The Writers Series welcomes Kevin Carey and JD Scrimgeour for our April event.

MLK Room, Ellison Campus Center at Salem State University

Kevin Carey is Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University. He has published a chapbook of fiction from Red Bird Chapbooks, The Beach People (2014) and three books of poetry, The One Fifteen to Penn Station (2012), Jesus Was a Homeboy (2016) which was an Honor book for the Paterson Literary Prize, & Set in Stone (2020) all from CavanKerry Press. His poems have twice appeared on The Writers Almanac on National Public Radio and on The Academy of American Poets Poem a Day. Kevin is also a playwright and a filmmaker. His documentary film Unburying Malcolm Miller premiered at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in 2017. Kevin has also co-authored a screenplay Peter’s Song which won Best Screenplay at the New Hampshire Film Festival in 2009. His full length stage play The Stand or Sal is Dead, a murder mystery comedy, premiered at the Actor’s Studio in Newburyport, MA in June, 2018. His new crime novel, Murder in the Marsh, from Darkstroke Books, was released in October (2020). A new Middle Grade novel Junior Miles and the Junkman (Regal House / Fitzroy Books) will be out in the fall 2023. Kevincareywriter.com

English Department Chairperson J.D. Scrimgeour’s fifth collection of poetry, Banana Bread, is a bilingual collection just published by Nixes Mate Press in fall 2021. Scrimgeour began studying Mandarin three years ago, and the poems in Banana Bread began as diary entries made at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to practice his fledgling Mandarin. He translated the entries into English, then, with the help of his Mandarin tutor, fine-tuned the Chinese. The result is, as poet Afaa Michael Weaver says, “as much a display of the process of language acquisition as the generous sharing of what helped bring one poet through the havoc wreaked by COVID-19. The world survives, and so does the propensity of Scrimgeour to not only play, but to give".

Scrimgeour won the AWP Award for Nonfiction for his second book of nonfiction, Themes for English B: A Professor’s Education In & Out of Class. With musician Philip Swanson he released Ogunquit & Other Works, a CD blending music and poetry. A longtime resident of Salem, he’s written in many genres about the city. Mary Towne Eastey, an ancestor in his direct line, was put to death during the Salem Witch Trials. Another ancestor, Thomas Perkins, sat on the jury that found her guilty. More information can be found at http://jdscrimgeour.com

COVID-19 Safety at Salem State

All campus event attendees are expected to follow university policies (includinghealth and safety policies) and posted instructions while at any of our venues. All members of the Salem State community need to show a cleared CoVerified badge for admission to this event.