Middlesex CC to Host Award-Winning Writer and Poet

As part of the Visiting Writers Series, Middlesex Community College will host poet, fiction writer, playwright and filmmaker Kevin Carey during an online event. The event will be live streamed at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3. Carey – who will read from his work and answer student questions – has always been interested in good stories.

“It’s how I think about the world I guess, everyone has a story,” he said. “I get to tap into those. The people and places I’ve known seem to be able to find their way into my prose and my poetry. I feel lucky, just being someone who loves to write.”

Carey is excited to share his work and conversations with the Middlesex community. Being able to make these connections is what he considers a “perk” of being a writer.

“I tell students that writing can change their life,” Carey said. “We all have stories to tell. I want students to believe that their experience is important, that we as readers can all identify with the truth that comes out of good writing. I want them to trust their own stories to carry that power. The trick is learning how best to tell them.”

To help improve writing skills, Carey recommends that students keep practicing. He also suggests that, “if you’re serious about writing, you have to be an avid reader.”

Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University, Carey has published three books of poetry, “The One Fifteen to Penn Station (2012), “Jesus Was a Homeboy (2016) and “Set in Stone (2020); a novel “Murder in the Marsh (2020), and a chapter book of short stories “The Beach People” (2014).

As a playwright, he has had his play “The Stand or Sal is Dead” performed at the Actor’s Studio in Newburyport in 2018 and one act plays staged at The New Works Festival in Newburyport and The New Hampshire Theater Project.

His co-written screenplay “Peter’s Song” won Best Screenplay at the 2009 New Hampshire Film Festival, and Carey has co-directed and co-produced two documentary films about poets, including “Unburying Malcolm Miller” which premiered at the Mass Poetry Festival in 2017.

His works have appeared in The Red Mountain Review, Silk Road, Rip Tide: True Crime Stories by New England Writers, among others.

MCC Visiting Writers Series is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Office of Student Engagement. To reserve space, contact Tom Laughlin at laughlint@middlesex.mass.edu or Student Engagement at StudentEngagement@middlesex.mass.edu. Visit https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/english/creative.aspx for more information.

There is still time to register for MCC’s Spring Mini-mester session, starting on Monday, March 29. Visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/registration/ or call 1-800-818-3434 to sign up for classes.

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