Author Talk: Samantha Keller, "The Light Remains"

Darien Library is pleased to welcome local author Samatha Keller, who will discuss her newly released book, The Light Remains. Samantha will be in conversation with author and editor Elise Chidley.

Against the backdrop of complicated, beautiful South Africa in the 1960s, The Light Remains is an epic family saga. It is a story about the weight of family loyalty, the price of independence, and the choices that define us when duty and desire collide.

About the Samantha Keller

Samantha Keller grew up in South Africa, and after a decade in London, moved to the US, where she completed her MFA at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Her short fiction won the Anthony Grooms’ Prize and appeared in The Connecticut Literary Anthology 2024. Her work has been a Narrative Story of the Week, a contest finalist in American Short Fiction’s Halifax Ranch Prize and shortlisted in the Bridport Prize. Sam’s first children’s picture book, Are You An Alien?, illustrated by her mother, was published in the UK in 2025. Sam works as a freelance developmental director and is an instructor at Westport Writers Workshop and a co-organizer of their annual Pitch & Publish Conference. 

About Elise Chidley

Elise Chidley's first novel, Your Roots Are Showing, was nominated in two categories of the RITA© Awards:Best First Book and Best Single Title Contemporary Romance. Her debut YA fantasy, The Raven, the Wolf, and the Rose, will be published in September. She received her MFA from Penn State and teaches creative writing at Westport Writers' Workshop. She is currently working on a cozy murder mystery and finishing up book two in her YA fantasy series. She also works as a freelance developmental editor. She was born in Eswatini and raised in South Africa but has happily adjusted to living in Darien--although she still finds the winters ridiculously cold. Find her at elisechidley.com.