Sister Cleophas Costello Lecture

Loyola University Maryland welcomes New York Times bestselling novelist Laura Lippman for the 34th Sister Cleophas Costello Lecture on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.   

The 2025 lecture is free and open to the Loyola community, Mount Saint Agnes College alumnae, and the public. Advanced registration is required.  

The Mount Saint Agnes College Alumnae Association, Loyola's School of Education, and the Loyola Alumni Association host the annual Sister Cleophas Costello Lecture—a lecture series featuring prominent women—in honor of the late Sister Mary Cleophas Costello.

2025 Lecture: An Evening with Laura Lippman  

Author of Lady in the Lake and the Tess Monaghan series, which has greatly expanded the boundaries of mystery fiction and psychological suspense.

Laura Lippman, a multiple award-winning crime novelist who spent twelve years as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun. Lippman has penned 26 critically and commercially acclaimed crime novels, 12 of which feature private investigator Tess Monaghan. Her other novels include Life Sentences and New York Times bestseller Lady in the Lake, which has been adapted into a miniseries currently streaming on Apple TV.

Lippman is one of the most laureled writers in the history of the crime genre, having won more than 25 prizes while being nominated for 30 more. This year, she was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Lippman was also the first-ever receipient of the Baltimore Mayer's Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.

Lippman gives riveting and entertaining presentations about her experience as a reporter and novelist, bringing audiences inside the fascinating worlds depicted in her novels.