Author Readings

Past Speakers

June 2023: Angela M. Carter

Angela M. Carter is an author, poet, novelist, motivational speaker, spoken word performer,
visual artist, and an advocate/activist. She was born, and raised, in a small Virginia farming
town. Angela moved abroad, to England, for nearly five years, after receiving a one-month
scholarship to study at the University of Bath. She returned to Virginia with a new-found
confidence, and voice. Memory Chose a Woman’s Body (unbound CONTENT, 2014) is a poetry
memoir, which spotlights the effects of the silences endured after abuse, neglect and
depression. Her upcoming book is  Love is the Dying Dog (2023).

Angela is a 2014 Pushcart Prize nominee, nominee for the 2015 Virginia Library
Literary Award (poetry), and has been featured in a multitude of venues, including The KGB
Club in Manhattan and Busboys and Poets. He work has been published in Silver Birch Press,
Deep Water Literary Journal, Whurk, Vox Poetica, the Plath Poetry Project, Premiere
Generation Ink, City Lit Rag, The Word Ocean, Worst Week Ever, Our Stories Untold, Gutsy

Living, and several anthology publications. She lives in Harrisonburg, VA and can be found
online at www.angelacarterpoetry.com.

June 2022: Sharon Harrigan

Novelist and memoirist Sharon Harrigan is the author of the novel Half (from which she read)
and the memoir Playing with Dynamite. Sharon has an MFA in Creative Writing  and has
published more than 50 essays, short stories, and reviews in the Virginia Quarterly
Review, New York Times (Modern Love), The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She works as an
independent editor/book coach and teaches creative writing to adults at WriterHouse in
Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lives with her family.

In addition to her reading, Ms. Harrigan offered a 2-hour writing workshop to writers of all skill
levels. Entitled “Deep Dive into Point of View,” in which she worked with the attendees on how
to think about which point of view to use.

July, 2021: Eman Quotah

Novelist and essayist Eman Quotah is the author of the novel Bride of the Sea, a book praised
by the Chicago Review of Books as one that “deftly spans decades, miles, and cultures—and
ultimately tells more stories within her 312 page debut than some authors tell across their entire
careers.” She grew up in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, and Cleveland, Ohio. Her writing has appeared
in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Toast, The Establishment, Book Riot, and other
publications. She lives with her family in Rockville, MD.

November, 2020: Clifford Garstang

Clifford Garstang is the author of a novel, The Shaman of Turtle Valley, and two collections of
short stories, In an Uncharted Country and What the Zhang Boys Know, which won the Library
of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. His new short story collection, House of the Ancients and
Other Stories, was published by Press 53 in May 2020. He is also the editor of the three-volume
anthology series, Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, and the co-founder
and former editor of Prime Number Magazine. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Northwestern
University, an MA in English and a JD from Indiana University, an MPA from Harvard University,
and an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. His work has appeared in
numerous literary magazines, including Bellevue Literary Review, Blackbird, The Hopkins
Review, Cream City Review, and Whitefish Review. His book reviews have appeared in Virginia
Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Rain Taxi, Washington Independent Review of Books, and
elsewhere.

March, 2019: Angela M. Carter

Angela M. Carter is an author, poet, novelist, motivational speaker, spoken word performer,
visual artist, and an advocate/activist. She was born, and raised, in a small Virginia farming
town. Angela moved abroad, to England, for nearly five years, after receiving a one-month
scholarship to study at the University of Bath. She returned to Virginia with a new-found
confidence, and voice. Memory Chose a Woman’s Body (unbound CONTENT, 2014) is a poetry
memoir, which spotlights the effects of the silences endured after abuse, neglect and
depression. Angela is a 2014 Pushcart Prize nominee, nominee for the 2015 Virginia Library
Literary Award (poetry), and has been featured in a multitude of venues, including The KGB
Club in Manhattan and Busboys and Poets. He work has been published in Silver Birch Press,
Deep Water Literary Journal, Whurk, Vox Poetica, the Plath Poetry Project, Premiere
Generation Ink, City Lit Rag, The Word Ocean, Worst Week Ever, Our Stories Untold, Gutsy

Living, and several anthology publications. She lives in Harrisonburg, VA and can be found
online at www.angelacarterpoetry.com.

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