L. Todd Hearon

Instructor in English
Bennett Fellowship Coordinator
Appointed
2003
Lionel T. Hearon

"No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." — Samuel Beckett

Education

M.A. Boston College

B.A. Baylor University

Ph.D. Boston University

Biography

Mr. Hearon was a wandering soul. He still occasionally wanders, but now within stricter, ivy-clad perimeters. He grew up in the kudzu-entangled Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, after having been born in Texas, in order to be close to his mother. (He claims Texas as part of his necessary wandering and soul building; it hurt him into poetry.) Having graduated college in the frontier town of Waco, Texas, he made his way to the brick- and cobbled cloisters of New England — after three years as an itinerant guitarist — where he has lived ever since, finishing degrees in English/Irish/editorial studies in the city of Boston, where he learned to play the mandolin. Since then, he has picked up the banjo, which he employs regularly to dispel memories of the cacti and coyotes of his youth. He has never taught a sport in his life.

Mr. Hearon regularly teaches English and occasionally directs a play. He’s been awarded certain titles, instructorships and chairs that make him seem quite official, but they rotate. He’s most happy when spending time with his students in class, observing how much brighter and more articulate they are than he was at their age, a fact that gives him hope at least for the immediate future. He looks forward to achieving the dream of every teacher: being rendered obsolete.

Mr. Hearon writes too much for his own good and for the good of his wife and twins, who rarely if ever profit from his dabblings. To date, he has written three books of poems, one unpublishable novel, numerous plays, several essays and a collection of short stories that he is laboring against time to complete. He still regularly plays the banjo and mandolin. He reads poetry and observes the peregrinations of the planets. He perseveres.

Publications

No Other Gods. November 2, 2015. Salmon Poetry.

Strange Land. April 8, 2010. Southern Illinois University Press.

"Covenant". AGNI 67. 2008.

"What is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him". Slate. May 9, 2006.

"The Singers". Poetry. December, 2005.

"Caliban in After-Life". Partisan Review. April, 2002.