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

2012 Nonfiction Participants

Listed in alphabetical order
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Scott AlarikScott Alarik

Radio My Way: Ron Della Chiesa – Saturday 9:00 AM

Songwriting and the Lyrical Voice:
Dylan Thomas to Bob Dylan, Lead Belly to Led Zeppelin – Saturday 1:00 PM

Scott Alarik covered folk music in the Boston Globe for over 20 years. Pete Seeger calls him “one of the best writers in America,” and the Library Journal called his first book, Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground, “an essential primer of the continuing folk revival.” Alarik is also a singer-songwriter who toured the national folk circuit and performed regularly on A Prairie Home Companion. Garrison Keillor wrote of him, “I have rarely seen an audience in such a good mood as when he’s just been there.”

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Regina BarrecaDr. Regina Barreca

A Glass of Wine with Gina Barreca – Saturday 3:00 PM

Dr. Regina Barreca is most recently the editor of Make Mine A Double: Why Women Like Us Like To Drink (or Not) published by the University Press of New England in 2011 and author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin’s, 2009). She has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, Dr. Phil and Oprah to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, as well as Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even and Babes n Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League; her books have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. Gina, whose columns from the Hartford Courant are distributed worldwide by the McClatchy-Tribune Syndicate, is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut.
www.ginabarreca.com

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Victoria BarrettVictoria Barrett

Authors and Editors: Working Together – Saturday 1:00 PM

Victoria Barrett is Editor and Publisher at Engine Books, a boutique fiction press. She has edited and published titles by Patricia Henley, Debra Monroe, and Myfanwy Collins; work by Sybil Baker, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, Gregory Spatz, and Nan Cuba is forthcoming. Victoria's own fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Confrontation, Massachusetts Review, Puerto del Sol, and You Must Be This Tall to Ride. She studied writing and editing in the MFA program at New Mexico State University.

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Molly BirnbaumMolly Birnbaum

Food Glorious Food – Saturday 1:00 PM

Molly Birnbaum was born in Boston, raised in its outskirts, and attended Brown University, where she studied the History of Art and Architecture but fell in love with cooking and food. Her plan to become a chef was stymied, however, when she was hit by a car while jogging in the summer of 2005. As a result of the accident, she lost her sense of smell. No longer able to detect flavor in food, she began to write. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Post, USA Today, ARTnews, and O Magazine. She was awarded the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for Arts and Culture from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2008. Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way was published by Ecco/HarperCollins in 2011. Today, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, works as an associate editor at America's Test Kitchen, and can smell almost everything again.

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T. Susan ChangT. Susan Chang

Food Glorious Food – Saturday 1:00 PM

T. Susan Chang is the regular cookbook reviewer for the Boston Globe and NPR and a regular contributor to NPR’s Kitchen Window column. She blogs about cookbooks at her website, Cookbooks for Dinner, and also at Eat Your Books, the cookbook-indexing website.  In addition, her radio commentaries on food and cooking can be heard on WFCR (New England Public Radio). Her first book, A Spoonful of Promises: Recipes and Stories from a Well-Tempered Table, was published in November by Lyons Press. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and two children.

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Ron Della ChiesaRon Della Chiesa

Opening Ceremony – Friday 6:00 PM

Radio My Way: Ron Della Chiesa – Saturday 9:00 AM

Ron Della Chiesa made his radio debut at age 10 on a children's program in his home town of Quincy, Massachusetts. He joined 'GBH in 1966 as a part-time news and promotional announcer for Channel 2. Three years later he switched to radio to host two 'GBH/89.7fm classical music programs: Prelude and Morning pro musica. Before long, Ron found himself behind the microphone of an afternoon classical music show, an afternoon jazz show, a late-night jazz show and an overnight show called 'GBH After Hours’. Ron continued to explore the relationship between classical, jazz and other musical forms, expanding his lineup to showcase live performances and classical programming on The Classical Hour, Great Voices and live broadcasts of The Boston Symphony Orchestra. It’s Ron's broad musical expertise, embracing both classical music and jazz, that keeps him in demand both on the air and off, hosting any number of events around Boston, from the BankBoston Celebrity Series 'GBH Classics to the Harry Ellis Dickson Boston Pops Esplanade concerts, and serving on the board of numerous local arts organizations. He is also in demand and noted for his many lectures on opera, classical music, jazz and the Great American Songbook.

