Come out and meet the most engaging and interesting authors in literature today as they read from and reflect on their works at the College of Southern Maryland.

LEONARDTOWN, Md. – The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) opens its Connections Literary Series this spring in Leonardtown with readings from area novelists Molly McCloskey and Krista Keyes. The two will share their recent work which is weaved with their travels to Ireland, as well as take questions from the audience starting at 7:30 p.m. March 8.

McCloskey (photo left) was born in Philadelphia and grew up in North Carolina and Oregon. In 1989, she moved to Ireland, spending 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 work of non-fiction, “Circles Around the Sun: In Search of a Lost Brother,” appeared in 2011. Her new novel, “Straying (2018),” is receiving favorable reviews. It is published in the U.S. by Scribner and by Penguin in the UK and Ireland, where it appeared as “When Light is Like Water.” She was shortlisted for the 2018 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. Her work 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.

Keyes (photo right) 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 currently an associate editor of CSM’s Connections Literary Magazine and the former editor of Creative Nonfiction for the HCE Review.

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, Ireland, and is currently writing a book that takes place there.

The CSM Leonardtown Campus is located at 22950 Hollywood Road in Leonardtown. Tickets are $3 in advance; $5 at the event; or $3 with CSM student ID. Tickets may be purchased by emailing connections@csmd.edu.

While CSM’s Connections readings are designed to offer the Southern Maryland community a chance to hear from and meet established and emerging local writers up-close-and-personal, the series also produces the Connections Literary Magazine. This regional literary journal features poems, stories, artwork and photography submitted by students, staff and Southern Maryland residents. Publication readings from the magazine take place in December and May each year.

The Connections Literary Series is sponsored by CSM’s English, Communication and Languages Division, and thanks to 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.

Those who are interested in being considered for publication in the spring issue must submit their work by the March 17 deadline. Submission guidelines are available at www.csmd.edu/community/connections-literary-series/connections-magazine.

To view dozens of videos from past and recent CSM literary events, visit the college’s official YouTube Educational Channel,  https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F2D9EBEBF5D43F65. For information about CSM’s Connections Literary Series, visit www.csmd.edu/community/connections-literary-series/.