CHESTERTOWN, MD—On Thursday, March 26, the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series at Washington College will present An Evening of Fiction with Helena María Viramontes. The event will take place at 4:30 p.m. at the Rose O’Neil Literary House, 407 Washington Avenue, and is free and open to the public. 

Viramontes is admired as one of Chicano literature’s most distinguished craftspeople. She began her career working for the innovative magazine ChismeArte and published her first book, The Moths and Other Stories,in 1985, quickly becoming a force on the Chicano literary scene.  She has since published numerous essays and two novels, Under the Feet of Jesus (Plume, Penguin Group, 1995), and Their Dogs Came with Them (Atria/Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, 2007). 

Viramontes’s work ranges in content but often features Mexican and Mexican American, or Chicana, protagonists who work hard to figure out where they stand politically, linguistically, and culturally in a world that does not see them as full participants. Her writing recreates a world virtually unknown to mainstream audiences, bringing her readers into that world through compassionate storytelling. A graduate of Immaculate Heart College with a M.F.A from the University of California at Irvine, Viramontes is a professor of creative writing at Cornell University with a third novel (The Cemetery Boys) underway. 

The Sophie Kerr Lecture Series, cosponsored by the Lit House, Department of English, and the Sophie Kerr Committee, brings to campus writers and scholars from around the world and across genres. For more information visit www.washcoll.edu/centers/lithouse, call (410) 810-5768 or email obailey2@washcoll.edu.