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Brenda CopelandBrenda Copeland

Authors and Editors: Working Together – Saturday 1:00 PM

Brenda Copeland is an Executive Editor at St. Martin's Press and on faculty at NYU, where she teaches editing. One of the newest members of the St. Martin's editorial team, she joined the house in late 2010 after five years at Hyperion where she was an executive editor. Brenda has published a select list of fiction and non-fiction including Claire Cook, Cecily von Ziegesar, Margaret Leroy, and Dean Koontz. She is building a robust list at St. Martins, a mixture of fiction and narrative non-fiction, and is looking for strong stories told with a strong voice.

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Andre Dubus IIIAndre Dubus III

Townie – Saturday 11:00 AM

Andre Dubus III is the author of a collection of short fiction, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, and the novels Bluesman, House of Sand and Fog, and The Garden of Last Days, a New York Times bestseller. His memoir, Townie, was released in February 2011 with W.W. Norton & Co. His work has been included in The Best American Essays of 1994, The Best Spiritual Writing of 1999, and The Best of Hope Magazine. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for fiction, The Pushcart Prize, and was a Finalist for the Rome Prize Fellowship from the Academy of Arts and Letters. An Academy Award-nominated motion picture and published in twenty languages, his novel House of Sand and Fog was a fiction finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize,Booksense Book of the Year, and was an Oprah Book Club Selection and #1 New York Times bestseller. A member of PEN American Center, Andre Dubus III has served as a panelist for The National Book Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and has taught writing at Harvard University, Tufts University, Emerson College, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell where is a full-time faculty member. He is married to performer Fontaine Dollas Dubus. They live in Massachusetts with their three children.

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William HallettWilliam Hallett

Newburyport and the Civil War – Saturday 2:30 PM

A former radio announcer turned writer, William Hallett is a twelfth- generation descendant of a first settler of Newbury, Nicholas Noyes. Always a fan of American history, Bill lived in Maryland near Pennsylvania as a youth and by his twenties had acquired an interest in Civil War history, which is so prevalent in that region. In 1994, he returned to New England and not long after became involved in the Civil War Roundtable of New Hampshire. He led that group as president for ten years and as vice-president for two. He also joined the Civil War Roundtable of the Merrimack and served on the board. During the same time, he was introduced to the world of reenacting, with his first occasion being an encampment on the grounds of Gettysburg National Military Park in June 1994. Determined to keep alive the memory of the people and events of this most crucial time in history, Bill has decided to create this book hoping to spotlight Newburyport’s place in Civil War history. Bill lives in Newburyport with his wife, Elizabeth. The couple periodically hosts Footsteps of Heroes: Civil War Walking Tour of Newburyport.

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Blake HazardBlake Hazard

Songwriting and the Lyrical Voice:
Dylan Thomas to Bob Dylan, Lead Belly to Led Zeppelin – Saturday 1:00 PM

Blake Hazard is a Vermont-born singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. She is one half of the indie-pop duo, The Submarines, whose music has been featured in numerous films, tv shows and advertising campaigns. The Submarines have toured internationally in support of their three albums, and continue to record out of their home studio. Blake is also a great-granddaughter of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

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Stuart IsacoffStuart Isacoff

A Natural History of the Piano – Saturday 9:00 AM

Stuart Isacoff is active across North America and Europe as a writer, pianist, composer and lecturer. His presence in the cultural landscape has included ongoing presentations at such venues as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center, as well as at music festivals around the world. He is a regular contributor on music and art to The Wall Street Journal, and a faculty member of the Purchase College Conservatory of Music (SUNY). Mr. Isacoff is the author of A Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians—From Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between (Knopf), and of the highly acclaimed Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization (Knopf/Vintage). He is a winner of the prestigious ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music. Stuart Isacoff’s lectures and piano performances have been featured at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Verbier Festival and Academy (Switzerland), Music@Menlo, the Portland Piano Festival, the Miami Piano Festival, the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the September Music Festival (Torino), the Gina Bachauer Foundation (Salt Lake City), the Van Cliburn Piano Institute and others, as well as at such scientific institutions as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Bradbury Science Museum and the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics. Photo by Michael Lionstar.

