
Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar: Night Watch
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Campus Programs
- Institute for Honor Symposium: Food, Housing and Health
- Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar: Night Watch
- Discover the Middle Ages: A Week of Exploration, Connection, and Insight
- Questions of Ownership: Ethical and Legal Concerns Related to the Treatment of Cultural Heritage Objects
- Digging into History: A W&L Family Adventure in Archaeology
- Law and Literature Weekend Seminar: The Nickel Boys
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"Night Watch"
Featuring Author Jayne Anne Phillips
April 11–12, 2025

In “Night Watch,” Phillips paints a portrait of endurance and survival in the aftermath of war. The novel follows 12-year-old ConaLee and her mother, Eliza, who has not spoken in over a year, as they find themselves delivered to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, uprooted from their family, neighbors and beloved mountain home. As the two try to reclaim their lives and become swept up in the life of the asylum — with ConaLee posing as her mother’s maid while Eliza is being treated — readers learn more about the family’s experience during the war and how they plan to move forward. “Night Watch” is an intimate and enthralling chronicle of family endurance against all odds, inviting readers to consider the trauma war inflicts on families.
“Night Watch,” Phillips’ sixth novel, was longlisted for the National Book Award in fiction and named to the New Yorker’s “Best Books of 2023.” Phillips is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and is the recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, Howard, Bunting Institute and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships.
Critics and reviewers have extensively praised the virtues of “Night Watch:"
- Kirkus Reviews praised “Night Watch” for its “haunting storytelling and refreshing look at history,” saying, “The asylum becomes the catalyst for characters to uncover identities lost, hidden or unknown. ... Expect coincidences and convolutions, but Phillips pulls them off with gorgeous prose, attention to detail and masterful characters.”
- The Wall Street Journal said, “Ms. Phillips, who is drawn to depicting the poor, the mentally disabled, the wounded and other vulnerable souls, is a principled practitioner of narrative magic.”
- The Washington Post noted that Phillips “leaves readers with a rueful yet doggedly hopeful maxim that could easily serve as an epigraph for ‘Night Watch’ as a whole: ‘Endurance was strength.’”
Phillips will be joined in the seminar by W&L faculty members Sascha Goluboff and Barton Myers. Goluboff is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Director of Community-Based Learning whose research interest focuses on the anthropology of emotion in geographic and historic contexts. Myers is Professor of History and a recognized author whose research interest includes the American Civil War and war and society.
Program Cost: $275 per person
-
Campus Programs
- Institute for Honor Symposium: Food, Housing and Health
- Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar: Night Watch
- Discover the Middle Ages: A Week of Exploration, Connection, and Insight
- Questions of Ownership: Ethical and Legal Concerns Related to the Treatment of Cultural Heritage Objects
- Digging into History: A W&L Family Adventure in Archaeology
- Law and Literature Weekend Seminar: The Nickel Boys
- Accommodations and Dining
- Additional Program Information
- Past Programs
- Travel Programs
- W&L at Home
Lifelong Learning
- P: 540-458-8723
- E: lifelong@wlu.edu
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Lifelong Learning
Washington and Lee University
204 W Washington Street
Lexington, VA 24450