Central Washington University announced on April 29 that the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series will continue Tuesday, May 5, with a visit from memoirist, artist, and editor Nora Wendl at the Multicultural Center in Black Hall.
The event highlights the university’s ongoing commitment to bringing nationally recognized writers to campus. The series aims to offer students and community members opportunities to engage with authors through readings and discussions.
Wendl, an associate professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico, is scheduled to present a craft talk about writing from the body at noon and a reading at 5:30 p.m., both in room 107. Each session will be followed by a question-and-answer period and book signing. Online attendance is available for those who pre-register for either event; recordings will also be made accessible.
During her visit, Wendl will read from her book “Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth,” which blends memoir with architectural history and was shortlisted for the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. The book explores Dr. Edith Farnsworth’s experience as “the first woman in the United States to build and then live in an experimental glass house” (Almost Nothing). It examines Farnsworth’s commission of architect Mies van der Rohe, subsequent legal disputes over ownership of the house, and media portrayals that mischaracterized their relationship.
Wendl’s narrative weaves archival research on Farnsworth with reflections on her own life as a tenure-track professor facing professional challenges. She describes being investigated after a student accused her of misconduct based on “eye contact in the classroom” and “the dresses I wore.” After being cleared but subsequently threatened by the student, she relocated for safety reasons—an experience she parallels with Farnsworth’s own displacement following legal battles over her home.
Wendl characterizes her work as an act of recovery for both herself and Farnsworth: “As an architect, considering the embodied perspective always comes first, and I’ve applied to writing not just the story of Edith Farnsworth and her glass house, but the story of what changing a history requires, the obstacles and adventures that come along with the territory of rewriting history.”
The Chicago Reader praised “Almost Nothing” for its critical look at misogyny within architecture and academia while offering new ways to consider built environments. The Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series has previously hosted award-winning writers including David Haynes in February and Elizabeth Bradfield earlier this month; it will conclude its current season May 26 with novelist Sonora Jha.