Writers to read works at Fairfield U. Bookstore

Mason's Road, an online literary and arts journal published by Fairfield University's master of fine arts in creative writing program, will host Mason's Road Writer's Night at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28 at the Fairfield University Bookstore, 1499 Post Road.

The evening, free and open to the public, will be comprised of four writers reading from their works.

There will also be a Q&A with writers and editors and a discussion about getting one's work published.

Olivia Kate Cerrone, winner of the 2012 Mason's Road Literary Award, will be the featured reader, having won the prize for her short story "The Rabbi's Son," according to a news release.

Her fiction has appeared and will soon appear in a variety of literary magazines, including The Portland Review, The Dos Passos Review, Word Riot and Italian Americana, which presented her with its 2012 short fiction prize.

Cerrone is completing work on "The Hunger Saint," a novel set in contemporary Sicily, and another novel about the lives of three estranged Sephardic brothers. "The Rabbi's Son" is an excerpt from that manuscript, the release states.

Other writers who will read from their works include Lauren K. Johnson, Jillian Ross and Jacob M. Appel.

Johnson, an Afghanistan veteran and former military public affairs officer, has won regional and national Department of Defense journalism awards.

She is pursuing a master of fine arts degree in nonfiction writing at Boston's Emerson College and won a Mason's Road honorable mention award for her creative nonfiction.

Ross, a current MFA candidate at Fairfield, is a writer and garden designer living in Connecticut. Her poetry has been published in Mason's Road, as well as Dogwood and The Penwood Review, the release states.

Appel has published more than 200 short stories in literary journals, including New Orleans Review, Subtropics and Gettysburg Review. He won the 2012 Hudson Prize, teaches creative writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop and practices medicine in New York City.

For information, visit www.masonsroad.com.