Date/Time
Date(s) - October 21, 2026
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Allen Hall | Longwood University
Categories
October 21, 2026
Authors Reading Series: Larry Thacker
7 – 9 p.m.
Allen Hall, Room 101
Larry D. Thacker is a Kentuckian writer, artist, educator, and reality show actor, living in Johnson City, Tennessee. His poetry, fiction and non-fiction can be found in over 200 publications, including Spillway, Still: The Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Illuminations, American Journal of Poetry, Poetry South, and Appalachian Review.
His short stories have appeared in past issues of Still: The Journal, Fried Chicken and Coffee, Dime Show Review, Story and Grit, Pikeville Review, and FEED. His stories have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net recognitions. He is the author of Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia (Overmountain Press, 2007), the full poetry collections Drifting in Awe (2017), Grave Robber Confessional (2019), Feasts of Evasion (2019), and Gateless Menagerie (2021), and New Red Words (2024).
He has two chapter books, Voice Hunting and Memory Train (Finishing Line Press). His short story collection, Working it Off in Labor County: Stories, was published by West Virginia University Press in 2021. The follow-up collection to Working, entitled Labor Days, Labor Nights: More Stories, was published in 2021, and a short story collection, Everyday Monsters, co-authored with CM Chapman, was published in 2021. A fourth short story collection The Wicked Road to Yam Junction, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in late 2026. He has a full poetry collection (co-written with Jesse Graves), entitled A Little Light in the Grave, forthcoming in late 2026.
He is a veteran of the US Army and a seventh-generation native of the Cumberland Gap area. His MFA in poetry and fiction is from West Virginia Wesleyan College. He is also a 15-year veteran of the student services field in higher education with multiple professional degrees. He is an occasional adjunct instructor at Northeast State Community College.
You can also find him as a regular on the Netflix reality show, Swap Shop, which premiered in November 2021. He is now involved as a cast member in the filming of the new series, Conjuring Truth, forthcoming on Scare Channel TV.
This event is free and open to the public.