Jared Lemus Encourages New Writers as Lander’s 2025 Visiting Writer

Lander University hosted author Jared Lemus Wednesday, March 19, as its 2025 edition to the Lander Writer Series. Jared Lemus is the author of Guatemalan Rhapsody, a book of short stories. Each one focuses on different characters and uses different narration styles centering on characters who struggle to do their best in difficult circumstances. During his discussion, Lemus explained how his history with music has impacted his style of storytelling and how his “heart beats in short stories,” with his own stories focusing on compassion, empathy and masculinity.

Lemus began his visit sharing pieces of a few of his stories and explaining the motivation behind them. He explained that he aims to give the characters in his stories compassion and empathizes with them because, while the stories are made up and imagined by him, “these [characters] are people I know and people I have been.” Lemus also explained that his stories focus on how people struggle with life and how he believes everyone is trying to do their best saying, “We’re all in a hamster wheel, and this is how we cope.”

There were many lessons that students could take away from events like these, but Dr. Andrew Jameson, professor of English, encourages students to learn from Lemus’ demonstration of empathy. Jameson said he hopes students will learn more about empathy as, “It’s absolutely necessary if you are going to be a good writer, but maybe it’s just a way to become a decent person, someone that cares about the host of very different people and perspectives out there.” Additionally, Assistant Professor of English Laura Martin said, “I hope they enjoyed the reading and heard things in Lemus’s work that they might want to try on their own,” and hopes that students were able to see “an example of what a sustainable writing practice can look like, and how long it takes to make a really good story, that it requires a lot of revision.

Lander aims to encourage students to engage in the community at the University, but also in their coursework so that students have the opportunity to excel professionally and academically. Martin believes that events like these “help students to see other writers talk about their process, to see how individual it is and to get ideas for things they might try,” and hopes that it makes students “feel inspired to take creative classes and to pursue their dreams. I hope that, whatever they are studying, they see the value of hearing from people who are working in that field.”

With a number of students remaining after the event eagerly awaiting a chance to speak with Lemus, it’s safe to say events like these encourage Lander students to become more involved with their campus community. Jameson also believes that demonstrating “what it’s like to use these skills we are honing and learning about right now in a real-world context” provides “role models for our students. In a basic sense, students see someone doing what they ultimately want to do. It is made real and attainable for them, but also this is someone who has been in their position and can give them advice, a path forward.”