Saturday, May 19, 2018
10:00AM – 5:00PM

We are excited to once again present a full day of  programs and panel sessions for adults, teens and children! See the separate link for children’s authors and illustrators.

Please share our printable schedule: mflschedule2018 and fact sheet: MLF Fact Sheet 2018

Event presentations:

• 10 AM to 10:45 AM

Native Voices – Speaking As One With All That Is (Gallery)

Join Native American authors Evan Pritchard, and Joseph and Jesse Bruchac as they focus on the language of Native Peoples. Poetry is an excellent medium for exploring the ancient native languages of North America. The translation of a single word can often result in a stanza of poetic imagery. At the same time, we rarely listen to the music of the words we speak, except when read aloud as poetry, and Native American words are often packed  full of remarkable sounds, that tend to bless a poem with music and mystery, beyond the limits of the English language.

Evan Pritchard (Mi’kmaq/Celtic descendant), an award winning historian, is the author of over 30 books, including Native American Stories of the Sacred (Turner Books),  No Word for Time (Millichap Books), Native New Yorkers (Council Oak), Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York (Council Oak), and Bird Medicine (Inner Traditions). Some of the poems from his book Greetings from Mawenawasic (Foothills Publications) are also included in the anthology, Tending the Fire (University of New Mexico Press, book and film April 2017). His newest books are The Tappan and Red Head Band, from which he will read. He has taught Native Studies at Marist, Vassar and Pace University and is the director of the Center for Algonquin Culture in Rosendale, NY. His website is www.algonquinculture.org. 

Joseph Bruchac has been creating poetry, short stories, novels, anthologies and music that reflect his Native American heritage and traditions for more than 30 years.  He is the author of more than 120 books for children and adults. The best-selling Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children, and others of his “Keepers” series, with its remarkable integration of science and folklore, continue to receive critical acclaim and to be used in classrooms throughout the country. Visit him on the web at http://josephbruchac.com.

Jesse Bruchac, son of Joseph Bruchac, above,  has dedicated much of his life to the study and preservation of Eastern Algonquian languages. One of the last fluent speakers of the Abenaki language, Jesse has worked extensively with other closely related Eastern Algonquian languages. He has taught and been a guest speaker at major universities including Harvard, Dartmouth & Princeton. As a musician Jesse has performed across the country and around the globe in schools and venues of all sizes. He has been featured at major festivals, opening for such notable acts as The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and at Woodstock ’94. His books include The Woman and the Kiwakw and Mosbas and the Magic Flute, plus others. Learn more about him at http://jbruchac.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-bruchac-5844b041/.

• 11 AM to 11:45 AM

Young Writers & Scott Meyer Award Presentation (Gallery)

Festival founder Scott Meyer loved to encourage reading and writing of every kind. In honor of his work and passion, the Literary Festival presents an annual award for a different genre each year to a Hudson/Harlem Valley writer. This year both the Scott Meyer Award and the annual Young Writers Showcase are for poetry. 2017/2018 Dutchess County Poet Laureate Bettina “Gold” Wilkerson will announce the winners and lead then in a discussion of their works.

• 12 PM to 12:45 PM

Finding Your Voice (Bennett Room)

Presented by Dutchess County Poet Laureate, Poet Gold, the emphasis of this engaging workshop will be to aid poets in building a bridge for their words to connect with the audience, becoming more comfortable in presenting their own work. Be prepared to share and have fun.

Poet Gold is a spoken word performance artist, poet, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur and emcee. She is the Dutchess County Poet Laureate for 2017 and 2018, and is this year’s judge of the Scott Meyer Award, final three. Poet Gold will present the three awards plus the children’s six selected poems, along with a workshop session on performance and reading. Find her on Facebook,  www.facebook.com/Poet-Gold-BGW-408311444664/.

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All (Gallery)

What was it like to be a wife of Henry the VIII? Acclaimed author Jennifer Donnelly discusses her work on the historical novel Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All, in which she collaborated with other YA authors and wrote from the viewpoint of Anne of Cleves.

