Name: Poetry Reading with Layle Keane Chambers
Start: 2026-05-04T18:00:00-04:00
Location: Buxton Books

Poetry Reading with Layle Keane Chambers

Buxton Books is proud to host Layle Keane Chambers- Folly Beach-based poet, Vice President of The Poetry Society of South Carolina, and recipient of the South Carolina Academy of Authors Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship Prize in Poetry- for a poetry reading celebrating her debut collection, Caught in the Light.
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About Layle Keane Chambers:
Layle Keane Chambers is a performing poet, author, and educator from Folly Beach, SC. She currently serves as Vice President of The Poetry Society of South Carolina. She is a Professor Emeritus of Theatre with an MFA in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University, and just her debut chapbook, Caught in the Light (Finishing Line Press) in Janaury of 2026. She is a recipient of the Poetry Society of South Carolina's Perception Prize, a recipient of the South Carolina Academy of Authors Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship Prize in Poetry, and a proud Air Force mom.
About Caught in the Light:
Layle Keane Chambers has written a book that pulses with devotion, distance, and deep witnessing. Caught in the Light is a mother’s reckoning with the impossible – the beauty and brutality of raising a child who takes flight into war. These poems hold fear, pride, grief, and love all at once. “You are flying / and that’s all I can ask” is a gorgeous way to express the ache of letting go while holding on. –Marcus Amaker, first Poet Laureate of Charleston, SC, and member of the SC Literary Hall of Fame
Caught in the Light is a raw and unflinching exploration of a mother’s journey as she watches her son dedicate himself to a life of service as an Air Force pilot. Layle Keane Chambers navigates a battle fought on the home front, where love and anxiety intertwine against a backdrop of global uncertainty. From the constant vigilance of tracking his flights across continents to moments of intense pride and beauty, Chambers charts a course through fear and acceptance. These poems illuminate the universal experience of letting go, weaving the personal with geopolitical realities and the quiet moments of family life with the stark realities of war. Through vivid imagery and emotional honesty, Caught in the Light reveals the silent sacrifices of military families, the constant negotiation between love and fear, and the enduring power of a mother’s unwavering gaze, ultimately serving as testimony to the resilience of the human spirit, a call to find strength in looking up and the grace to become a lighthouse in a world of shifting currents.