Salem Literary Festival

Brunonia Barry

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:46:44 +0000

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire and was one of the founding members of the Portland Stage Company. Barry studied James Joyce’s Ulysses at Trinity College in Dublin, ran promotional campaigns for Chicago’s Second City, Ivanhoe, and Studebaker theaters, studied screenwriting at NYU, and had an original script optioned in Hollywood before returning to Massachusetts where she lives with her husband and her only child, a 12-year-old Golden Retriever named Byzantium. Barry is the author of the bestselling, award winning novel The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places.

William Delman

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:45:12 +0000

William Delman’s first chapbook, The Possibility of Recovery, was published in 2009 by Cervena Barva Press. His work has apeared in The Literary Review, The Massachusetts Review, Nimrod, DMQ Review, Salamander, The Connecticut Review, Rhino, and other fine publications.

David Rivard

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:44:22 +0000

David Rivard was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. His collections of poetry include Torque (1988), which won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, Wise Poison (1996), winner of the 1996 James Laughlin Award, Bewitched Playground (2000), and Sugartown (2005). He has also been a contributor to such publications as Ploughshares, The New England Review, and Poetry. His awards and honors include the Pushcart Prize, the Celia B. Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Rivard currently teaches at Tufts University and in the Vermont College M.F.A. Writing Program. He is also poetry editor for The Harvard Review.

Jill McDonough

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:43:25 +0000

Jill McDonough has been teaching college English courses in Massachusetts prisons since 1999. A graduate of Boston University’s Creative Writing program, her poems appear in The Threepenny Review, Poetry, The New Republic, and Slate. Habeas Corpus, her first book of poems, is fifty sonnets about executions in American history from 1608 to 2005; it was published in 2008. Her awards include a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the NEA, the Fine Arts Work Center, Stanford’s Stegner Program, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She is a 2010 Witter Bynner Fellow at the Library of Congress, and always looking for work.

David Blair

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:41:59 +0000

David Blair was born in 1970. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has degrees from Fordham University and the creative writing program at UNC Greensboro. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Fence, The Greensboro Review, The Harvard Review, Ploughshares, Verse, and has been featured in the anthologies Zoland Poetry and The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. He is an associate professor at the The New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Massachusetts. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his wife Sabrina and daughter Astrid.

Poetry Reading

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:40:32 +0000

David Blair, William Delman, Jill McDonough and David Rivard read from their poetry at one of Salem’s hottest gathering places. Come for the top-notch poetry, and stay to raise a toast to SLF 2011!

Amy Mackinnon

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:38:28 +0000

Amy is the author of TETHERED (Shaye Areheart Books/Random House, August 2008). Her essays have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, and on NPR. Amy lives outside of Boston with her husband, three children, two … Continue reading →

Lily King

williamhekking — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:33:37 +0000

Lily King is the author of provocative and masterfully told Father of the Rain (Atlantic Monthly Press, July 2010, $24, ISBN 978-0802119490), winner of the New England Book award for Fiction. In a sharply insightful family drama set in a WASPy, upper-middle-class suburb, she traces a volatile, addiction-plagued father–daughter relationship from the 1970s to the present day. She is the author of two previous novels, The Pleasing Hour and The English Teacher. The Pleasing Hour was a New York Times Notable Book, an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Award. The English Teacher was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and winner of the Maine Fiction Award. King is also the recipient of a Whiting Award. She lives in Maine with her husband and children.

2010 Event Line-Up Announced!

Beth Simpson — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:26:51 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Salem Literary Festival
September 17 – 19, 2010
Salem, MA
Contact for MEDIA ONLY: Beth Simpson at bsimpson@cornerstonebooks-salem.com, 508-641-8687
Contact, all other: info@salemlitfest.com

The Salem Literary Festival, in its third year, announces a line-up of events that goes beyond writing workshops and author readings, although they have those too, in spades. No worries, the popular SCRABBLE® Tournament is back, and there’s still an opportunity for writers to strut their stuff at an open mic. But this year’s schedule also features highly creative fare aimed at entertaining and inspiring book lovers, wordsmiths, families and the casual passer-by. On Saturday the 18th, there’s a slew of storytelling to enchant the young and young-at-heart; special tours of the 1820’s jewel The Phillips House, perfect for stirring the imagination of lovers of historical prose; and, the Salem Theatre Company performs monologues culled from the micro-stories in Quick Fiction Magazine.

On Sunday the 19th, the Festival undertakes a day-long, cover-to-cover reading of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in celebration of this classic’s 50th anniversary; join in as a reader by emailing info@salemlitfest.com. Try your hand at writing poetry and translating it into beautiful Chinese calligraphy. Didn’t catch those monologues on Saturday? They’re back on Sunday!

Salem’s own Brunonia Barry (THE LACE READER, THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES) will kick-off the Festival with a welcome on Friday evening, prior to a reading by headlining author Lily King, whose new novel FATHER OF THE RAIN has received universal accolades and a passel of recognition and prizes. Brunonia Barry will also open the MOCKINGBIRD marathon as its initial reader.

Other authors scheduled to appear include Steve Almond, Myfanwy Collins, Elyssa East, Brian Evenson, Ethan Gilsdorf, Lynne Griffin, Katherine Howe, Jennifer Jean, Amy MacKinnon, January O’Neil and Doug Stewart.

For more information and a full schedule, go to www.salemlitfest.com.

Opening Night Celebration featuring Brunonia Barry and Lily King

williamhekking — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:15:02 +0000

Salem’s own bestselling author, Brunonia Barry, welcomes festival attendees, and the winner of the First Salem Literary Festival Writing Contest is announced. Author Lily King reads from FATHER OF THE RAIN, the winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction. Expect … Continue reading →