Jennifer Donnelly was raised in New York State and is the author of several novels, including The Tea Rose, a historical, 19th century novel trilogy with The Winter Rose and The Wild Rose; the prize-winning A Northern Light; Revolution; the Waterfire Saga with Disney, including Deep Blue, Rogue Wave, Dark Tide, and Sea Spell; These Shallow Graves, a Junior Library Guild Selection; Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book; and Fatal Throne, which was written with six other authors. Her newest release, Stepsister (Scholastic Publishing), is schedule for a 2019 release. Her website is www.jenniferdonnelly.com/

• 1 PM to 1:45 PM

The Timothy Leary Project: Inside the Great Counterculture Experiment (Gallery)

Join New York State Historian Devin Lander and archivist Jennifer Ulrich, who currently works at the Archives & Special Collections, Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University, as they discuss her journey into the infamous Timothy Leary’s archives and her efforts to compile them into a book.  It has now been 50 years since Timothy Leary lived in Millbrook where he and his colleagues–most notably Richard Alpert (now Ram Dass) and Ralph Metzner–established one of the most famous and influential centers in communal living, spiritual awakening, and psychedelic experimentation of the 1960s.

Jennifer Ulrich spent more than a year working at the New York Public Library (NYPL). She has been a professional archivist for 20 years and enjoys blogging about items and issues encountered in the course of her everyday work. It is this blog that piqued the interest of 60’s enthusiasts.  To write The Timothy Leary Project: Inside the Great Counterculture Experiment, Ulrich returned to the NYPL archives to conduct in-depth research and carried out new interviews to shed fresh insights into Leary’s life and work.  Ulrich currently works as Technical Services Archivist at the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University and lives in New York City.

As New York State Historian, Devin Lander provides support and coordination to the historical field, including local historians, academic historians, and historical societies and museums, as well as conducts research on various topics relevant to New York State history and the New York State Museum. Previously, he worked as Executive Director of the Museum Association of New York and worked with historical organizations from across the State; in the New York State Assembly for the Chair of the Tourism, Arts, Parks and Sports Development Committee; and as a Project Archivist at the SUNY Albany M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, where he worked with the Labor Union collection on the CSEA union’s A Century of Service: The Story of CSEA’s First Hundred Years, 1910-2010 book project.

Devin also spent time at the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s Bureau of Historic Sites Interpretive Unit, where he worked on interpretive sign topics ranging from the seiche phenomenon on Lake Erie to the French and Indian War battle that gave Battle Island State Park its name. As an independent historian, he has published extensively in scholarly publications on the 1960s-era Millbrook Commune located in Dutchess County, NY.

Weather: An Illustrated History, From Cloud Atlases to Climate Change (Bennett Room)

Award-winning environmental journalist Andrew Revkin, now at National Geographic, and his wife and coauthor, environmental educator Lisa Mechaley, discuss how their new book on humanity’s evolving relationship with Earth’s climate system offers a path forward amid overheated debates and scary weather events.

Andrew Revkin has written on the environment for 30 years, mostly for The New York Times and, since 2016, at the investigative newsroom ProPublica. He has written acclaimed books on global warming, the Arctic and the Amazon rain forest and three book chapters on science communication. Between 2010 and 2016, he taught courses in online communication and documentary film at Pace University and wrote his prize-winning Dot Earth blog for The Times’s Opinion section. Revkin lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, Lisa Mechaley, an environmental educator and his co-author on an illustrated history of humanity’s relationship with weather, Weather: An Illustrated History: From Cloud Atlases to Climate Change. See The Washington Post‘s article on the book at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/04/30/captivating-new-book-captures-4-5-billion-years-of-climate-and-weather-in-200-pages/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d5c3ccc2e2f7. Revkin’s website is www.amazon.com/Andrew-Revkin/e/B001IXNSRK.

• 2 PM to 2:45 PM

The Slave Who Sued For Freedom (Gallery)

While teaching ESL to African students in 2006, Jana Laiz wanted to introduce them to an African American hero. She stumbled upon Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman, who was the first enslaved African American to file and win a freedom suit based on the words of the newly ratified Massachusetts Constitution, “all men are created equal.” Upon finding Mumbet’s story had never been officially written, she took pen in-hand, along with co-author Ann-Elizabeth Barnes and published A Free Woman On God’s Earth. As a result of that one small book, published in 2009, Jana was approached by Hollywood. Now eight years later, Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water, Hidden Figures, The Help) has signed on as Executive Producer. Hear Jana discuss the journey from publishing a book to making a movie.

