Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry | Moderators |
Listed in alphabetical order

Kirstin Chávez
From Bounty Hunting to Fatherhood: Andre Dubus III on His New Book of Essays — Saturday 3:00 PM
Kirstin Chávez has sung leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Sydney Opera House, Covent Garden, the Arena di Verona, Maggio Musicale in Florence and many other prestigious companies. She is known as one of the definite Carmens of today, having performed the role around the world. She has also co-written and performed a one-woman show, Carmen Inside Out, which uses Bizet’s music, but explores the character on her own terms, rather than through the patriarchal lens through which she is often portrayed. This unique monodrama premiered in the UK and has since played in across the US and Europe, as well as in Japan. Kirstin is also praised for her work in modern opera and as a regular soloist in oratorio and orchestral works. While doing her graduate work, Kirstin also trained as a Financial Planner and was preparing to take the certification exam when her singing career took off. However, when live performance contracts were cancelled during the Covid pandemic, she resumed her CFP studies and became certified in 2021. She now enjoys serving financial clients and teaching entrepreneurial skills in addition to her extensive performing engagements and her work as Artist in Residence at the University of Utah. Photo credit: Seth Ian Mower.
Featured Book


Kate Clifford Larson
From Bounty Hunting to Fatherhood: Andre Dubus III on His New Book of Essays — Saturday 3:00 PM
Kate Clifford Larson is the bestselling author of four critically acclaimed biographies: Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (2015), winner of the 2016 Massachusetts Book Award, a People Magazine Best Books of 2015, and named one of the Best Biographies of All Time by BookBub in 2019; Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer (2021) which received starred reviews and named one of the Best Biographies of 2021 from Kirkus, Library Journal, Christianity Today, and more; Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (2004)—still considered the standard modern biography; and The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln (2008), the first accurate biography of the woman who helped John Wilkes Booth before and after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Larson is also an award-winning historical consultant who has worked on feature film scripts—including Focus Features’ Harriet starring prize-winning Cynthia Erivo, and Robert Redford’s The Conspirator—numerous documentaries, museum exhibits, public history initiatives, heritage tourism products, curriculum guides, and various other publications. She has appeared on local, national, and international media outlets, including the BBC, PBS, and C-Span, mainstream media and cable networks, podcasts, and CBS Sunday Morning. Photo credit: Susan Wilson.
Featured Book


Theresa Okokon
In Bloom: Plants and Their Meanings — Saturday 1:00 PM
Featured Book


Johnathon Pape
From Bounty Hunting to Fatherhood: Andre Dubus III on His New Book of Essays — Saturday 3:00 PM
Johnathon Pape has directed opera, musical theatre, and theatre throughout the US and abroad. Highlights include the world premiere of Griffelkin by Lukas Foss for NYC Opera; the US premiere of Daniel Catán’s La Hija de Rappaccini for San Diego Opera; Terrence McNally’s Master Class for HaBimah, the National Theater of Israel; Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen for Tulsa Opera; Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in Milwaukee; and Janáček’s Jenůfa for Portland Opera. He has co-written and directed Carmen Inside Out—a one-woman version of Carmen that he created with mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez, which has played in the US, UK, France, Switzerland and Japan. He and Chávez have also written Living the Dream: Building a Sustainable Career in the Performing Arts, published by Routledge. Pape was Director of Opera Studies at Boston Conservatory from 2011-2021, where he directed many productions and revised the curriculum to focus on building the skills necessary to entering today’s opera industry. He has taught masterclasses for numerous companies and training programs. He received a Fulbright to the Czech Republic in 1994. Pape is a long-standing member of the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society and the American Guild of Musical Artists. Photo credit: Greg Nikas Photography.
Featured Book


James Charles Roy
From Bounty Hunting to Fatherhood: Andre Dubus III on His New Book of Essays — Saturday 3:00 PM
James Charles Roy is an independent author, historian, and photographer who lives in Newburyport. He is the author of eight distinguished books on European history, including the Book-of-the-Month selection, “Islands of Storm.” He has been praised by the Irish novelist Brian Moore as a “writer both erudite and insightful,” and William Butler Yeats’s most recent biographer, Roy Foster, praised the recently published “The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland” as being typical of Roy’s skill, presenting “original, challenging and creatively oblique views” of his material. Roy’s work has been published by leading imprints in the US, Britain, Ireland and Germany. Also a gifted photographer, he has exhibited at the National Library of Ireland, the Boston Public Library and numerous other venues. Roy’s most recent book, “All the World at War,” is the result of many years of research and travel. He has visited nearly every site described in its pages, and prepublication praise has been reflective of his reputation not only as an insightful historian but as a gifted storyteller as well. Jack Fellows, OBE, distinguished scholar of war and international history, Fellow of King’s College, London, wrote that this version of World War I “deserves to become a classic.”
Featured Book


Amber C. Snider
From Bounty Hunting to Fatherhood: Andre Dubus III on His New Book of Essays — Saturday 3:00 PM
Amber C. Snider is a NYC-based author, journalist, and editor specializing in culture, travel, design and spirituality. Her bylines can be found in the New York Times, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Atmos, Lonely Planet, Fodor’s Travel, Refinery29, Zagat Stories, Architectural Digest, and more. She received a M.A. degree in liberal studies from the City University of New York Graduate Center, where her research focused on ancient and modern mythologies, esoteric symbolism, goddess worship, and the divine feminine. She’s also editor-in-chief and creator of Enchantments, a digital publication from NYC’s oldest witchcraft store. You can read more of her work at AmberCSnider.com.
Featured Book


