By Grace Apostol
News Co-Editor
Washington College’s Rose O’Neill Literary House gained a new faculty member for the
upcoming school year.
Linda Hamrick started as the Center Coordinator for the Literary House on Aug. 1.
Besides this position, she will also take over as the Chair of the Board of Publications for WC,
aiding in overseeing student publications including The Elm and The Collegian.
According to Hamrick, she will be working into this transition with Associate Director of
the Literary House and Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing Roy Kesey,
who is the outgoing Chair of the Board of Publications.
Hamrick said she is “excited” to take on this position within the publications, as well as
her work with the Literary House.
“A lot of my work at the Literary House will involve student support, events
management, and general administrative work,” she said. “I am especially looking forward to
working with the interns who will be joining us this year.”
Hamrick grew up in Strafford, Va., and moved to Richmond in 2015 for her first year of
undergraduate school, but according to her, “it wasn’t a good match.”
She transferred out to continue her studies for her English degree.
“Instead of moving closer to home, I moved 2000 miles away and attended the
University of Montana for two years,” Hamrick said.
After completing her Associates Degree there, Hamrick moved back to Richmond, Va.
where she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Arts in English
in 2021. She also completed her Masters in English at VCU from 2021-2023 following her
undergrad.
Hamrick not only completed her studies at VCU, but also worked from 2021 to 2023 for
the university as a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Faculty Affairs, where she had also
worked before as an Administrative Assistant from 2019 to 2021.
“With my team I worked on Promotion and Tenure, prepared faculty awards, and worked
in events management, amongst a variety of other tasks,” she said.
Now working for WC as her first position following graduate school, Hamrick said that
she chose this path of employment as it allows her to give back to the literary community.
“I was excited to find a position that let me give back to the literary community that
supported me throughout the entirety of my undergraduate and graduate career,” she said.
Within this position, Hamrick hopes to discuss different ideas of more student
opportunities for the Literary House interns, as well as diversity and inclusion to the table and
the literary student community at WC.
“When I worked at an art gallery at the University of Montana, we sometimes organized
our First Fridays around various Heritage Months, and I would be interested in knowing if we
could begin an offering in a similar bent,” Hamrick said. “Perhaps a craft workshop or a reading
centered around certain topics.”
Professor Kesey speaks for Hamrick’s Literary House coworkers saying that they “are
absolutely delighted to have Hamrick on the team.”
“She brings deep thoughtfulness and practicality to everything she works on, and will be
a huge asset for the Lit House as we look to expand our ability to serve the students of
Washington College, in particular through the Board of Publications,” he said.
Literary House intern and junior Lucy Verlaque echoed these sentiments of Hamrick.
“I first met Linda while I was interning at the Literary House over the summer and she
seems like a wonderful person,” Verlaque said. “As someone involved in student publications,
I’m really excited to work alongside her and welcome her to the community.”
Besides working with the WC community, Hamrick is also excited for guest speakers of
the Literary House as well as the American Writers Program.
“I’m really looking forward to the reading hosted by Alexis Pauline Gumbs later this
year,” she said. “I’ve been following her work for a long time so it’s really neat that we’re getting
to work with Stop Lies About Climate Change to bring her work to our institutions. I think it will
be really generative for students.”
Looking towards working at WC as a whole, Hamrick said that part of her love of her
workfield is supporting those within the community, and that she is excited to begin being a part
of students’ time here.
“I stayed in academia because I truly love working with students and supporting
undergraduates as they navigate their way through college and their own connection to the
world,” she said. “I wanted to be a part of that.”
Photo Courtesy of Lina Hamrick
Photo Caption: New Center Coordinator Linda Hamrick smiles in Finland.