Kelly McMasters, the author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir of an Atomic Town, will give a book talk called "More Than Memoir: Writing Towards a Green Life" on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. in the first floor auditorium of the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library, Connecticut and Macomb Streets, N.W. A book sale and signing of Welcome to Shirley, courtesy of the Trover Shop, will follow the program.

Ms. McMasters grew up in Shirley, a blue-collar town on the east end of Long Island. Shirley’s story serves as a touchstone for the Brookhaven National Lab; a nearby federal nuclear research facility and Superfund site. Three leaking nuclear reactors and countless chemical spills released carcinogens into Shirley and in 1996, town residents afflicted with breast, thyroid and lung cancers sued after lawyers, including Love Canal attorney Richard J. Lippes, took their case. Welcome to Shirley is the story of one young woman’s ability to find beauty in the most unlikely places and a small town’s fight for survival.

Ms. McMasters’ articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, and Glamour magazine. She is the co-curator of the Nonfiction Reading Series on Tuesday nights at the KGB bar in the East Village and teaches in the undergraduate program and at the Journalism Graduate School at Columbia University.

The District of Columbia Public Library is a vibrant center of activity for residents and visitors to the nation’s capital. Located throughout Washington, D.C., the Library provides environments that invite reading, learning, and community discussion. The D.C. Public Library is proud to be a recognized force in the community for engaging the mind, expanding opportunities, and elevating the quality of life. The Cleveland Park Branch of the D.C. Public Library is located near the Cleveland Park Metrorail Station. All District of Columbia Public Library activities are open to the public free of charge. For further information, please call the Cleveland Park Library at 202/282-3080.