Novelists Speak at Connections Reading
Area novelists Molly McCloskey and Krista Keyes will be speaking about their recent work, which is weaved into their travels to Ireland, during the College of Southern Maryland Connections Literary Reading on March 8 at the Leonardtown Campus in the Building A auditorium. The two will speak and then take questions from the audience starting at 7:30 pm.
Ms. McCloskey was born in Philadelphia and raised in North Carolina and Oregon. In 1989, she moved to Ireland,where she spent 10 years on the west coast before moving to Dublin, Ireland. She is the author of two short story collections, “Solomon’s Seal” and “The Beautiful Changes,” and a novel, “Protection.”
Her first piece of nonfiction, “Circles Around the Sun: In Search of a Lost Brother,” was published in 2011. Her new novel, “Straying (2018),” is published in the US by Scribner and by Penguin in the UK and Ireland, where it appeared as “When Light is Like Water.” Ms. McCloskey was shortlisted for the 2018 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. Her writing has appeared in the Irish Times, the Dublin Review, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she recently served as a judge for the DC-based PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Ms. Keyes is a professor of English and creative writing at CSM. She received a master of fine arts in creative writing from University College Dublin in 2018 and a master of art in English from the University of California, Davis in 2007. She is an associate editor of CSM’s Connections Literary Magazine and former editor of creative nonfiction for the HCE Review.
Ms. Keyes’ short stories, poems, and essays have been published in Connections and The Greenbelt Review. She spent the 2017-2018 academic year on sabbatical in Dublin and is now writing a book that takes place there.
Tickets to the reading by McCloskey and Keyes are $3 in advance, $5 at the event, or $3 with CSM student ID. Tickets can be purchased by emailing [email protected].
While the college’s Connections readings are designed to offer the Southern Maryland community a chance to hear from and meet established and emerging local writers, the series also produces the Connections Literary Magazine. This regional literary journal features stories, poems, artwork and photography by students, staff, and residents of Southern Maryland. Readings from the magazine take place in December and May each year.
The Connections Literary Series is sponsored by the college’s English, Communication and Languages Division, with support through grants from the Arts Council of Calvert County, the Charles County Arts Alliance, the St. Mary’s County Arts Council, and the Maryland State Arts Council.
Artists who would like to be considered for publication in the spring issue must submit their work by the March 17 deadline. Submission guidelines are available online.
To view videos from past and recent CSM literary events, visit the college’s official YouTube Educational Channel. For information about CSM’s Connections Literary Series, visit the college online.
For more about the College of Southern Maryland, visit its Leader member page.
