Newburyport Literary Festival: A Celebration of Literature, Readers, and Writers
Newburyport Literary Festival: A Celebration of Literature, Readers, and Writers

2013 Fiction Participants

Listed in alphabetical order
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Linda BarnesLinda Barnes

Necessary Evils:  A Conversation about the Writing Life
with Mystery Authors Linda Barnes and Barbara Shapiro — Saturday 9:00 AM

Linda Barnes reads from The Perfect Ghost — Saturday 11:00 AM

Linda Barnes, a winner of the Anthony and the American Mystery awards, has recently written her first stand-alone novel, The Perfect Ghost. (“Barnes delivers a captivating story of love, rivalry, and revenge.” Publisher’s Weekly.) She has written 16 previous novels, 12 featuring 6’1” redheaded Boston private investigator, Carlotta Carlyle.

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Nichole BernierNichole Bernier

The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D by Nichole Bernier — Saturday 9:00 AM

Nichole Bernier is author of the novel The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. (Crown/Random House), a finalist for the 2012 New England Independent Booksellers Association fiction award, and has written for publications including Psychology Today, Salon, Health, Elle, Self, Redbook, Men’s Journal and Boston Magazine. A Contributing Editor for Conde Nast Traveler for 14 years, she was previously on staff as the magazine’s golf and ski editor, columnist, and television spokesperson. Nichole received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she received the 1993 award for literary journalism, and is a founder of BeyondTheMargins.com, a site with daily essays about the craft and business of writing. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and five children, and can be found online at www.nicholebernier.com and @nicholebernier.

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Myfanwy CollinsMyfanwy Collins

Myfanwy Collins reads from I Am Holding Your Hand — Saturday 9:00 AM

Sustaining Momentum: The Art of the Short Story — Saturday 11:00 AM

Myfanwy Collins lives in Byfield, Massachusetts with her husband and son. She has published one novel, Echolocation (Engine Books), and a collection of her short fiction, I Am Holding Your Hand ([PANK} Books). For more information, please visit her web site: http://www.myfanwycollins.com

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Stephanie CowellStephanie Cowell

Historical Fiction Beyond Royalty:
Artists and Musicians Can Be Bestsellers, too — Saturday 11:00 AM

Historical novelist Stephanie Cowell published her first short stories in her teens. She was a classical singer for many years and sang in many operas; she also appeared as an international balladeer, produced a singing ensemble, a concert series, medieval festivals, and a small opera company. The translation of a late Mozart opera led her back to writing. Stephanie is the author of Nicholas Cooke, The Physician of London, The Players: a novel of the young Shakespeare, Marrying Mozart and Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet. She is the recipient of an American Book Award. Her work has been translated into nine languages. Her next novel is on the immortal love story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Her website: http://www.stephaniecowell.com

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Junot DiazJunot Díaz

This is How You Lose Her: Junot Díaz — Saturday 11:00 AM

Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. A graduate of Rutgers College, Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the cofounder of Voices of our Nation Workshop.

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Andre Dubus IIIAndre Dubus III

Sneak Preview: Dirty Love with Andre Dubus III— Saturday 1:00 PM

Andre Dubus III is the author of five books: The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, and the New York Times bestsellers, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times "Editors Choice". It was named on many “Top Non-fiction Books of 2011” lists, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Esquire magazine. His novel, House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the National Book Award, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and was made into an Academy Award nominated film starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. Mr. Dubus has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, The Pushcart Prize, and he is a 2012 recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. He teaches full-time at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Fontaine, a modern dancer, and their three children. His new book, Dirty Love, is forthcoming in the fall of 2013.

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Susanne DunlapSusanne Dunlap

Historical Fiction Beyond Royalty:
Artists and Musicians Can Be Bestsellers, too — Saturday 11:00 AM

Susanne Dunlap is the author of six historical novels, two for adults (Emilie's Voice, Liszt's Kiss) and four for teens (The Musician's Daughter, Anastasia's Secret, In the Shadow of the Lamp, The Academie). With a PhD in Music History from Yale, she first started writing about musical subjects, finding inspiration in the research she had done for her degree. But soon she cast a wider net, writing on subjects ranging from Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War to the tragic Anastasia Romanova. Dunlap is a resident of Northampton, MA, where she lives with her long-time partner. They are both doting grandparents.

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Lisa GenovaLisa Genova

Lisa Genova reads from Love Anthony — Saturday 10:00 AM

Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, and Love Anthony, which is about autism. Love Anthony was an October 2012 Indie Next pick and a People Magazine Great Read. USA Today calls it “beautifully written and poignant to the point of heartbreak.”  There are currently over one and a half million copies of her critically acclaimed novels in print.  Lisa lives with her family on Cape Cod and is working on her fourth novel.

