The Virginia Writers Series, sponsored by the Friends of Belle Isle State Park, will continue on February 15.
Larry D. Giles in a “Courtship of Rivers” will present his first book, Father Tree Water: Collected Poems and Photographs of the Rappahannock Mind Body Spirit and excerpts from other works in the Visitor Center at Belle Isle State Park, 1632 Belle Isle Road, Lancaster, reported president Frances Callaghan.
Doors will open at 2 p.m. and the lecture will begin at 2:30 p.m., followed by time with the author. The fee is $10 and includes parking, light refreshments, coffee and tea. Reservations are required, call 462-5030.
Born in Richmond, Giles grew up on a farm just outside of Battery, a rural community several miles from the Rappahannock River. The author, poet and artist has taught English and writing at his high school alma mater in Essex County and for the city of Richmond.
He has been published in The River City Poets Anthology, Better than Starbucks Magazine, The Heroines Among Us Ponder Savant Collection and The Bhubaneswar Review.
His paintings and first book Father Tree Water recently were featured among works by 25 other African American artists in the Charlottesville McGuffey Water: Agony and Ecstasy Exhibit.
Giles also has been recognized as Best of the Net by the Better Than Starbucks periodical for his Hoover Boys series. His stories, poetry, photographs and insight have been shared through regional cultural presentations by the Essex County Museum and Historical Society, the Menokin Foundation and the Arizona State University School for Social Transformation.
His poetry and creative nonfiction often center on family, reinvention and preservation of culture and community, rural Virginia life along the Rappahannock, and on personal resilience and strength, with sometimes mystical multicultural inter-weavings.
Giles is currently working on his second book, The Boy beside the Woods, a series of mostly vintage photographs and vignettes which detail his childhood in the 50s and 60s in Essex County.
He lives in Richmond where he continues to write, paint, enjoy photography and lead several online history and community education archives.
