Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series continues Tuesday with writer/editor Nora Wendl

Central Washington University’s Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series continues Tuesday, May 5, when memoirist, artist, and editor Nora Wendl visits the Multicultural Center on the first floor of Black Hall.

The associate professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico will present a craft talk about writing from the body at noon, and a reading at 5:30 p.m. Both events will be held in room 107 and will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

If you would like to attend the May 5 events online, please pre-register for the craft talk here and the reading here. Both presentations will also be recorded.

Wendl will be reading from Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth, a book that blends memoir and architectural history, shortlisted for the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize.

Dr. Edith Farnsworth was “the first woman in the United States to build and then live in an experimental glass house” (Almost Nothing). A renowned nephrologist, Farnsworth commissioned the house from iconic midcentury modern architect Mies van der Rohe after he proposed the idea at a dinner party. Expenses ballooned over time, and she demanded accountability. After the house was finished, he sued her “for ownership of the house and to displace her from it.” As a result, the media baselessly cast her as his spurned ex-lover.

Throughout the book, we follow Wendl through various archives as she searches fruitlessly for evidence of a Farnsworth-van der Rohe romantic relationship, while folding in vignettes of her own life as a financially stretched, thirtysomething tenure-track professor.

As she writes about her subjects’ lawsuit, we also learn Wendl, at the time she was writing the book, was under investigation due to a male student accusing her of sexual harassment based on “eye contact in the classroom” and “the dresses I wore.” After the investigation concludes in her favor, he threatens her, which impels her to relocate. Like Farnsworth, Wendl was investigated and displaced.

Wendl’s book is an act of recovery for Farnsworth, who died in 1977, and for herself. She lands the UNM job (albeit with a pay cut) and after publication, her book was met with critical acclaim.

The Chicago Reader praises Almost Nothing for “cast[ing] a clinical eye on the misogyny rampant in architecture (and academia), making space for considering the built environment in a less didactic, sterile way.”

Looking back on when she wrote the book, Wendl reflects, “As an architect, considering the embodied perspective always comes first, and I’ve applied to writing not just the story of Edith Farnsworth and her glass house, but the story of what changing a history requires, the obstacles and adventures that come along with the territory of rewriting history.” 

The Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series at CWU features nationally known writers reading their work in person and/or on Zoom. The series has hosted winners of the MacArthur Genius Award, Washington State Poets Laureate, and recipients of Guggenheim, Lannan, and NEA Fellowships.

The series started February 18 with a visit from author David Haynes, followed by a presentation by poet and naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield on April 21. The 2026 series will conclude May 26 with a presentation by novelist Sonora Jha.

To learn more about the series or the individual guests, email Professor Candace Walsh at candace.walsh@cwu.edu.