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Richard JohnsonRichard A. Johnson

Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary – Saturday 11:00 AM

Richard A. Johnson has served as Curator of The Sports Museum since 1982. He has authored or co-authored twenty one books including: Field of Our Fathers, An Illustrated History of Fenway Park, The Boston Braves, A Century of Boston Sports, and Red Sox Century. His book, Ted Williams, A Portrait in Words and Pictures, was selected as one of the "noteworthy books of 1991" by the New York Times Book Review. Johnson graduated from Lawrence Academy in 1974. During his years at Bates College ('78) Johnson worked in Kildare Ireland for the Irish Georgian Society and later for the Print Department of the Boston Public Library where he served as an intern. Following college Johnson completed the Publishing Institute at the University of Denver and later worked for both the Worcester Evening Gazette and Houghton Mifflin Publishers before joining The Sports Museum as its first employee. With The Sports Museum, Johnson has mounted exhibits on topics as diverse as: "Women in Sports, Insights from Her Past", “Rocky Marciano, The Rock of His Times, “Stylianos Kyriakides, The Human Race.” "Boston's Braves 1876-1952", "Fenway Park, From Duffy's Cliff to the Green Monster", "The World Cup" (in collaboration with The British Council) among many others. He has also served as a consultant to many projects and clients including The Boston Celtics, New England Patriots ,Montreal Canadiens, Boston Red Sox, Cambridge Seven Associates, WGBH, ESPN, The Boston Museum of Science among others.

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Ann KingmanAnn Kingman

Get Onboard the Online Book Scene:
How Social Media Connects Readers, Authors, and Reviewers – Saturday 9:00 AM

Authors and Editors: Working Together – Saturday 1:00 PM

Ann Kingman is co-publisher of Books on the Nightstand: a blog and podcast about books and reading. Always an avid reader, Ann spends her days as a District Sales Manager for Random House, Inc., working with bookstores to find just the right books for their customers.

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Christine LavinChristine Lavin

A Book with Your Concert? – Saturday 11:00 AM C A N C E L L E D

Singer-Songwriter Christine Lavin is a multi-award winning performer whose one-of-a-kind concert has become a fixture in folk-pop culture. Her awards include The ASCAP Foundation Award, two New York Music Awards, seven ASCAP Composer Awards, The World Folk Music Association’s Kate Wolf Memorial Award and a Backstage Bistro Award for New York City Singer-Songwriter of the Year. She was a founding member of the Four Bitchin’ Babes recording and performing collective, and toured as a Babe from 1990-1997. A prolific freelance writer, her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The St. Petersburg Times, SKY Magazine and more. She is the author of two children’s books. The Amoeba Hop, published by Puddle Jump Press with illustration by Betsy Franco Feeney, was recognized with an Outstanding Book Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Christine partnered again with Franco Feeney and Puddle Jump Press for Hole In The Bottom of the Sea. Her autobiography Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? garnered strong critical acclaim upon publication by Tell Me Press as it traced her curious, circuitous and often hilarious route to becoming a cherished, internationally recognized singer-songwriter.

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Bill NowlinBill Nowlin

Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary – Saturday 11:00 AM

Bill Nowlin has worked for over 40 years now, helping to document various aspects of American folk and popular culture from music to baseball. Bill Nowlin, Ken Irwin, and Marian Leighton founded Rounder Records in 1970. What began as a three-person collective now stands as a self-sustaining corporation boasting over 40 employees, more than 3,000 releases, and a roster which includes such luminaries as Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Irma Thomas, and a host of lesser-known yet equally important roots music artists in genres ranging from bluegrass to Tex-Mex. Since the early ‘90s Nowlin has also has established himself as an authority on the much-beloved Sox via more than 30 published books (and several others waiting in the wings) and over 300 articles in various newspapers, magazines, and journals. His books include Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story, Fenway Lives, Ted Williams: The Pursuit of Perfection, Blood Feud: The Red Sox, the Yankees, and The Struggle of Good vs. Evil, Red Sox Threads, and Day by Day with the Boston Red Sox. Nowlin’s devoted scholarship - particularly his detailed exploration of the life and legacy of Ted Williams – led to his election in 2004 as Vice-President of the Society for American Baseball Research. These days he appears frequently on radio and television in the Boston area, discussing his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. Bill is Vice President of the Society for American Baseball Research and has served on the Board of Directors for the Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center in Cambridge, the non-profit successor to the old Club 47. For several years he served on the Board of Governors of the Texas chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the august body which runs the Grammy® Awards. He lives in Cambridge, MA with his 20-year-old son Emmet.

