Briar Cliff Presents Fall Phil Hey Reading Series

September 16, 2021

Tricia Currans-Sheehan and Jeanne Emmons will give a presentation at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 22 in the Meis Recital Hall on Briar Cliff’s campus. Under the pseudonym J.T. Ashmore, Currans-Sheehan and Emmons published the science fiction trilogy, “Deep Skin.”

A part of the Phil Hey Reading Series, they will read from “Scaled,” the first book of the trilogy, and discuss their collaborative process. In this novel, a meteor explodes over the Midwest, and teens exposed to the fragments break out in a rash of glittering scales. As the scales spread over their bodies, they must work together to combat their self-loathing, accept their alienness, and escape the forces bent on crushing them. 

A finalist for the 2020 “BookLife” fiction prize, the book received high praise.

“‘Scaled’ is a layered and fiercely intelligent story…with a deeply compelling premise,” said one critic, and is “an engrossing and thought-provoking work of sci-fi that integrates ideas of self-awareness, otherness, and empathy.”

Tricia Currans-Sheehan is a Professor of English and Writing at Briar Cliff University. She has had numerous short stories published in journals such as “Fiction,” “The MacGuffin,” “Portland Review,” and more. Jeanne Emmons is a Briar Cliff Professor Emerita. Her collection of poetry, “The Glove of the World,” was Backwaters Press Reader’s Choice winner. Both are editors of “The Briar Cliff Review.”