Poet Doug Anderson visits College of Southern Maryland’s Leonardtown
Campus on Nov. 7 as part of CSM’s Connections Series.

The College of Southern Maryland’s Fall Connections series will
showcase poet, fiction writer and memoirist Doug Anderson 7:30 p.m.,
Nov. 7, at the Leonardtown Campus, Building A, Auditorium, 22950
Hollywood Road, Leonardtown.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Anderson served as a Navy Corpsman with a
Marine Corps infantry unit during the Vietnam War, after which he
attended the University of Arizona and studied acting.

As a former Navy corpsman, he was inspired to write of his time in
Vietnam, though his work then and since covers many contemporary issues
and concerns, as well as deeply personal material. Anderson has written
three books of poems, “Bamboo Bridge,” “The Moon Reflected Fire,”
which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and “Blues for Unemployed
Secret Police,” which received a grant from the Eric Matthieu King
Fund of the Academy of American Poets. In addition to his memoir, “Keep
Your Head Down: Vietnam, The Sixties, and a Journey of Self-Discovery,”
Anderson has also written film scripts, fiction and criticism. He is
currently working on a novel about human trafficking.

Anderson earned a PhD from the University of Connecticut. He has
received various awards for his work, including the Virginia Quarterly
Review Poets & Writers, Inc., the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and
the MacDowell Colony. He has also taught at Mount Wachusett Community
College, Emerson College and at the William Joiner Center of the
University of Massachusetts.

“Since Anderson served in the Vietnam War, we hope that his
presentation will speak to the experiences of our present veterans and
encourage them to tell their own stories,” said the Literary Series
Coordinator Wayne Karlin, a Languages and Literature professor at CSM.
“At the same time, we hope that he will help break down the walls
of perception between veterans and non-veterans.”

The Connections series offers the Southern Maryland community a chance
to hear from and meet established and local writers personally. In
addition to the readings, the Connections magazine is a regional
literary journal published twice a year that features poems, stories,
artwork and photography of Southern Maryland. Publication readings take
place in December and May each year. To be considered for the fall 2014
issue, the deadline for submission is Oct. 31.

Tickets for the Connections reading are $3 through advance sale at the
CSM box office and $3 at the door with a student ID. General admission
at the door is $5. For tickets, contact the box office at
bxoffc@csmd.edu or call 301-934-7828. For information on Connections,
study guides and author links visit www.csmd.edu/connections. Featured
books are available at any CSM College Store or online at
www.csmd.edu/CollegeStore.