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Let's get holiday cozy with two of our favorite Maryland authors -- poet Shirley Brewer and poet/novelist Pat Valdata.Shirley and Pat will be our featured readers on Tuesday, December 8, 2026.
Wilde Readings co-hosts Rissa Miller and Laura Shovan will emcee the event. Bring questions for the featured-author Q&A and something to read at the open mic (2 poems or 5 minutes, max).
About our features:
SHIRLEY J. BREWER
Shirley J. Brewer graduated from careers in bartending, palm-reading and speech therapy. She serves as resident poet at Carver Center for the Arts in Baltimore. Her poems garnish Chiron Review, Comstock Review, Gargoyle, Loch Raven Review, Poetry East, among other journals and anthologies. Shirley’s fifth book of poems, Goddess of Swizzle, was published in April 2026 by Apprentice House. She recently won 3rd Prize in the Beullah Rose poetry contest sponsored by Smartish Pace. Website: shirleyjbrewer.com
PAT VALDATA
Pat Valdata is a fiction writer and poet. Her newest novel, Everyday Courage, is a historical novel set during WWII. Her other novels are Eve’s Daughters, a feminist retelling of the Adam and Eve story; The Other Sister, a family saga about Hungarian immigrants; and Crosswind, a coming-of-age story about women glider pilots. Her poetry book about women aviation pioneers, Where No Man Can Touch, won the Donald Justice Prize; a revised edition was published in 2023.
All are welcome. We encourage you to participate in the open mic. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time/two poems. Sign up when you arrive.
Books by both featured authors will be available for sale through Queen Takes Book. Wilde Readings is a program of HoCoPoLitSo.
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Event venue
Queen Takes Book, 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Columbia, MD 21045-5849, United States
Tickets
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