Listed in alphabetical order
Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry | Moderators |
Kate Bolick is a journalist, essayist, critic, and author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own. A Newburyport native, she now lives in New Haven, CT, where she teaches writing at Yale University and is a senior editor of The Yale Review.
Betty Cayouette is an author and the creator of the viral social media account @bettysbooklist. She graduated from Brandeis University in 2019 and lives in Salem, Massachusetts. One Last Shot was Betty’s debut novel, published in 2024 and followed by her sophomore novel, Tell Me How You Really Feel, in 2025. I Kissed Her First is her third novel.
Nancy Crochiere’s debut novel, Graceland (2023), was named a top summer read by Parade, Woman’s World, and Deep South magazine. Prior to writing fiction, Nancy was a family-humor columnist for two Massachusetts newspapers, was named Humor Writer of the Month by the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop, and collected her best-loved columns in The Mother Load. She lives north of Boston and occasionally acts as an extra in movies and TV shows; however, rumors that she once stalked Bradley Cooper are largely unfounded. You can learn more at www.nancycrochiere.com.
Elizabeth de Veer is the author of the 2021 novel The Ocean in Winter. Her second novel, The Blazekeeper of Bowmore House is a retelling of the classic Cinderella story in which the main character finds a letter her mother wrote while dying, divulging a royal heritage and a formative friendship with Cinderella’s stepmother. de Veer has a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and has been admitted to writing residencies at the Jentel Artist Residency, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of several writing groups, including Grub Street Writers’ Collective of Boston and the Newburyport Writers’ Group. She lives in Georgetown, Massachusetts.
Owen Grey is a poet and editor and is close to completing his graduate degree in counseling. A member of the Powow River Poets since 2012, he organized their celebration of Jane Kenyon in 2022, and he was a featured reader in the Powow Monthly Reading Series in 2023. He has hosted the Festival’s Breakfast with the Poets since 2023 and is looking forward to moderating again in 2026. His poems appear in The Powow River Poets Anthology II. He lives in Central Massachusetts.
Powow member page.
Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic for The New York Times and the author of Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.
Susan Keatley has a PhD in chemistry and has written about scientists, computational biology, cancer, and science education among other topics for The New York Times, the Simons Foundation, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Formerly a high school science teacher, she created and hosts the Science Fare podcast, which connects specific classroom concepts to what real scientists do. She has been a moderator at the Newburyport Literary Festival and created the Manor Mill Prose Night author reading and open mic series in Monkton, Maryland. She writes fiction and is hopeful for her first novel which is on submission.
Sara Nelson is Senior Vice President, Executive Editor at Harper, the flagship imprint of HarperCollins. She has been the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly and the Editorial Director for Books at Amazon.com.
Zara Raab’s most recent book is a new edition of Swimming the Eel. Her poems appear in The Hudson Review, Verse Daily, Stand (UK), and elsewhere. A Powow River Poet, she lives in Amesbury. Powow member page.
Holly Robinson is a novelist, journalist, and ghostwriter. As a ghostwriter, she has published fourteen nonfiction books with major publishers such as St. Martin’s, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Random House. Under her name, she has published a memoir, five novels with Penguin Random House, and articles, essays, and humor columns in national publications. Holly holds a B.A. in biology and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Read more about Holly and her work at www.authorhollyrobinson.com.
Hannah Harlow is co-owner of the Book Shop of Beverly Farms in Beverly, Mass. She’s also a recovering publishing industry veteran and writer whose work has appeared in WBUR’s Cognoscenti, Cleaver Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, and in a biweekly books column for The Manchester Cricket.
Drew is a life-long tennis player and reader/writer. He currently runs All Court Enrichment (ACE), allcourtenrichment.org, an organization that provides tennis and writing programs to youth in Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford.
Women and Myth: Retelling the World’s Oldest Stories From the Feminist Perspective — Sunday 10:30 AM
Paulette Demers Turco is honored to serve as Program Moderator for the Festival’s Day of Poetry. Her second book, Shimmer, an ekphrastic poetry collection (Kelsay Books, 2023) pairs her art and poetry. A Powow River Poet, is a co-organizer and host for the Powow reading series, and editor of The Powow River Poets Anthology II (Able Muse Press, 2021). Her poems appear in The Lyric, Ibbetson Street, Mezzo Cammin, The Poetry Porch, Loch Raven Review, Quill & Parchment, and others. Awards include nomination for a Pushcart Prize and the Robert Frost Poetry Award. Born and raised in RI, she enjoys retirement in Newburyport following her career in optometry in academic settings. Powow member page.
The Gateless Workshop: A Creative, Critic-Free Approach to Writing & Craft — Sunday 9:30 – 11 AMJill Oestreicher Gross is a native New Yorker who moved to Newburyport almost 20 years ago. She is a freelance writer and publicist who earned a master’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and has written for publications including Reuters, Newburyport Magazine, and several healthcare trade publications.
Meg Mitchell Moore is the USA Today bestselling author of eight novels. She is not a native of Newburyport but she’s lived here longer than she’s lived anywhere else so she has adopted it as her hometown. She has an undergraduate degree from Providence College (go Friars) and a master’s degree in English Literature from New York University. She loves writing, reading, and running on the North Shore and spending time with/attempting to rein in the chaos of her husband, their three teen and young adult daughters, and two exuberantly shedding golden retrievers.
Literary Festival Poetry Program Co-Host, Moderator, and Planner
Zara Raab’s most recent book is a new edition of Swimming the Eel. Her poems appear in Arts & Letters, Nimrod, The Dark Horse, River Styx, The Hudson Review, Verse Daily, New Verse News, and Stand (UK). Her literary reviews have appeared in Poet Lore, Poetry Flash, Raven Chronicles, and elsewhere. Having grown up north of San Francisco, where her great-great grandparents settled, she earned degrees from Mills College, University of Michigan, and Lesley University, and eventually settled on the East Coast, north of Boston. She is a Powow River Poet living in a tiny house on Powow Street in Amesbury. Photo credit: Lee Perlman.