CAMBRIDGE - Dorchester Center for the Arts welcomes Barbara Lockhart for a book reading and signing on Sunday, Nov. 21, from 3-4 p.m. Featured will be her newest work, “Collected Stories.” This is the second program in a four-part literary series. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Lockhart is an award-winning author of novels, short stories and children's books, which celebrate life on the Eastern Shore. Through lectures, readings and book discussion groups, Lockhart’s interest has been to explore Shore life and history, while recognizing and honoring the humanity that links us all.

Lockhart has been the recipient of two Maryland Arts Council Awards for excerpts from her first novel, “Requiem for a Summer Cottage,” and excerpts from her short stories. Lockhart’s historical novel, “Elizabeth’s Field,” won a silver medal in the Independent Book Publishers Award for Regional Fiction, and her previous collection of short stories, “The Night is Young,” won a finalist position in the National Indie Excellence Awards. Her children’s books celebrate Shore life in such titles as “Rambling Raft” (on the Choptank River), “Once a Pony Time” (at Chincoteague), “Mosey’s Field” (our corn harvest) and “Will’s Tractor” (a champion inventor).

“My newest work, ‘Collected Stories,’” states Lockhart, “was written over a long period of time. Looking back, I can see that much of it was written in a manner that included the land, and our struggle against it or with it – the women who bravely took charge in the solitude of widowhood and found themselves alone in the old houses and small towns, the marriages that folded and those that lasted, the isolation of rural life, and the ever-present search for love. In the human heart, there is always the desire for more, for what used to be, for the secret yearnings which are never quite still. This revelation and knowledge is how we connect, and how we deeply celebrate the best in us. It unites us. It is our truth.”

Lockhart has an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. Find her at barbaramarielockhart.com.

For more information on programs and events at DCA, visit www.dorchesterarts.org, call 410-228-7782, or stop by 321 High St. in Cambridge. Holiday hours at DCA are Tuesday and Thursday noon-8 p.m., Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For the latest updates, find DCA on Facebook.