Jana Laiz is the author of the triple award-winning novel, Weeping Under This Same Moon (Crow Flies Press), along with The Twelfth Stone (Crow Flies Press), Elephants of the Tsunami (EarthBound Books), and Thomas & Autumn (Crow Flies Press).  She also is the co-author of both, A Free Woman On God’s Earth, The True Story of Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman , The Slave Who Won Her Freedom (Crow Flies Press), and Simon Says, Tails Told By The Red Lion Inn Ambassador (Crow Flies Press). Laiz is passionate about making a difference in the world through her writing and working with others who feel the same. She lives in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. Her website is www.janalaiz.com.

Written From Nature (Bennett Room)

Poets Jessica Cuello and Theresa Senato Edwards discuss the ways in which the natural world manifests in their poems. Cuello and Edwards will read from their work and talk about the relationship between humans and the environment, nature as a metaphor for illness, and Cuello’s book, Hunt, an inversion of Moby Dick in the voice of the whale. How does the environment provide a poetic means to discuss violence, the commodification of others, and illness? Hear some poems and join in the discussion!

Jessica Cuello is the author of Pricking (Tiger Bark Press 2016), which won The 2017 CNY Book Award, and Hunt, winner of The 2016 Washington Prize from The Word Works. Jessica is also the author of the chapbooks My Father’s Bargain (2015), By Fire (2013), and Curie (2011). She was the winner of The 2013 New Letters Poetry Prize, a winner of LUMINA’s poetry contest (selected by Carolyn Forché), the recipient of a 2015 Saltonstall Writing Fellowship and the recipient of the 2014 Decker Award from Hollins University for outstanding teaching. Visit Jessica at http://jessicacuello.wordpress.com.

Theresa Senato Edwards has published two full-length poetry books, one, with painter Lori Schreiner, winning The Tacenda Literary Award for Best Book, and two chapbooks. Excerpts from her newest manuscript, “Wing Bones,” can be found in Stirring, Gargoyle, The Nervous Breakdown, Thrush Poetry Journal, Hermeneutic Chaos Journal, Amethyst Arsenic, Bop Dead City, UCity Review, Rise Up Review, Diode Poetry Journal, and forthcoming in Rogue Agent. Edwards was nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, received a creative writing residency from Drop Forge & Tool, and is Editor in Chief of The American Poetry Journal (APJ). Her website: https://tsenatoedwards.wixsite.com/tsenatoedwards.

• 3 PM to 3:45 PM

Twentieth-Century Boy (Gallery)

Imagine finding your intimate journals from the age of 17 until 27– all your youth, captured on paper. Duncan Hannah moved to NYC, became immersed in the downtown art and music scene, and kept detailed accounts. Merritt Bookstore owner Kira Wizner will talk with this celebrated New York City painter about his new memoir that recounts his experiences in the raw and exciting times of the punk-rock era.

Artist/author Duncan Hannah was born in Minneapolis in 1952 and attended Bard College from 1971 to 1973 and Parsons School of Design from 1973 to 1975. In the seventies, he became associated with New York’s avant-garde and glam and punk rock scenes, acted in a number of underground movies, and showed several of his figurative portraits in 1980’s infamous Times Square Show. His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum and the Minneapolis Art Institute. He lives in New York with the designer Megan Wilson.

How to Pitch Your Book (Bennett Room)

You’ve written a book; now what? Literary agents April Eberhardt and Emma Sweeney, accompanied with author Diane Dewey (The Shiny Life), talk about what it takes to navigate the changing world of book publishing.

April Eberhardt is literary change agent and author advocate passionate about helping authors be published in the most effective and satisfying way. After 25 years as a corporate strategist and consultant, Ms. Eberhardt joined the literary world, where she saw strategic opportunity to play a role in the changing world of publishing. Ms. Eberhardt advises and assists authors worldwide, as they choose the best pathway to publication for their work, be it indie or traditional, digital or print, and serves as a consultant to new publishing startups. April holds an MBA from Boston University in Marketing and Finance, a BA from Hamilton (Kirkland) College in Anthropology and French, and a CPLF degree from the University of Paris. She divides her time between San Francisco, New York and Paris. Visit her online at http://www.aprileberhardt.com.

