VOICES Fall Schedule 2025
Thursday, September 18: Poet and Fiction Writer Brian O’Sullivan (7:30, Daugherty Palmer Commons)
Come celebrate one of our own!
Brian O’Sullivan, Associate Professor of English and Chair of LEAD Seminars at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, has published poems in Rattle, HOWL, New Irish Writing, ONE ART,Lighten Up Online, contemporary haibun online, and other journals, and flash fiction in Everyday Fiction and The Galway Review. He is a poetry reader for Chestnut Review and a panelist on a podcast, ThePoetrySpace_.
Thursday, October 23: Poet Sally Keith (7:30, Daugherty Palmer Commons)
Sally Keith’s recent book of poems, Two of Everything, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2024. Her previous collections of poetry include River House (2015); Fact of the Matter (2012); Dwelling Song (2004); and Design,winner of the 2000 Colorado Prize in Poetry. A Guggenheim Fellow, her poetry has appeared in New York Times, New England Review, Conjunctions, and A Public Space. She is a professor of English and Creative Writing at George Mason University’s MFA Program, where she also co-edits Poetry Daily.
Thursday, November 14: Essayist and Poet Esteban Rodríguez (7:30, Daugherty Palmer Commons)
Introduced by Crystal Oliver
Esteban Rodríguez is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently The Lost Nostalgias, and the essay collection Before the Earth Devours Us. His work has appeared in New England Review, Seneca Review, Poetry Daily, and American Life in Poetry. He is the interviews editor at the EcoTheo Review, senior book reviews editor at Tupelo Quarterly, and associate poetry editor at AGNI. With Jennifer De Leon and Ben Black, he coedited To Never Have Risked Our Lives: An AGNI Portfolio of Central American and Mexican Diaspora Writing. He and his wife own and operate Love Letter Coffee in McAllen, Texas.
Thursday, December 11: Journalist, Poet and Fabric Artist Kaia Sand (7:30, Daugherty Palmer Commons)
In Collaboration with the ENST department
A poet, journalist, artist, community organizer and teacher based in Portland, Oregon, Kaia Sand is the author of three books of poetry — A Tale of Magicians Who Puffed Up Money that Lost its Puff, Remember to Wave (both Tinfish Press), and interval (Edge Books). She co-authored a book on poetry in public space with Jules Boykoff, Landscapes of Dissent; and her poetry composes two books in Jim Dine’s Hot Dream series (Steidl Editions). As artist-in-residence at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center, she made art responding to police surveillance of activists; and as a Despina resident artist in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she embroidered poetry in public spaces. Executive director of Portland street newspaper, Street Roots from 2017-2024, Sand wrote more than 300 weekly newspaper columns on homelessness. She is writing a book on alternatives to police burgeoning in more than 100 cities nationwide, and writes columns at unwantedpersons.substack.com
About
The VOICES Reading Series, established by poets Lucille Clifton and Michael Glaser over 30 years ago, features poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers and is intended to bring accomplished writers to the campus to interact with students and faculty. Invited writers read their works throughout the semester on Thursday evenings at 8:15 P.M at Daugherty-Palmer Commons, and all readings are free and open to the public. Once or twice a month, authors give a short reading and then respond during a brief question and answer period. Each reading is followed by a reception, where students and faculty can mingle with the author and other interested writers and readers. The author’s book(s) are also sold during the reception and can be signed by the author. Luminaries such as Mark Doty, Elizabeth Alexander, Toni Morrison, and Naomi Shihab Nye have read in the series.
Information on events are posted throughout campus, and emails are sent out near the date of the readings; please contact the director, Karen Leona Anderson (klanderson@smcm.edu) if you would like to be added to these notifications. In addition, all the events and information on the authors can be found at our Facebook page: Creative Writing Resources at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
