WEST LIBERTY — Best-selling author, historian and social commentator Sarah Vowell will be the guest lecturer at March 26 edition of West Liberty University’s Hughes Lecture Series.

Her most recent book is entitled “Lafayette in the Somewhat United States.” Chronicling Gen. Lafayette’s years in Washington’s army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War.

Free and open to the public, the lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in Kelly Theatre and will be followed by a book signing.

“We’re pleased Sarah Vowell is joining us this spring for the annual Hughes Lecture. It should be a very entertaining evening and we encourage anyone interested in history, literature and contemporary commentary to join us,” said William Scott Hanna, WLU English professor who is coordinating the event.

Vowell’s lecture will be about 90 minutes long, which includes time for questions from the audience. While at WLU, the author will visit English classes and interact with writing students.

The author of seven nonfiction books on American history and culture, Vowell examines the connections between the American past and present, as she offers personal, often humorous accounts of everything from presidents and their assassins to colonial religious fanatics.

She is also the author of two essay collections, “The Partly Cloudy Patriot” and “Take the Cannoli.” Her first book “Radio On,” is her yearlong diary of listening to the radio in 1995.

Vowell was a contributing editor for the public radio show This American Life from 1996-2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program’s live shows. She has been a columnist for Salon.com, Time, San Francisco Weekly, and is a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times.

Vowell has made numerous appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” She is the voice of teen superhero Violet Parr in Brad Bird’s Academy Award-winning “The Incredibles” and its sequel, “Incredibles 2,” from Pixar Animation Studios.

Vowell was the president of the board of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students age 6-18 in Brooklyn, from its founding in 2004 until 2014. She is still a member of its advisory board, along with its sister organization in Los Angeles, 826LA.

The Hughes Lecture Series began in the 1970s and is named after Raymond Grove Hughes, a teacher who joined West Liberty in 1931. His endowment gift established a fund managed by the West Liberty University Foundation and known as the Hughes Lecture Series Endowed Fund.

The series has brought a wide range of authors and speakers to WLU, including: David Sheff, author of “Beautiful Boy,” Jeannette Walls, author of “The Glass Castle;” Ralph Abernathy, confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate in 1968 and NASA scientist Homer Hickam.