Poet Rhina Espaillat to Read at Lit House

CHESTERTOWN, MD — On Thursday, Oct. 6, the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College will welcome award-winning poet Rhina Espaillat to read from her most recent collection, Her Place in These Designs, (Truman State University Press, 2008). The reading, part of the English Department’s “Living Writers” course, will begin at 4:30 p.m. on the enclosed porch of the Literary House, 407 Washington Avenue.

Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic and has lived in the United States since the age of 7. A poet, essayist, fiction writer, and translator, she has been recognized for her considerable accomplishments with awards such as the T.S. Eliot Prize in Poetry, the Wilbur Award, and the Robert Frost Tree at My Window Award for Translation.

Espaillat’s poetry has been called “terrific, moving, intelligent, authentically felt, and beautifully musical” (San Diego Union-Tribune). “Hers is a voice of experience,” poet and critic Robert B. Shaw wrote in Poetry magazine. “She notices what we typically overlook, and she delineates it with lucid intelligence, tolerance, and good humor.”

Sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, the reading is free and open to the public.

Photo: Portrait of Rhina Espaillat by Curt Richter.

Expert Astrachan to Discuss Copyright Laws

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Attorney James B. Astrachan will share his expertise on intellectual property rights Thursday, September 22, at 4:30 p.m. at the Rose O’Neill Literary House, 407 Washington Avenue. A principal in Astrachan Gunst Thomas Rubin, P.C., Astrachan teaches courses on trademark and copyright issues at the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore schools of law. He speaks and writes frequently about legal issues involving intellectual property and is a regular guest on Midday on the Law, on Baltimore’s WYPR, (88.1).

Astrachan’s talk, “Copyright and the Creative Business,” is billed as “a talk for writers, artists and other creative workers preparing to enter careers in intellectual-property fields.” Sponsored by the Literary House, the Department of Business Management, and the Pre-law Program at Washington College, the event is free and open to the public.

International Writer and PEN Fellow Leila Aboulela to Read at Literary House on April 25

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Rose O’Neill Literary House will host one of the 2011 PEN World Voices Festival Fellows, Leila Aboulela, on Monday, April 25. In a program titled “New Writing from the New North Africa,” the author will read from her acclaimed work beginning at 4:30 p.m. on the enclosed porch of the Lit House, 407 Washington Avenue. The reading is free and open to the public.

Born in Cairo, raised in Khartoum, and now splitting her time between Abu Dhabi and Aberdeen, Aboulela writes short stories, novels and plays. Her novel The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize and was one of the New York Times’ 2006 Notable Books of the Year. BBC Radio 4 has broadcast adaptations of her novels and short stories in addition to her radio plays The Mystic Life and The Lion of Chechnya.

Although she has lived and worked in Egypt, Jakarta, Dubai, London, and Scotland, Aboulela says that in her Islamic faith she has something she “can carry with me wherever I go.” Islam plays a major role in her life and the lives of her characters; she says of them, “They are not ideals or role models. They are, as I see them to be, flawed characters trying to practice their faith or make sense of God’s will, in difficult circumstances.”

Founded in 1921, International PEN is a worldwide association of writers that advocates for freedom of expression and emphasizes the importance of literature in the development of a world culture. Now in its seventh year, PEN’s annual World Voices Festival of International Literature brings together prominent writers from around the globe. This year’s festival will be held April 25 through May 1 in New York City.

For more information on “New Writing from the New North Africa,” visit http://lithouse.washcoll.edu. For more information on the International PEN World Voices Festival, visit http://www.pen.org/festival.

Activist to Investigate the Calamity of Coal at Washington College

Chestertown – Cultural historian, author and activist Jeff Biggers will explore the fallacy of “clean coal” in a lecture at Washington College on Monday, February 8, at 4:30 p.m. at the Rose O’Neill Literary House located on Washington Avenue.

In his new book, RECKONING AT EAGLE CREEK: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, Biggers critiques the industry, the Big Coal lobby, and national leaders who stand at a crossroads in the energy and climate debate. “Coal is not – and never will be – clean or cheap,” he says.

Biggers – whose grandfather worked in the coal mines in southern Illinois and suffered from black lung disease – argues that we have stripped away the most troubling issues of the coal industry from our historical memory. “We have forgotten that Native Americans were removed as part of Thomas Jefferson’s national policy to mine coal, that the industry in the land of Lincoln…was launched by legal black slaves, and that strip mining unleashed environmental havoc that has wiped out families and poisoned some of the most diverse forests and waterways in America’s heartland.”

An acclaimed correspondent from the coalfields' frontlines, Jeff Biggers has been interviewed on numerous national and local television and radio programs, has served as a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition, and is a regular contributor to Huffington Post.

