House of Poetry

The son of a literature professor and a grade school librarian, Lawrence Bechtel received his B.A. from Wheaton College and M.A. from Virginia Tech, where he taught English and wrote his first novel. In 1989, he took up sculpture, which eventually led to public and private commissions, including "Officer Down" and "Calling the Powers" in Roanoke. In 1992, Bechtel became Virginia Tech's first Recycling Coordinator (and Solid Waste Manager), a position from which he retired in 2009. An opportunity to sculpt a portrait bust of Thomas Jefferson led to a portrait bust of Isaac Granger, who became the protagonist in his Tinsmith's Apprentice historical fiction trilogy. The first volume, A Partial Sun, was published in 2019, the second, That Dazzling Sun, in 2020. Lawrence is at work on the third, A Slow Eclipse.