Whitney Terrell Joins Nate Rawlings '00 In Book Discussion At Baylor

  • Monday, April 3, 2017
From left, Nate Rawlings '00, Bill Cushman '59, author Whitney Terrell, and Shaw Wilson '84
From left, Nate Rawlings '00, Bill Cushman '59, author Whitney Terrell, and Shaw Wilson '84

Baylor School welcomed novelist and journalist Whitney Terrell on Monday as part of the school’s Cushman Guest Lecture Series. In addition to addressing Upper School Chapel and Middle School Chapel, he met with English classes at various times throughout the day. 

Mr. Terrell discussed his new novel, The Good Lieutenant, which was published in June 2016 and was described by Washington Post writer Ian Shapira as "an addicting epic about disaster and, more important, what leads to disaster." Joining the conversation was Nate Rawlings, a Baylor graduate from the class of 2000, who currently serves as the communications advisor and chief speechwriter for the president of the World Bank. Mr. Rawlings, who served the U.S. Army from 2004- 2011, arranged for Mr. Terrell to be embedded with his unit in Baghdad to research his novel. 

On his first tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, Mr. Rawlings led a Bradley fighting vehicle platoon, conducting cavalry reconnaissance missions. “We patrolled the main highway leading into Baghdad airport, the main supply route,” said Mr. Rawlings. “We patrolled for six months, hunting insurgents who were planting roadside bombs and insurgents who were attacking supply convoys.” For the second six months of his first tour, Mr. Rawlings’s charge went from seeking insurgents to searching for bombs throughout Baghdad using specialized equipment. 

During this time, Mr. Rawlings received an e-mail from one of his former Princeton English professors and renowned writer John McPhee. One of Mr. McPhee’s former students, Whitney Terrell, was writing a novel based in Iraq and wanted to embed with a unit there. Mr. Rawlings helped with the arrangements, and a piece that Mr. Terrell wrote about his two-week stay with Mr. Rawlings’s company ran in the Washington Post Magazine. “He worked on the novel for 10 years -- scrapping it and starting it over at one point -- and he published it last year to rave reviews,” said Mr. Rawlings. 

Mr. Terrell's first novel, The Huntsman (Viking), was a New York Times notable book and was selected as a best book of 2001 by The Kansas City Star and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His second novel, The King of Kings County (Viking), won the William Rockhill Nelson award from The Kansas City Star and was selected as a best book of 2005 by the Christian Science Monitor. He is currently an assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has also taught fiction at Princeton University and was the Hodder Fellow for 2008-2009. 

His non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Details, Harper's Magazine, The New York Observer, The Kansas City Star, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was an embedded reporter in Iraq during 2006 and 2010 and covered the war for The Washington Post Magazine, Slate, and NPR. He was born and raised in Kansas City. He is a graduate of Princeton University and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. 

The Cushman Guest Lecture Series honors retired faculty member Bill Cushman ’59, who taught at Baylor from 1963- 2007.

Student Scene
Lee Day 2024 To Begin April 5
  • 3/28/2024

On Friday, April 5, and Saturday April 6, Lee University will host Lee Day, a time of excitement and information geared toward prospective students and their families. Over the course of the ... more

Chattanooga State Takes A Quantum Leap With Expert Insights Into The Future Of Computing
  • 3/27/2024

Chattanooga State Community College will take a deep dive into the world of quantum computing alongside physics and computer science expert Dr. Shohini Ghose. Dr. Ghose will join ChattState ... more

TDOE Releases 2022-23 Report Card
  • 3/26/2024

The Tennessee Department of Education released the 2022-23 State Report Card, highlighting new interactive features for families and users to learn more on how districts and schools are performing ... more