CSM Kicks Off Fall 2023 Connections Literary Series Oct. 6

The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) will kick off the Connections Literary Series this month, giving the community the opportunity to connect and interact with working authors as they share their work and discuss their craft at three events this fall.

"We’re so excited to welcome two exciting writers, both of whom have ties to Southern Maryland, to campus this fall,” said CSM’s Visual and Performing Arts Chair and Associate Dean of Liberal Arts Dr. Stephen Johnson. “Our series will wrap up with one of my favorite events: a reading from our literary magazine, showcasing the talent our region has to offer.”

First up, poet and fiction writer Darah Schillinger, pictured right, will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 at the La Plata Campus, Learning Resource Center (LR Building), Room 102. Much of Schillinger’s writing reflects her opinions on our current social climate and focuses specifically on body-positive feminism, but lately, she’s been writing a lot of what she calls "Dead Grandmother Poems." Her first poetry chapbook, "When The Daffodils Die," was released in July 2022 by Yellow Arrow Publishing. Her poems have appeared in AVATAR, the Yellow Arrow Journal 2022, Maryland Bards Poetry Review 2022, Empyrean Literary Magazine, and on the Spillwords Press website.

Schillinger graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2022 and is currently in her second year at Towson University, where she is pursuing a graduate degree in professional writing. While an undergrad, Schillinger worked as the editor-in-chief of her campus literary magazine, and in 2023 she worked as the editor-in-chief for Towson University’s literary magazine, Grub Street.

Next, the series will welcome investigative journalist and writer Brittany Hailer to the La Plata Campus Learning Resource Center (LR Building), Room 102 Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Originally from Southern Maryland, her lyric essays explore places and family history. She will discuss how to interrogate a family system and reinvent scene and story with family interviews and memories from when she grew up with an alcoholic father.

Hailer, pictured left, is a teaching assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work has been funded by the Pulitzer Center and has appeared in Sierra, Longform, and Booth, on NPR, and elsewhere. Her memoir, "Animal You'll Surely Become," was published by Tolsun Books in 2018.

The fall series will conclude with the Connections Literary Magazine reading Dec.1 at 7:30 p.m. at the La Plata Campus, Center for Business and Industry (BI) Building, Room 103/104.

The Connections Literary Magazine is a regional literary journal published twice a year that features the very best poems, stories, artwork, and photography of Southern Maryland. Also included in each issue is featured material from visiting writers. Publication readings take place in December and May each year.

The Connections Literary Series is presented by CSM's English, Communication, and Languages Department in the School of Liberal Arts, and is sponsored in part by 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.

For more information on the Connections series, visit https://www.csmd.edu/student-services/arts/connections-literary-series/index.html.