In partnership with the St. Joe County Public Library (SJCPL), the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) is pleased to present, “An Evening with Maria Kelson,” who will read and discuss her poetry and fiction.
The program will be held at 6 p.m. on March 5th in the Leighton Auditorium in the library’s main branch in downtown South Bend. Letras Latinas, the ILS’ literary initiative, is coordinating the effort.
“This event is our response to Notre Dame’s call, as expressed in its Strategic Framework, to ‘[build] genuine partnerships’ with local nonprofits. It’s the first of what we intend to be regular gestures of outreach in South Bend. The creative writing program’s new Kelly Community Reading Series is our model,” said Francisco Aragón, poet, latino studies professor, and director of Letras Latinas.
Kelson is the author of two award-winning poetry books, How Long She’ll Last in This World and Flexible Bones, both with University of Arizona Press. Each was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award, respectively. Her debut fiction piece, Not the Killing Kind, received the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime. The novel — a contemporary thriller about a Latina education reformer whose son is wrongfully jailed for murder — was released in fall 2024 with Crooked Lane Books.
Kelson’s visit to Michiana will also be a reunion — she resided in South Bend from 2003 to 2006.
“A town where you live when your children are small always has a place in your heart. My daughter’s first school was ECDC Notre Dame, and my son adored the Potawatomi Zoo and the River Park Library. I have great memories of teaching at Saint Mary’s, and my husband and I made life-long friends through the local Quaker meeting," said Kelson. "Working with the St. Joe County Public Library and Notre Dame to present my debut novel and discuss Latinx poetry in South Bend is a sweet return, indeed."
Her presentation is part of the national public humanities initiative, “Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home,” whose main project is Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, in which Kelson’s work appears.
At the conclusion of her reading, she will take part in a public conversation with Paulina Hernández-Trejo, a Ph.D. student in the Department of English. Hernández-Trejo will conduct a more expansive video interview with Kelson the next morning on Notre Dame's campus, as part of the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. Hernández-Trejo’s participation is part of Letras Latinas’ mission to enhance the education of students.
“As an English Ph.D. student from the El Paso-Juárez Borderlands, I am honored to be involved in these programs,” said Hernández-Trejo. “I research U.S. multiethnic literatures, specifically Black, Indigenous, and Latinx literatures and the ways they intersect geographically and thematically. I am fascinated by ghosts in (im)migration narratives, and the ways these works challenge and construct ideas of home. In the same manner ‘Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home’ insinuates, Maria Kelson’s artistic lineage explores the historical complexities of surviving, living, and belonging in places we intentionally call home."
Notre Dame undergraduates will also interact with Kelson on March 5th during the day. She will be a guest in two classes: “Latinx Poetry Now,” taught by Aragón, and “Latinx Literature Now,” taught by Francisco E. Robles, assistant professor in English and ILS affiliate faculty. Kelson will also speak with MFA students in the creative writing program during a lunch-hour colloquium, and she’ll discuss and answer questions about her trajectory from poetry to fiction as well as the decade-long journey of writing her first novel.
Kelson’s evening appearance at the library is also part of its new author talk series.
“Culturally Speaking is an exciting opportunity for us to highlight diverse voices and connect our community through the art of storytelling,” said Stephanie Murphy, executive director of the SJCPL, who will deliver welcome remarks. “This series invites us to listen to the storytellers behind the words and appreciate the journeys that shaped them."
Brain Lair Books will be offering book sales during a post-event reception. The Notre Dame units co-sponsoring Kelson’s visit to the area include, the creative writing program, the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Institute for Social Concerns, and the English, American studies, and romance languages and literatures departments, as well as the staff and faculty group, AdelanteND.
For more information, visit the SJCPL event page.
Originally published by at latinostudies.nd.edu on February 11, 2025.
