Author Lisa Taylor to Present New Short Stories
Lisa C. Taylor, a Connecticut-based author who travels to and writes regularly in Ireland, will read from and discuss her new short story collection Growing a New Tail on Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 pm.
The Irish Cultural Center will present the event at the Collegian Court at 89 Park Street in Chicopee, MA. It is free and open to the public. Food and drink will be available to order at the restaurant.
Taylor’s new book, published by Arlen House/Syracuse University Press and released in Dublin in September, is a collection of short stories written in Irish-style film noire, reflecting the heavy influence of her trips to Ireland, where she has lived and traveled through extensively.
Her fondness for dark stories and complex characters comes from her love of Irish literature and her various mentors both here and abroad.
Join the ICC for a book talk and reading from Growing a New Tail, a collection about which one reviewer had this to say:
“With Growing a New Tail, Taylor has crafted a staggeringly beautiful collection, each story balancing upon the precarious vision of its narrator, the heavy hand of memory and tenuous film of the future. It is a collection in which God truly is ‘a fickle sort.’ Taylor is an expert craftsman, shaping with a precise and nimble hand, stories which leave you breathless, lingering, latched to the back of your throat: there are no gift wrapped endings here.” (Sonder Review, 2015)
Taylor is the author of four collections of poetry and her new collection.
Taylor’s poetry and fiction writing has been published in the Worcester Review, Crack the Spine Anthology (best of), Crannóg, Connecticut River Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Map Literary, Sonder Review, and many other national and international journals and anthologies.
Her honors include the Hugo House New Works in Fiction Award (2015), Pushcart nominations in fiction and poetry, five AAUP Faculty Development Awards, a Surdna Arts Teaching Fellowship, the University of Connecticut Elizabeth Shanley Gerson lecturer of Irish Literature (with Irish writer Geraldine Mills), and artist residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland.
Her last poetry book was featured as a literary pick on Faith Middleton’s book show on WNPR in 2013. She was a spotlight feature for Associated Writing Programs in January of 2015 and a writing mentor in spring of 2015. Two of her collections have been taught in college classes. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast/University of Southern Maine, and an MA from University of Connecticut. She teaches creative writing, critical thinking, gender roles in media, and fiction at Nichols College and Eastern Connecticut State University.