They often say no one reads anymore. Actually, that couldn’t be further from the truth for many. Friday April 27th, the Newburyport Literary Festival will begin the much loved event at the The Old South Church on Federal Street.
Leaders, activists, CEOs, and top level executives out read most of us averaging 4-5 books per month. Although most of us can’t imagine reading at that pace, it is inspiring to note they feel it informs their work and makes them well rounded. A great (fun) book club is one of life’s little secret pleasures for many of us looking for food and open minded discussion.
Vicki Hendrickson and Jennifer Entwistle, co-chairs of the Newburyport Literary Festival, ask you to mark your calendars and bring a friend or two to see what the event is all about.
The ceremony Friday is followed by our Dinner with the Authors at Masonic Center of Newburyport. Saturday continues the festival with a full day of activities, from Coffee with the Poets, Fiction and Non-fiction discussions and children’s books, to the closing ceremony. As always, this festival promises (and delivers) to have something for every reader.
With a rich literary heritage, the greater Newburyport area has a lot to be excited about. Writers as diverse as John Greenleaf Whittier, John P. Marquand, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Andre Dubus II have called the greater Newburyport area home.
Learn more at Newburyportliteraryfestival.org and plan to meet the authors that most inspire you.
Sampling of this years authors!
Meg Mitchell Moore
Meg Mitchell Moore the author of the novels The Arrivals (2011), So Far Away (2012), The Admissions (2015), and The Captain’s Daughter (2017). The Admissions was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Her next novel will be out in summer 2019. She worked for many years as a journalist for a wide variety of consumer and business publications before exchanging fact for fiction. Moore has a B.A. from Providence College and an M.A. in English Literature from New York University, and she lives with her husband and their three daughters in Newburyport.
Kate Moretti
Kate Moretti is the New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year, Thought I Knew You, and Binds That Tie. She lives in eastern Pennsylvania with her husband and kids. Find out more at katemoretti.com.
Pamela Painter
Pamela Painter is the author of four story collections, most recently Ways to Spend the Night. She is co-author of What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Her stories have appeared in Harper’s, Five Points, Kenyon Review, Missouri Review, and Ploughshares among others and in numerous flash fiction anthologies. She has received grants from The Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts, has won three Pushcart Prizes and Agni Review’s The John Cheever Award for Fiction.
Tom Perrotta
Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of nine works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. His other books include Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Joe College, The Abstinence Teacher, Nine Inches, and his newest, Mrs. Fletcher. His work has been translated into a multitude of languages. Perrotta grew up in New Jersey and lives outside of Boston.
Peter Swanson
Peter Swanson is the author of four novels: The Girl With a Clock For a Heart, an LA Times Book Award finalist; The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear; and All the Beautiful Lies, which will be published in April 2018. His books have been translated into 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine. A graduate of Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, he lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his wife.
Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III ‘s books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. His most recent book, Dirty Love, was a New York Times “Notable Book” selection, a New York Times “Editors’ Choice”, and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013”. His new novel, Gone So Long, will be published in October 2018. Mr. Dubus has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, two Pushcart Prizes, and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. His books are published in over twenty-five languages, and he teaches full-time at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of thirteen books, including The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve; The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (winner of the 2011 National Book Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize) and Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. He is General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and of The Norton Shakespeare, has edited seven collections of criticism, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. He was named the 2016 Holberg Prize Laureate. His honors include the MLA’s James Russell Lowell Prize, the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation.
Bethany Groff Dorau
Bethany Groff Dorau is the author of A Newburyport Marine in World War I: The Life and Legacy of Eben Bradbury (June 2018, History Press), A Brief History of Old Newbury (History Press), and a primary contributor to the Defining Documents in American History Series. She is the North Shore Regional Site Manager for Historic New England, based at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, and a recipient of the Pioneer in Preservation Award from the Essex National Heritage Commission and the North of Boston CVB Leadership Award. Bethany sits on the boards of the North of Boston CVB, the Newburyport Preservation Trust, and the planning committee of the Newburyport Literary Festival. She has published articles in the New England Quarterly, the Encyclopedia of American History, and Historic New England Magazine. She holds an MA in History from the University of Massachusetts, and lives in West Newbury with her family.
Cathi Hanauer
Cathi Hanauer is the New York Times bestselling author of three acclaimed novels (Gone, Sweet Ruin, and My Sister’s Bones) and editor of two anthologies: The Bitch in the House (2002), which sold in sixteen countries, and The Bitch is Back, which was an NPR Best Book of 2016. She’s published articles, essays, and criticism in The New York Times, Elle, O, Real Simple, and many other magazines, and is the co-founder, along with her husband, Daniel Jones, of the New York Times “Modern Love” column. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City.
Tim Hayes
Tim Hayes is the author of RIDING HOME ~ The Power of Horses To Heal ~ Foreword by Robert Redford and an Adjunct Professor of Behavioral Science at Northern Vermont University teaching courses in Equine Therapy.
He is an internationally recognized Natural Horsemanship Clinician and with http://www.hayesisforhorses.com conducts clinics throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Mexico. In addition to his Natural Horsemanship Clinics, Hayes is available and donates his time giving Benefit Fundraising Events to Equine Therapy Organizations in the U.S. and Canada.
See the full schedule at Newburyportliteraryfestival.org
Who reads? From Inc. Magazine