"A loving, affecting memoir of an American Eden turned toxic."--O, The Oprah Magazine

Welcome to Shirley:
A Memoir from an Atomic Town
By Kelly McMasters

 

Shirley News & Notes

--Pre-order the paperback version of the book here!! The official on-sale date is April 27, 2009. Check out the READINGS page for more events coming up this spring and summer.

--Had some hot borscht and perogies with friend-to-books-and-writers-everywhere Lauren Cerand the other day, and she captured the beauty of the day perfectly on her supersmart blog Lux Lotus.

--Visited Suffolk Community College and spoke to some amazing students and teachers, many who make their home in...you guessed it! Shirley, and learned more about the fascinating practice of Cultural Geography thanks to the incredibly intelligent and wonderfully warm Albin Cofone (your students are very lucky to have you, Albin!).

--Took a trip to the Garden City campus of Nassau Community College to meet with the Women's Studies professors for an invigorating and lively talk.

--More news to come! Check for updates on the Readings page...

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BLOGS and other COOL THINGS

--Fanzine posts Talk Show 18 with writers including Kelly answering the question: Where did you go on your first date, and with whom? See the entire transcript here.

--Eco-Libris, the supercool trees-for-books program, reviews Welcome to Shirley and puts a call out for more sustainable reading.

--Plenty Magazine takes an in-depth look at the cost of nuclear energy and includes Welcome to Shirley in the mix here.

--Read Karl Grossman's Opinion piece about how Welcome to Shirley relates to the Bush regime's ill-fated attempt to revive nuclear energy with $544 billion in subsidies (from the East Hampton Star)

--Read a poem for Shirley written in real-time by Roland Legiardi-Laura during Kelly's appearance on the Brian Lehrer show to celebrate National Poetry Month

--Read how Kelly offset her book tour's carbon emissions using NativeEnergy and planted a forest for Shirley thanks to EcoLibris on the Beacon Broadside blog

--Click here to read an exclusive essay by Kelly on the Powells bookseller site

--Find a playlist for the book at the largeheartedboy blog here

--Check out a green-themed excerpt from the book at Mother Jones Magazine's Blue Marble blog

--Read Kelly's confession about writing memoir on the Debutante Ball, a blog for first-time writers

--Kim Stagliano ran an interview with Kelly on her supersmart autism site

--ManicMommy posted an excerpt and gave away a free copy of Welcome to Shirley

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Shirley seemed to be doomed from the beginning. Located 65 miles from
New York City with a population of about 25,000 people, the blue-collar town has been plagued by one disaster after another—an empty promise of glamour
and glitz shot down by a bribe gone bad by the town’s charlatan founder; shabby beach bungalows-turned-welfare dens crowding the chaotic streets; drugs
flowing out of the local Indian reservation; a plane crash off the town's nicotine yellow beach; and a mysterious federal nuclear laboratory that has been leaking chemical and nuclear waste into the town’s water table for decades.