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91ֱ�� will be celebrating Dr. Bill King Writer’s Week across campus beginning on October 21.  The events, centered around the celebration of Bill King’s influence of writers across campus, will feature several workshops and readings by Gordon Johnston and are open to the public.

Writer’s Week, as it came to be known from its inception to last year, began the same year that its founder, Bill King, PhD, arrived at 91ֱ�� in 1996.  King quickly became a beloved figure on campus to students and faculty alike, and his efforts in teaching and writing have been previously recognized through the Heartwood Poetry Prize and being nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  He was voted as the winner of the People’s Choice Awards for the “Simply the Best – College Professor” category in 2021, determined by newspaper readers in Randolph and surrounding counties.  King was a recipient of the Lois Latham Award for Teaching Excellence and the Sigma Alpha Phi Excellence in Teaching Award through the College and was a West Virginia Professor of the Year Nominee.  His posthumous release, Bloodroot, was the recipient of a Weatherford Award in poetry, honoring Dr. Grace Toney Edwards and given based on a work’s ability to illuminate the challenges, personalities, and unique qualities of the Appalachian South.  King’s work was celebrated for its deep meditation to the joys and sorrows that the world offers and its praise of Appalachian complexity.

His legacy continues to be celebrated by students, faculty, staff, and friends, including decorated author and poet, Gordon Johnston, who will be sharing and celebrating many of his own works while on campus.

Johnston, PhD, and King met in the basement of Park Hall on the University of Georgia campus in 1990.  What would blossom was a decades-long friendship centered around humility and wonder for the creative process and its integration with life.  Johnston is a similarly decorated author and educator, earning his Doctor of Philosophy in American Literature from the University of Georgia, the same as King.  Johnston’s works have been recognized by such prestigious awards as the Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Imaginative Writing and his second-place finish in the fiction category for his work in Honey Moon.  He will be reading from his latest works, 7 Isles of the Ocmulgee and Where Here is Hard to Say during his time at the College.

“We are incredibly fortunate that Bill’s longtime best friend and fellow poet, Gordon Johnston, has agreed to return for BKWW this year – this time to share his own work with our community,” says Professor English and Chair of English, Katherine Osborne.  “Having Gordon back this year reminds us of the power of friendship, poetry, the natural world, and our dearly-missed colleague, friend, and mentor.”

Lectures will take place during four English classes, centered around writing about place, creative writing, and offering a field trip with students in American Nature Writers to the Experimental Forest with Iris Allen.  The Creative Writing Workshop will occur on Monday, October 21, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and is open to both the campus and the Elkins community.  A public reading of Johnston’s works in fiction and poetry will be located in Senate Commons on Tuesday, October 22 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Open Mic night takes place on Wednesday, October 23, in the Icehouse from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and will be led by “Aurora”, a student-led literary magazine.  Continuing the tradition from last year, many of King’s works will be written in chalk across the 91ֱ�� campus for all to enjoy.

“Bill enthusiastically shared his love of writing, literature and poetry, and nature and the Appalachian Mountains with those around him,” says Executive Assistant to the President and wife of King, Beth King.  “Whether working with his writing and literature students, collaborating with his colleagues and fellow writers, planning hiking trips with his children and friends, or sharing the route to his favorite fishing spots with his nurses, he genuinely treasured sharing the things he was passionate about with the people he held so dear.

“I know he would be honored that Bill King’s Writer’s Week continues – and will continue – thanks to the donations of our friends, family, and community.  Bill would have been tickled that Gordon is returning this year to read from his own book Where Here Is Hard To Say, which was published by Mercer University Press at the same time as Bill’s book.  Over the many years of their friendship, Bill and Gordon spent countless hours together – rewriting and editing their work, offering each other feedback and support, and hiking the mountains and fishing the rivers from south Georgia to West Virginia.  Gordon’s honest, humble, and reverent nature deeply impacted Bill, who immensely admired his writing and valued him as a friend and mentor.”

A silent auction will be held from Monday, October 21, to Wednesday, October 23, with proceeds benefitting the BKKW Endowment.  For more information on how to participate in the auction, please visit or scan the QR code provided on the event flyer.