Contact Information

• lhorvitz@unca.edu
• 251-6590
• 205 Karpen Hall

Office Hours

• Monday 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
• Wednesday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
• Note: And by appointment

I believe a teacher’s essential objective should be to ignite and validate students’ intellectual and creative curiosity so that they become engaged thinkers, speakers, writers and citizens. Teaching for me has been a two-way street — my most successful classes have been made up of students who not only took risks and challenged themselves, but students who have inspired, challenged and educated me. Along with teaching creative writing courses, my teaching interests include contemporary road narratives, essays and memoir, women’s and gender studies, and the Beat Generation. I’m the founder and organizer of UNCA’s F-Word Film Festival (A Celebration of Images By and About Women but For All Audiences), as well as Asheville’s Queer Girls Literary Reading Series. I enjoy spending time hiking the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina with my German shepherd mix, attending literary readings, and partaking in the many culinary delights of Asheville.

Please visit my author website.

Education

• B.F.A., College at Purchase (SUNY)
• M.F.A., Brooklyn College
• Ph.D., State University of New York at Albany

Recent Books

• Author of The Girls of Usually, Truman State University Press, 2015.
• Editor of Queer Girls in Class: Lesbian Teachers and Students Tell Their Classroom Stories, Peter  Lang Publishing Group, 2011.

• Collect Call to My Mother: Essays on Love, Grief, and Getting a Good Night's Sleep, New Meridian Arts, 2023.

Recent Publications (Creative Nonfiction, Short Stories & Poetry)

• “Queers in Class.” G &LR, September 2023.
• “My Father’s Mug.” The New York Times, December 2022.
• “Those Friday Afternoons.” South Dakota Review, February 2022.
• “The Secret Life of Voles.” Under the Sun, May 2021.
• “Daytona Beach, 1950.” deComp Journal, January 2021.
• “The Gift-Giver.” The Hunger, February 2020.
• “The Last Freight Train.” North Dakota Quarterly, December 2019.
• “A Threesome with Time.” The Laurel Review, June 2019.
• “Making Contact.” Hobart, May 2019.
• “Holding Space.” AMP Journal of Digital Literature, May 2019.
• “A Girl’s Guide to Hot Mess Yoga.” Redivider, March 2019.
• “On the Benefits of Liquid Soap.” South 85 Journal, Dec. 2018.
• “The Scent of Nag Champa.” Entropy, Oct 2018.
• “On Death and Dying (My Hair).” The Broke Bohemian, Spring 2018.
• “Chasing Squirrels.” Foliate Oak, Spring 2018.
• “A Conversation with My Mother.” Cumberland River Review, January 2017.
• “The Grief Bird.” Gravel Magazine, December 2016.
• “Life Doesn't Come with Trigger Warnings. Why Should Books?” The Guardian.com, 2015
• “A Professor’s Perspective on Sexual Assault on College Campuses.” Bustle.com, 2015.
• "The Big Smoke." Epiphany: A Literary Journal, 2014.
• "All the World's Oceans." Chattahoochee Review, 2014.
• "Cool as Patty Hearst." Saint Ann's Review, 2013
• "Little Pink Hatchling." Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing, 2013.
• "The Golden Cord." The Tusculum Review, 2013.
• "Deathbed Pearls." Burrow Press, 2012.
• "Mongrels of Salamanca." Chariton Review, 2012.
• "Slimfast Vacation." The Monarch Review, 2012.

Recent Teaching

• LANG 494: Senior Seminar in Creative Writing
• LANG 366: Creative Nonfiction Workshop
• LIT 374: Writers of the Beat Generation
• LIT 379: Questions of Travel
• LIT 346: Queer Narratives/Queer Theories
• LIT 346: Gender and the American Road Novel
• LIT 349: Contemporary Literature
• ARTS 310: Arts and Ideas: Queer Arts/Queer Activism
• LANG 260: Introduction to Creative Writing
• LIT 240: Introduction to Literature
• FYS 178: Creative Writing/Creative Reading/Creative Living
• FYS 178: Queer Arts/Queer Activism
• WGSS 100: Introduction to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Awards

• Writer-in-residency fellowships: Cottages at Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Brush Creek, Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, Fundacion Valparaiso, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
• The 2016 Goldfarb Family Fellowship for Nonfiction Writers from Virginia Center for the  Creative Arts
• Distinguished Teaching in University Programs, 2015
• Distinguished Scholarship and Creative Activity Award, 2015