Participants coming from Gloucester, Mathews, and the Northern Neck, should take Route 33 into West Point from the east. After crossing the Mattaponi River Bridge, turn right at the second traffic signal (Main Street–King William Ave.–Route 30), and follow the directions above. The church telephone number is 804-843-3185, in case anyone needs to be “talked in.”