Newburyport Literary Festival

A Celebration of Literature, Readers, and Writers
• In-Person & Virtual Events • April 26–28, 2024

Listed in alphabetical order

Myfanwy CollinsMyfanwy Collins

Flash Fiction and the Art of Vulnerability — Saturday 1:00 PM Myfanwy Collins lives in Newburyport. She is the Staff Writer at Bookish.com and has published a novel, Echolocation (2012), a collection of her short fiction, I Am Holding Your Hand (2013), and a YA novel, The Book of Laney (2015). For more information, please visit her web site: http://www.myfanwycollins.com

Suzanne C. DubusSuzanne C. Dubus

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir — Saturday 9:00 AM Suzanne C. Dubus joined the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in 1995 and has served as its chief executive since 1998. She is credited with developing and administering domestic violence prevention programs that are effective, innovative and community-based. A survivor of domestic violence, she understands what it means to be inside an abusive relationship and how challenging it is to leave, but she also believes that the onus for personal safety should not simply be placed on the victim’s shoulder. Rather, she believes that the responsibility for establishing a safe community belongs to the community itself. That perspective and her evolutionary vision have driven her work at the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center and her success in revolutionizing the paradigm of domestic violence work on a national scale. Vice President Joseph Biden recognized the Crisis Center’s domestic violence high risk team model at the White House in 2010 and said, “We need to replace what we have been doing and replicate this kind of success.” Recognized as an expert in the field, she was named a Champion of Change by the White House in October 2011; is a member of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Sexual and Domestic Violence, the Massachusetts Council on Family Serving Agencies, and a member of the board of directors of Jane Doe, Inc., the statewide coalition of domestic violence and sexual assault programs.

Elissa GershowitzElissa Gershowitz

Crime, Punishment, and the Gray Areas In Between in Young Adult Literature — Saturday 10:30 AM Elissa Gershowitz is executive editor of The Horn Book, Inc. She holds an MA from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College and a BA from Oberlin College. [clearboth]

Drew HendricksonDrew Hendrickson

Colombians Converge on Peace: A Cultural, Literary Look at a Long Process — Saturday 2:30 PM Drew Hendrickson lived in Colombia for 2 years under a Fulbright Scholarship. He traveled extensively throughout the country doing research on the role of journalism in the Colombian Civil War. During that time, he learned a great deal about Colombia, the conflict there, and the day-to-day life of its people. Drew has also lived in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He currently works for a non-profit organization that offers free tennis and academic programming to students in Boston. He is a long-time friend of the Literary Festival and the proud son of Vicki Hendrickson.

Dyke HendricksonDyke Hendrickson

Page Turners: Writing the Suspense Novel — Saturday 1:00 PM Dyke Hendrickson is working on a new book, New England Coast Guard Stories: Remarkable Patriots. This will be his fifth. Last year he produced Nautical Newburyport: A History of Captains, Clipper Ships and the Coast Guard. He is a career journalist, and has been a writer and/or editor with The Portland Press Herald, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Boston Herald, and The Daily News in Newburyport. One of his books was a mystery, Last Night in Hollywood, based on his time covering the television industry for several Boston publications.

Leslie HendricksonLeslie Hendrickson

Traveling Abroad: Novels Set in Distant Places — Saturday 2:30 PM Leslie Hendrickson is a writer and editor based in New York. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Family Circle, Jane, ARTnews, The New York Sun and amNewYork, among others. She is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has also competed in more than 15 triathlons and visited all 50 states.