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Max GladstoneMax Gladstone

What's Wrong with the Real World? A Fantastic Conversation About Fantasy
– Saturday 2:30 PM

Max Gladstone has taught in southern Anhui, wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat, and been thrown from a horse in Mongolia. Max graduated from Yale University, where he studied Chinese. He is the author of Three Parts Dead, published by Tor Books, and Two Serpents Rise, forthcoming from Tor Books in October 2013.

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Sara J. HenrySara J. Henry

Sara J. Henry reads from A Cold and Lonely Place — Saturday 1:00 PM

Sara J. Henry worked as a magazine editor, newspaper sports editor, and health and fitness writer before turning to fiction. Her first novel, Learning to Swim, won the 2012 Anthony and Agatha Awards for best first novel and the Mary Higgins Clark Award, was nominated for the Barry and Macavity Awards, and was a Target Emerging Author pick. The sequel, A Cold and Lonely Place, which will be released in February 2013, has been described by Julia Spencer-Fleming as “a deeply atmospheric, seductive read and a captivating literary mystery.” Sara’s a native of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who lived and worked in the Adirondacks, where her novels are set, and now lives in southern Vermont. Her website is www.SaraJHenry.com

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Bret JohnstonBret Anthony Johnston

Sustaining Momentum: The Art of the Short Story — Saturday 11:00 AM

Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the internationally acclaimed Corpus Christi: Stories and the editor of Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, both from Random House. His work appears in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, Glimmer Train Stories, and Tin House, and in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories 2011 and 2013. He has received the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize, a Literature Fellowship from the NEA, and a National Book Award for young novelists. His novel, The Unaccompanied, will be published by Random House in 2014. He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University.

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William LandayWilliam Landay

William Landay reads from Defending Jacob — Saturday 2:30 PM

William Landay’s latest novel is the New York Times bestseller Defending Jacob. His previous novels are Mission Flats, which won the Dagger Award as best debut crime novel of 2003, and The Strangler, which was an L.A. Times favorite crime novel and was nominated for the Strand Magazine Critics Award as best crime novel of 2007. A graduate of Yale University and Boston College Law School, he was an assistant district attorney before turning to writing. He lives in Boston, where he is at work on his next novel of suspense.

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Alan LightmanAlan Lightman

The Best American Essays — Saturday 1:00 PM

Alan Lightman reads from Mr g: A Novel About the Creation — Saturday 4:00 PM

Alan Lightman is a novelist, essayist, and physicist, He has served on the faculties of Harvard University and MIT and was the first person to receive dual faculty appointments at MIT in science and in the humanities. He is currently professor of humanities at MIT. His literary work has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, Harper’s, and other publications. Lightman’s novel, Einstein’s Dreams, was an international bestseller and has been translated into 30 languages. His novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. A recent essay in Harper’s magazine was included in Best American Essays. Lightman’s latest novel is Mr g, a story of the creation as told by God. Lightman is also the founding director of the Harpswell Foundation, which works to empower women leaders in Cambodia.

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Maryanne O'HaraMaryanne O'Hara

Maryanne O'Hara reads from Cascade — Saturday 9:00 AM

Historical Fiction Beyond Royalty:
Artists and Musicians Can Be Bestsellers, too — Saturday 11:00 AM

Maryanne O'Hara is the author of CASCADE, a Slate Best Books 2012 selection, People magazine "People Pick," Boston Globe "Best of the New,” and Library Journal "Best Bet.” She was the longtime associate fiction editor at Ploughshares, Boston's award-winning literary journal, and her short fiction has been published in periodicals like The North American Review, Five Points, Redbook, and in several anthologies. A graduate of Emerson College's MFA program, she is a recipient of grants from the St. Botolph Club Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She lives on a river near Boston. www.maryanneohara.com

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Peter OrnerPeter Orner

Peter Orner reads from Love and Shame and Love — Saturday 2:30 PM

Peter Orner is the author of two novels, including Love and Shame and Love, a New York Times Editor's Choice Book, and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His first book Esther Stories is being re-issued in April, 2013, with a forward by Marilynne Robinson.

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Holly RobinsonHolly Robinson

CLOSING CEREMONY: Sue Little and Friends: The Future of the Book
— Saturday 7:00 PM

Holly Robinson is an award-winning journalist and celebrity ghost writer. Her first book, The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter (Crown 2009) was a Target Breakout Book. Her self-published novel, Sleeping Tigers, was named a 2012 Best Indie Books semifinalist by Kindle Book Review. Her newest novel, The Wishing Hill, will be published by New American Library/Penguin in July 2013. Ms. Robinson holds a B.A. in biology from Clark University and is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Bill RoorbachBill Roorbach

Bill Roorbach's Life Among Giants — Saturday 11:00 AM

Bill Roorbach is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Flannery O'Connor Prize and O. Henry Prize winner Big Bend (University of Georgia Press, 2001), Into Woods (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), and Temple Stream (Random House, 2005). Life Among Giants, a novel, is due from Algonquin in 2012. The 10th anniversary edition of his craft book, Writing Life Stories (Story Press, 2008), is used in writing programs around the world. Recently, Bill was a judge on Food Network All Star Challenge, evaluating incredible Life Stories cakes made under the gun, so to speak. Bill knows nothing about cake, but he knows a lot about life stories! His work has been published in Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Granta, New York, and dozens of other magazines and journals. His story Big Bend was featured on NPR's "Selected Shorts," read by actor James Cromwell at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Bill has taught at the University of Maine at Farmington, Colby College, and Ohio State. His last academic position was the Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts. He has now retired from academia in order to write full time. A comic video memoir about his tragic music career, "I Used to Play in Bands," and all kinds of other work, including a current blog on writers and writing and just about everything else (with author David Gessner) is online at www.billanddavescocktailhour.com.

