On Monday February 22, 2010, Berea College alumna Karen Salyer McElmurray gave a compelling reading from her most recent novel The Motel of the Stars in the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center. The crowd of students and faculty listened intently as she gave her wisdom on writing and shared experiences from Berea College before reading excerpts from her novel. She also held a question-and-answer session before she signed books for those in attendance. Before the reading, the audience was served a light lunch.

Karen Salyer McElmurray's newest novel is The Motel of the Stars (Sarabande Books). The novel has been nominated for the Weatherford Prize in Fiction, was a Lit Life Novel of the Year for 2008 and was named Editor's Pick by Oxford American. She is also the author of Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey, recipient of the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction, as well as Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven, winner of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing.  She is Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Georgia College and State University. McElmurray is Creative Nonfiction Editor for Arts and Letters: A Journal of Contemporary Culture.