Join us for a special evening celebrating the virtual launch of Brent Lewis’s latest book, Stardust by the Bushel: Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore, a book that highlights movies filmed right here in our backyards!  Featuring an introduction by Brent Lewis, as well as readings by Paul Briggs, Beth Dulin, Tara Elliott, Stephanie Fowler, and Kenton Kilgore!
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Brent Lewis is a native Eastern Shoreman with deep Eastern Shore roots. He’s written for magazines, newspapers, and newsletters, and for 10 years oversaw the Kent Island Heritage Society’s Oral History Program. Before the release of 2021’s Stardust by the Bushel: Hollywood on the Eastern Shore, Brent published two nonfiction books, Remembering Kent Island: Stories from the Chesapeake and A History of the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department, and one indie novel, Bloody Point 1976. A documentarian and a playwright, Brent’s blog, easternshorebrent.com is a popular destination for readers interested in Chesapeake Bay storytelling, history, and memoir.

Paul Briggs learned to read and write when he was two, the same time that he was learning to talk. He spent the next twenty years learning that nobody talks the same way they write, or vice versa.
     He lives in Maryland, has a master’s degree in journalism, and has written four science-fiction novels, the Locksmith Trilogy and Altered Seasons: Moonsonrise. He is also the author of several short plays, including the award-winning The Worst Super Power Ever and The Picture of Health.

Beth Dulin lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She is a graduate of The New School’s Eugene Lang College. Her poems have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Atlanta Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Yes, Poetry, among others, and are forthcoming in Gargoyle. Her poetry has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. She is the author and co-creator of Truce, a limited edition artists’ book, in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Visit her online: https://www.bethdulin.com/

Tara A. Elliott’s poems have appeared in many publications, including Ninth Letter, The TAOS Journal of International Poetry & Art, and The American Journal of Poetry. The founder and director of Maryland's Salisbury Poetry Week, she also serves as co-chair of the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, and President of Eastern Shore Writers Association (ESWA). A fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, past Poet-in-Residence for the Freeman Arts Pavilion, and recipient of the Christine D. Sarbanes award from MD Humanities, she recently received a Literary Arts Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. Her poem, "The Fox" will appear in the next issue of Gargoyle in tribute to her former professor, Lucille Clifton. For more information, visit: www.taraaelliott.com

Stephanie L. Fowler is a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and the 2001 recipient of the Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate literary award in the country.  She won the prize for a collection of creative nonfiction short stories written about the Delmarva Peninsula.  That collection, Crossings, eventually became her first book, published in May 2008.
      Since then she has continued to write articles, short stories, essays and memoir pieces for outlets such as She Writes: Visions and Voices of Seaside Scribes, Coastal Style, Medium, and One True Thing.  She was a 2016 Light of Literacy award winner and she serves as the president of the Lower Eastern Shore chapter of the Maryland Writers Association.  She has been a judge for several regional writing contests and co-hosts a writing podcast called So, What’s Your Story?

     In May 2013, she opened Salt Water Media, an independent self-publishing company, in downtown Berlin, Maryland.  Her experience with self-publishing and her passion for writing inspired her to help other writers and authors bring their works to life.
      Chasing Alice is her second book, and she is currently working on her next project.
     A born and bred Marylander, she now lives in southern coastal Delaware with her wife, Patty, and their dog, Lima.

Kenton Kilgore writes killer sci-fi and fantasy for young adults, and adults who are still young. He is the author of the newly-released STRAY CATS, the sequel to his award-winning, Amazon bestselling novel LOST DOGS. Kenton has lived on Kent Island, MD since 1998 and is the Past President of ESWA.