The lecture, sponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House and the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College, is free and open to the public.  For information, contact 410-778-7845.

Tea & Talk Series Opens September 2 With A Reading From 1985 Sophie Kerr Winner And Local Novelist Sandy Hiortdahl

Chestertown, MD, August 28, 2003 — The O'Neill Literary House launches it 2003-2004 Tea & Talk Series on Tuesday, September 2 at 4 p.m. with alumna and writer Sandy Hiortdahl reading from two novels. The event is free and all are welcomed to enjoy tea, conviviality and the power of the written word in the eclectic comfort of the Washington College's O'Neill Literary House. Sandy Hiortdahl is a1985 graduate of Washington College who studies English and took the Sophie Kerr Prize that same year. She also holds an M.F.A. from George Mason University and an M.A. in English from the University of Maryland. She has taught at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware, where she was named Distinguished Adjunct Teacher of the year in 2001.
Currently, she teaches part time at Washington College and is a PhD. candidate at the Catholic University in Washington, DC. She recalls writing her first short story (about a trip down an ant hole) at age six and wrote a 60-page novella at age 12 (which she describes as “quite bad”). In high school, she was a finalist in the Mt. Vernon Competition for Young Writers in Washington, DC. During her college years, she continued to write and adopted the late John Gardner as a mentor in spirit. She has been an active member in the John Gardner Society, annually presenting papers and occasionally coordinating the society's annual conference. Her favorite quotation, from Gardner's “On Becoming a Novelist,” is: “Nothing is harder than being a true novelist, unless that is all that one wants to be, in which case, though writing novels is hard, everything else is harder.” Being a true novelist is all that Hiortdahl has ever wanted to be, though, taking a cue from Gardner, she has worked hard to become a teacher of writing and to give back, the encouragement that great teachers of her past offered her. Currently, she lives in a little white house in Chestertown with her Australian Cattle Dog, Kismo Blue. Her novel And There Were In the Same Country is being offered to agents and editors in New York as she works on her next novel, Haley's Comment, which is set at Washington College.

Shore Poetry Contest Winners To Be Honored April 24 At Washington College's O'Neill Literary House

Chestertown, MD, April 17, 2003 — The winners of the 2003 Eastern Shore Poetry Contest will be honored in a public reading and awards presentation at Washington College's O'Neill Literary House on Washington Avenue in Chestertown, Thursday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Eastern Shore County Arts Councils of Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's, Kent and Cecil counties, the annual Eastern Shore Poetry Contest invites submissions in all age groups from children to senior citizens. Erin Murphy, a lecturer in English and visiting associate director of the O'Neill Literary House, served as this year's judge.
The winners of the 2003 Eastern Shore Poetry Contest in the category of Children and Youth, Grades 1-8, are: First Place, “ Life Story” by Will MacIntosh of Chestertown (Kent School, Grade 5); Second Place, “Teachers at Night” by Benjamin Dryer of Elkton (Kenmore Elementary, Grade 5); and Third Place, a tie between “When I Moved Away” by Kristin Henry of Stevensville (Bayside Elementary, Grade 5) and “The Wolf” by Elizabeth A. Sughrue of Grasonville (The Key School, Grade 6).
The 2003 winners in the category of Students, Grade 9-12, are: First Place, “Three A.M.” by James Barlow of Millington (Queen Anne's County High School, Grade 12); Second Place, “Halfway Point to the Middle of Nowhere” by Christina M. Sughrue of Grasonville (The Key School, Grade 11); Third Place, “Daybreak” by Anna Rubin of Neavitt (St. Michael's High School, Grade 12).
The 2003 winners in the category of Adults, Age 18-59, are: First Place, “Autumn” by Ann E. Dorbin of Trappe; Second Place, “I Cannot Lift This House” by James Dissette of Chestertown; and Third Place, “Synesthesia” by Maggie Creshkoff of Port Deposit.
In the category of Seniors, Age 60 plus, the following take the 2003 awards: First Place, “Pop Ziegler,” and Second Place, “On Leaving a Marriage,” both by Dr. Ann Hennessy of Rock Hall; and a Third Place tie between “Kent Island Blues” by Alex Johnson of Chester, and “The Old Darnell Farm” by Mary C. Godfrey of Sudlersville.
“I was impressed by the quality of work submitted, and by the variety in the entries,” Murphy said. “The themes of the winning poems range from nostalgia about the development of the Eastern Shore to theories on why teachers are scary at night. Some made me think, some made me laugh, and all of them made me glad to have so many talented writers in our part of Maryland.”