CSM"s Fall 2020 "Connections" Magazine Virtual Event Provides "Rays of Light and Love"
The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) hosted faculty, staff and students to share their recently published poems, stories, artwork and photography during a celebration and launch of the Fall 2020 edition of the college’s “Connections” Literary Magazine Dec. 2.
“I want to thank you for your contributions,” offered Neal Dwyer, Languages and Literature professor at CSM and host of the virtual event. “It actually seems to me to be a little bit of light and love at a time when we are so isolated; and a lot of times – not doing so well. It’s a beautiful magazine. Given everything we have been going through – again, there is a ray of light of love.”
One photograph selected for the fall edition entitled “Rain on Me” in fact, embodied Dwyer’s expression of hope, according to the photographer, CSM Associate to Bachelor’s Degree Coordinator Mona Weber.“
It is a photo of a cloud that is raining on a tiny particular area,” shared Weber with the group. “I was flying at the time. I thought it was so symbolic of so many things that we are going through. It showed how things just kind of burst into your little world — for example, in that particular cloud’s world, and then how everything around it still shined. Everything around [the cloud] was still okay.
“So [this photograph] is just a reminder, especially in the time we are in right now, that we’re in the middle of this tornado and it’s hard to see what going to happen forward, but we are continuing to strive together and survive together,” Weber continued. “And like that burst of the cloud — that, too, did pass — this, too, is going to pass. Soon. I hope.”
“Connections” Literary Magazine is a regional literary journal published twice a year that features the very best poems, stories, artwork and photography of Southern Maryland. Also included in each issue is featured material from visiting writers. Publication readings take place in December and May each year.
The magazine is available below. To hear from the authors, artists and photographers, please view the virtual event recording at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddl8cTvBXvA&feature=youtu.be
The “Connections” Literary Series is sponsored by CSM’s English, Communication and Languages Division, and supported by grants from the Arts Council of Calvert County, the Charles County Arts Alliance, the St. Mary’s County Arts Council and the Maryland State Arts Council.
To view dozens of videos from past and recent CSM literary events, visit the college’s official YouTube Educational Channel. For information about CSM’s “Connections” Literary Series, visit www.csmd.edu/community/connections-literary-series/.