Emma Sweeney is president and owner of a small boutique agency in New York City which she formed in 2006. Prior to that, she’d been an agent at Harold Ober Associates and Curtis Brown as well as rights director at Grove. She first a member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives and the Women’s Media Group, where she served as president in 2003. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in English Literature. Emma is also a writer whose own books include Tulipa (Artisan, 2000) and As Always, Jack (Little, Brown, 2002; Back Bay Books, 2003; Axios Press 2012). She represents artist/author Duncan Hannah, who was born in Minneapolis in 1952. He attended Bard College from 1971 to 1973 and Parsons School of Design from 1973 to 1975. In the seventies, he became associated with New York’s avant-garde and glam and punk rock scenes, acted in a number of underground movies, and showed several of his figurative portraits in 1980’s infamous Times Square Show. His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum and the Minneapolis Art Institute. He lives in New York with the designer Megan Wilson.

Diane Dewey received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Villanova University and Capella University. She has worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the National Academy, then her own art appraisal business, The Realization of Art. Her articles have appeared in the online art magazine, Artes. Writing courses include: New York University SCS; National Association of Memoir Writers; La Poterie Writer’s Conference; Eckerd Writer’s Conference; and upcoming, Bay Path University Summer Writing Seminar, Dingle, Ireland. Her book, The Shiny Life, (She Writes Press) will be available in 2019. Visit her online at http://dianedewey.com.

• 4 PM to 4:45 PM

Michael Korda: A Life In Books (Gallery)

Esteemed biographer and novelist Michael Korda will recount a life spent amongst the written word, from his almost 50 years moving up the editorial ranks with Simon and Schuster, to his experiences writing his own books. He has worked with celebrities running the gamut from Cher to Richard Nixon, and represented well-known authors such as David McCullough, Larry McMurtry, and Mary Higgins Clark. Korda’s most current works are ALONE: Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat Into Victory; and Catnip: A Love Story.

Michael Korda joined Simon and Schuster as an assistant editor in 1958, and subsequently became Managing Editor, Executive Editor and Editor in Chief. Over nearly five decades his authors have included presidents Carter, Reagan and Nixon, Charles De Gaulle, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Mayor Ed Koch, the Duchess of York, and such stars as Cher, Kirk Douglas, Shelley Winters, such media figures as Phil Donahue and Larry King, historians such as David McCullough, Richard Rhodes, Michael Beschloss, novelists Larry McMurtry, Jacqueline Susann, Jackie Collins, Mary Higgins Clark, James Lee Burke and Stephen Hunter.
His books include the #1 bestseller Power, the bestselling novels Queenie and The Fortune, a widely acclaimed book about his family, Charmed Lives, and more recently Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain, Ike: An American Hero, Country Matters, Another Life, Horse People, Ulysses S. Grant, Journey to a Revolution, and Clouds of Glory: A Biography of Robert E. Lee. Visit Michael online at http://books.wwnorton.com/books/search-result.aspx?searchtext=Michael+Korda.

• 5 PM to 6 PM

10^th Anniversary Reception (Gallery)

Festival-goers, authors, volunteers, and sponsors are invited to a wine and cheese reception to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Millbrook Literary Festival. Light refreshments will be accompanied by music from jazz pianist Don Egry

• ALL DAY

Book Signings and Sales (Front Lawn)

Books by all authors and illustrators at the festival will be available for purchase. Authors will be signing their books immediately following their program or activity. In addition, non-presenting authors will be in the Book Tent to sign their work and meet visitors all day. Participants include Brad Abraham, Jacob M. Appel, John Essick, Don Germain, Jenna Grodzicki, Tania Guarino, Raven Howell, Matt Lambros, Russell Paul LaValle, Jackie Reynolds (AKA Bee Bee the Clown), Cynthia Robinson, Lisa Romeo, Peter Rush, Jesse A. Saperstein, Roger Hendricks Simon (for his late wife Sarah Levine Simon), G. Stuart Smith, Sandi Sonnenfeld, Victoria St. George, Timothy Tocher, and Helen Zuman. Read about them below and on the children’s page.

Brad Abraham is a writer whose previous work includes the feature films Fresh Meat and Stonehenge Apocalypse, as well as the TV miniseries Robocop: Prime Directives. He is creator of the acclaimed comic book series Mixtape, has written for such publications as Dreamwatch, Starburst, and Fangoria, and was a long-time contributor to Rue Morgue Magazine. Magicians Impossible is his first novel. Visit him online at https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250083524.

Jacob M. Appel is the author of the novels, The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up, which won the 2012 Dundee International Book Award, and The Biology of Luck (2013). His story collection, Scouting for the Reaper (2014), won the Hudson Prize. Other collections include The Magic Laundry (2015) and Phoning Home: Essays (2014). His plays have been staged at New York’s Theatre Row, the Manhattan Repertory Theater, Detroit Rep, and many regional theaters. He practices psychiatry in New York City. More at www.jacobmappel.com.