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Dawn RennertDawn Rennert

Get Onboard the Online Book Scene:
How Social Media Connects Readers, Authors, and Reviewers – Saturday 9:00 AM

Dawn Rennert is an avid reader who is especially fond of social history, personal memoir, literary fiction, and children's picture books. She enjoys connecting readers and books via her active book blog, She Is Too Fond of Books (founded in early 2008), and as the Community Relations Coordinator for her local independent bookstore, the Concord Bookshop, in Concord, MA.

Dawn is an advocate for independent bookstores, highlighting them both on her primary blog and on Spotlight on NYC Bookstores. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

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Tim RileyTim Riley

Opening Ceremony – Friday 6:00 PM

Tim Riley’s Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music – Saturday 11:00 AM

NPR critic, author, pianist, and speaker Tim Riley reviews pop and classical music for NPR's Here And Now, and has written for the Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Slate.com and Salon.com. He was trained as a classical pianist at Oberlin and Eastman. In 2009, Emerson College appointed Riley Journalist-In-Residence, where he teaches Music Journalism and supervises the department's social media strategy. Brown University sponsored Riley as Critic-In Residence in 2008, and his first book, Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary (Knopf/Vintage 1988), was hailed by the New York Times as bringing "new insight to the act we've known for all these years..." A staple author in college courses on rock culture, he gave a keynote address at BEATLES 2000, the first international academic conference in Jyvaskyla, Finland. Since then, he's given lively multi-media lectures at colleges and cultural centers like the Chautauqua Festival on "Censorship in the Arts," and "Rock History. His current projects includes the music metaportal, the Riley Rock Index.com. His latest book is Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life.

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Jessica SpeartJessica Speart

Winged Obsession: The Pursuit of the World's Most Notorious
Butterfly Smuggler – Saturday 1:00 PM

Jessica Speart is an investigative journalist whose focus is on wildlife law enforcement and endangered species issues. She is the author of the highly acclaimed narrative nonfiction book WINGED OBSESSION about the world’s most notorious butterfly smuggler. The book was an Indie Next pick and has been featured on the CBS News Blog, CBS Weekend Roundup, National Geographic Weekend, the Huffington Post, the NY Post, and numerous NPR stations. Jessica also penned a ten-book mystery series featuring U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Rachel Porter. The series was created after years of investigating wildlife and drug-trafficking crimes for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, National Wildlife, Audubon, Mother Jones, Travel & Leisure and Omni Magazine. Jessica has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, chapters of the Audubon Society, League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women. Prior to writing, Jessica worked as an actress in NYC where she appeared off-Broadway, as well as in commercials and soap operas.

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Dan StoneDan Stone

Songwriting and the Lyrical Voice:
Dylan Thomas to Bob Dylan, Lead Belly to Led Zeppelin – Saturday 1:00 PM

Dan Stone is a writer and the editor and Executive Director of Radio Silence, a magazine of literature and rock & roll that will launch in Spring 2012. He has taught middle school, high school, and college, and also worked for six years as a program manager and documentary producer at the National Endowment for the Arts. Dan has an MFA in fiction from Boston University.

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Christina ThompsonChristina Thompson

Boston’s Literary Magazine Scene – Saturday 2:30 PM

Christina Thompson is the editor of Harvard Review and the former editor of the Australian literary journal Meanjin. She has received grants from the NEA, NEH, Arts Victoria, and the Australia Council, and her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Vogue, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the London Times and the American Scholar.

She is the author of a historical memoir, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All (Bloomsbury, 2008) and is currently working on a history of the prehistoric settlement of the Pacific for HarperCollins entitled The Wonder Story of the World.

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