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Barbara ShapiroBarbara Shapiro

Necessary Evils:  A Conversation about the Writing Life
with Mystery Authors Linda Barnes and Barbara Shapiro — Saturday 9:00 AM

Barbara Shapiro reads from The Art Forger — Saturday 4:00 PM

Barbara Shapiro is the author of six novels (The Art Forger, The Safe Room, Blind Spot, See No Evil, Blameless and Shattered Echoes), four screenplays (Blind Spot, The Lost Coven, Borderline and Shattered Echoes) and the non-fiction book, The Big Squeeze. She has directed research projects for a residential substance abuse facility, worked as a systems analyst/statistician, headed the Boston office of a software development firm, and served as an adjunct professor teaching sociology at Tufts University. Barbara lives in Boston and teaches creative writing at Northeastern University.
http://bashapirobooks.com/

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Anne Easter SmithAnne Easter Smith

Historical Fiction Beyond Royalty:
Artists and Musicians Can Be Bestsellers, too — Saturday 11:00 AM

Anne Easter Smith’s love of medieval English history began during her childhood in England, where she grew up with London on her doorstep. Her five-book contract with Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone Books is a series about the York family during the Wars of the Roses. Anne’s third book, The King’s Grace won the Romantic Times Best Historical Biography award in 2009 and her fourth, Queen By Right was nominated in the 2012 Best Historical Fiction category also by Romantic Times. The recently published Royal Mistress is the final book in the York saga and tells the story of Edward IV’s “merriest” mistress, Jane Shore. Anne has lived for 43 years in US, on both coasts, but now lives in Newburyport, MA with her husband, Scott. When not writing, Anne is usually found acting or directing on her local stage.

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John SmolensJohn Smolens

John Harrison Smolens reads from Quarantine — Saturday 10:00 AM

John Smolens, formerly of Newburyport, has published eight novels and one collection of short fiction including: Quarantine, Pegasus Books, 2012; The Schoolmaster's Daughter, Pegasus Books, 2011; The Anarchist, Three Rivers Press/Random House, 2009; Fire Point, Shaye Areheart Books/Random House, 2004; The Invisible World, Shaye Areheart Books/Random House, 2002; and Cold, Shaye Areheart Books/Random House, 2001. Cold was nominated for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He has published short fiction and nonfiction in a variety of magazines and newspapers, including: Columbia Journal of Literature and Art, Massachusetts Review,Boston College Magazine, Redbook, Yankee, Writer's Digest, Writer's Market, the Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. He holds degrees from Boston College, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Iowa. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Michigan Author of the Year Award from the Michigan Library Association. John is currently a professor of English at Northern Michigan University.

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Joan WickershamJoan Wickersham

Sustaining Momentum: The Art of the Short Story — Saturday 11:00 AM

Joan Wickersham reads from The News from Spain:
Seven Variations on a Love Story
— Saturday 2:30 PM

Joan Wickersham’s most recent book, The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story (Knopf) was named one of 2012’s best fiction picks by Kirkus Reviews and The San Francisco Chronicle. Her memoir The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) was a 2008 National Book Award Finalist. Her fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and many other publications. Joan writes a regular op-ed column for The Boston Globe and her pieces often appear in The International Herald Tribune. Her work has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times and on National Public Radio. www.joanwickersham.com

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Steve YarbroughSteve Yarbrough

Sneak Preview: The Realm of Last Chances by Steve Yarbrough — Saturday 9:00 AM

Sustaining Momentum: The Art of the Short Story — Saturday 11:00 AM

Steve Yarbrough is the author of nine books. His recently completed novel The Realm of Last Chances will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. His previous novel, Safe from the Neighbors (Knopf), appeared in 2010. His 2006 novel The End of California (Knopf) was a finalist for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for fiction and was also published in Polish translation. His novel Prisoners of War (Knopf, 2004) was a finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner Award, and his 1999 novel The Oxygen Man (McMurray & Beck) won the California Book Award, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the Mississippi Authors Award. His other books are the novel Visible Spirits (Knopf, 2001) and the story collections Veneer (University of Missouri Press, 1998), Mississippi History (Missouri, 1994), and Family Men (LSU Press, 1990). His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and has also been published in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Japan and Poland. He lives in Stoneham and is director of the MFA program at Emerson College.

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