Steve Almond
John Updike’s Ghost: Live from the Book Shop podcast recording with Jami Attenberg and Steve Almond — Sunday 3:30 PM
Steve Almond is the author of twelve books of fiction and non-fiction including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His novel, All the Secrets of the World, is in development for television by 20th Century Fox. He is the recipient of an NEA grant for 2022, and his short fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize, and Best American Mysteries. His most recent book, Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow, is about craft, inspiration, and how to keep going at the keyboard. Almond teaches at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and Wesleyan University, and lives outside Boston with his anxiety. [www.stevealmondjoy.org]
Featured Book


Bethany Groff Dorau
Opening Night Ceremony: Honoring Newburyport Historians — Friday 6:00 PM
Ice Ship to Calcutta: Captain Pritchard and the Strange Tale of the Elcano — Saturday 2:00 PM
Bethany Groff Dorau is the executive director of the Museum of Old Newbury, after 21 years with Historic New England. She is the author of A Newburyport Marine in World War I: The Life and Legacy of Eben Bradbury and A Brief History of Old Newbury (History Press), and has won several awards for preservation advocacy and museum leadership. Bethany has appeared on This Old House and Chronicle, published articles in The New York Times, New England Quarterly, and Historic New England Magazine, among others. Her writing has been featured on NPR and publications of the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission. She holds an MA in History from the University of Massachusetts, and lives in West Newbury with her family. Photo credit: Amanda Ambrose.
Featured Book


Andre Dubus III
From Bounty Hunting to Fatherhood: Andre Dubus III on His New Book of Essays — Saturday 3:00 PM
Andre Dubus III’s nine books include 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. His work has been included in The Best American Essays and The Best Spiritual Writing anthologies, and 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. His 2013 novella collection, Dirty Love, was listed as a “Notable Book” by The Washington Post and The New York Times, and was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice” and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013.” His 2018 novel, Gone So Long, was named on many “Best Books” lists, including selection for The Boston Globe’s “Twenty Best Books of 2018” and “The Best Books of 2018, Top 100” on Amazon. His most recent novel, Such Kindness, was one of Amazon’s “The Best Books of 2023, Top 100.” His collection of personal essays, Ghost Dog: On Killers and Kin, is forthcoming in March 2024. He is the editor of Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories (Godine, 2023). 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 25 languages, and he teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Featured Book


Dyke Hendrickson
Opening Night Ceremony: Honoring Newburyport Historians — Friday 6:00 PM
Reclaiming the Merrimack: An Action Plan to Clean the River — Saturday 3:00 PM
Author-journalist Dyke Hendrickson recently came out with his eighth book titled, “Reclaiming the Merrimack: An Action Plan to Clean the River.” He is a resident of Newburyport, and a former writer with the Portland Press Herald, the Boston Herald and The Daily News of Newburyport. HIs other books of local interest include “Nautical Newburyport” (2017), “New England Coast Guard Stories” (2020), “Merrimack, the Resilient River”/(2021), and “Plum Island: A Vulnerable Gem” (2022). He is a former adjunct professor of journalism at Northeastern University.
Featured Book


Skip and Marge Motes
Going One Better: Newburyport’s William Bartlet — Saturday 1:00 PM
Skip and Marge Motes, of Newburyport, have been researching Newburyport’s history since moving here in 1995. Skip has given lectures for the Newburyport Preservation Trust, Custom House Maritime Museum, and the Newburyport Public Library Lecture Series. Marge answered queries for fourteen years for the Museum of Old Newbury and has published North End Papers, 1618-1880: Newburyport, Massachusetts—Development of the North End of the City, a compilation of the writing of Oliver B. Merrill, and has transcribed the newly discovered Newburyport Revolutionary War records for the Committee of Safety, Correspondence and Inspection. Their first book, published in 1994, was Laurens & Newberry Counties, S.C.: Saluda and Little River Settlements, 1749-1775, which won the National Genealogy Society prize for methods and sources.
The Motes’ Newburyport area publications include The Newburyport Art Association: First Sixty Years, 1948-2008; Harbor Range Lights, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 2016; Harbor Range Lights and the Waterside; Legendary Newburyporters, Briggs Exhibition, Custom House Maritime Museum; Going One Better, and The Federal Street Mansion of William Bartlet, Merchant 1778-2024, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Their compilations list includes Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, and Other Occupations in Newburyport, Massachusetts 1850 Census; Reminiscences of Newburyport Peter Fudge an 18th Century Boy (originally published in the Daily Herald in 1858), and Among the Whales, Joseph Nye Clark.
Featured Book


Ghlee E. Woodworth
Opening Night Ceremony: Honoring Newburyport Historians — Friday 6:00 PM
Meet Newburyport’s Early Black Residents — Saturday 12:00 PM
Ghlee Woodworth leads walks along Newburyport’s Clipper Heritage Trail — Sunday starting at 10 AM and 11 AM
Ghlee E. Woodworth is a 12th-generation Newburyport native. Ghlee is the creator of Newburyport’s Clipper Heritage Trail, a series of self-guided history tours accessed via the web, brochures, and smartphones (2014). She is the author of Tiptoe Through the Tombstones, Oak Hill Cemetery, (2009) and Newburyport Clipper Heritage Trail Volume I (2020) and Volume II (2022). Ghlee has won several awards for contributions honoring Newburyport history. For the past 17 years, Ghlee has conducted over 230 slideshow presentations and walking, bus, and boat tours of cemeteries, neighborhoods, and the city. Ghlee is currently researching and writing about Newburyport’s early Black history. Two 11 x 17-inch brochures have just been completed celebrating our early Black citizens. Trained in gravestone restoration, Ghlee has restored over 1,500 gravestones in Oak Hill Cemetery, city cemeteries, and other burying grounds.
Featured Book

