CHESTERTOWN, MD—Award-winning poet Mary Jo Salter will visit Washington College Tuesday, Oct. 8, to celebrate the launch of Lost Originals, a special-edition poetry chapbook created by the Literary House Press. Salter will read from Lost Originals at 4:30 p.m. in the Rose O’Neill Literary House, 407 Washington Avenue. This event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception and book signing.

A poet, editor, essayist and playwright, Salter is the author of seven collections of poetry and various other works, including the 2005 play Falling Bodies and children’s book The Moon Comes Home (1989). She has served as an editor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New Republic. Salter currently resides in Maryland, where she chairs the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

Comprised as a series of elegies set in ancient Egypt and up to the present day, Lost Originals dovetails with Salter’s new, full-length collection, Nothing By Design. The fine-press chapbook was designed and printed by Washington College alumnus James Dissette ’71. Featuring original artwork from engraver Abigail Rorer, the book was printed in an edition of 150 deluxe hardcover letterpress books and an additional 150 offset-printed paperback books.

Radio host Tom Hall, the arts and culture editor for the “Maryland Morning” show on WYPR radio (88.1), the NPR affiliate in Baltimore, interviewed Salter about Lost Originals and other aspects of her work for a segment that aired Monday, October 7. Click here to listen to the podcast. 

The Literary House Press is the publishing arm of The Rose O’Neill Literary House. Every two years, it publishes one book by a writer of national reputation who has ties to the state of Maryland. The limited editions are printed using a combination of new technologies and letterpress. For more information, please visit http://www.washcoll.edu/live/news/2087-lost-originals 

Kimberly Uslin ‘14