Fascinated by the complexities of human nature, John Essick uses his vast experience as a writer to craft wonderful stories with a unique blend of crime, mystery and humor. Last Respects is his first novel in the Wes Byrne series. His screenplay for the short film Wishing Well won the Best Science Fiction Screenplay at the Indie Gathering International Film Festival. He currently lives in the Mid-Hudson Valley region of New York State with his wife, stage director June Prager. Visit his website at www.johnessick.com.

Don Germain is a retired New York State Educator who has devoted much of his time in retirement researching and writing the first book in the Jon Holland novel series: Jon Holland – The Shadow Self. When he is not writing, Don still coaches youth sports, acts as an educational consultant, travels extensively, and enjoys the wonders on the great outdoors in the White Mountains Region of New Hampshire. His website is https://jonholland.org.

Matt Lambros is an architectural photographer who began photographing abandoned buildings over ten years ago. A graduate of Boston University’s Digital Imaging and Photojournalism programs, Lambros has since been documenting the decay of America’s abandoned theaters in the hope of shedding light on these forgotten buildings and the efforts to re-purpose them. Part of raising awareness for these treasures is his involvement with various organizations that work to restore and reopen abandoned theaters in the United States. Lambros has donated time and photographs to support such organizations as the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, who in 2009 acquired the historic Victory Theatre, abandoned since 1979. Lambros’ abandoned theater photography has appeared in major worldwide publications, including The Guardian and The New York Times. His work with Proctor’s Palace Theatre, Loew’s Poli Theatre and Loew’s Kings Theatre (among others) has been featured in art galleries around the world. Visit his website at http://www.afterthefinalcurtain.net.

Russell Paul LaValle is a seasoned Op-Ed/opinion writer, with an  extensive advertising and marketing writing career. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, The New York Times, Village Voice, Newsday, and New York Daily News, as well as online political commentary sites, The Federalist, American Thinker, The Hill and The Daily Caller, among many other newspapers and magazines. He also has written several cable movies that have appeared on HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, and the Playboy Channel. In addition, Russell is a former contributing editor to the philosophical think tank—The Atlas Society—where he wrote articles and commentaries on issues of the day from a rights-based and ethical point of view and authored the novel, Underground Dreams (W & B Publishers). His work has been picked up nationally, internationally, and anthologized. Find him on the web at https://russellpaullavalle.com.

Cynthia Robinson is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of Medieval and Islamic Art and Cornell University. Her short fiction has been published or is forthcoming in such journals as The Arkansas Review, The Missouri Review, The New Southerner, The Louisville Review, Epoch and Stone Canoe. Visit her online at www.cynthiarobinsonbooks.com.

Lisa Romeo’s first book is Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss, (University of Nevada Press, May 2018). Short work is listed in Best American Essays 2016, and published in dozens of popular and literary venues, including the New York Times, O The Oprah Magazine, Inside Jersey, and Brevity. Lisa teaches with Bay Path University’s MFA program. A former equestrian journalist and public relations specialist, Lisa completed an MFA degree at Stonecoast (University of Southern Maine) and is the recipient of several grants and awards. She lives in northern New Jersey with her husband and sons. Visit her online at http://LisaRomeo.net.

Peter S. Rush brings the 70s to vivid life in his stunning debut novel WILD WORLD, a tour de force, both poetic and realistic, and based on his experiences as a student and police officer. Even though it takes place during a time of protest to the Vietnam war, Wild World could not be more timely. Rush is a graduate of Brown University. He received a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Florida. He was a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, Peace Corps volunteer, and a police officer. He is currently CEO of a global management firm. His website is petersrush.com.

 Jesse A. Saperstein is a best-selling author, autism advocate and motivational speaker. Jesse also has a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome (AS) that gives individuals some profound talents and challenges. Jesse’s story, “Atypical: Life with Asperger’s in 20 1/3 Chapters,” was published by Penguin Group (USA) in April 2010. Jesse visits schools on a regular basis and has been successful with dramatically alleviating bullying. He has spoken in front of the United Nations and the Mall of America. His second book, “Getting a Life with Asperger’s: Lessons Learned on the Bumpy Road to Adulthood”, was released in August 2014. Visit his website at www.jessesaperstein.com.