Concord Festival of Authors: Breakfast with the Authors at the Colonial Inn - TICKETED EVENT

The Friends of the Concord Free Public Library present the 2026 Breakfast with the Authors panel, which will take place at Concord's Colonial Inn, 48 Monument Square. The event will be moderated by local author and physician, Dr. Suzanne Koven.

CFA Breakfast tickets will be sold locally at the Barrow Bookstore as well as online on the CFA website starting in early October. This event includes a full buffet breakfast at Concord’s Colonial Inn.

* Please note that the room is not handicap accessible. Please contact the Colonial inn for assistance.

Christopher Castellani is the author of five books, most recently the novel Leading Men, for which he received Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Leading Men was published by Viking Penguin, and is currently being adapted for film by Peter Spears (Oscar-winning producer of Nomadland) and Searchlight Pictures. His newest book, Last Seen, was published in February 2026 (Viking Penguin). 

Gish Jen's work has been included in The Best American Short Stories five times, including in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Bad Bad Girl is her sixth novel; her other books include two collections of short stories and two works of non-fiction, including publication of her Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University.

Hester Kaplan is the author of two story collections, The Edge of Marriage (University of Georgia Press, and Norton), which received The Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction; and Unravished (Ig Publishing); the novels The Tell (HarperCollins) and Kinship Theory (Little, Brown). Recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, two fellowships in literature from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, she was named Mark Twain Fellow for her new book, Twice Born (Catapult, 2025).

Suzanne Koven, longtime host of the CFA Breakfast with the Authors, received her B.A. in English literature from Yale and her M.D. from Johns Hopkins. She also holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. In 2019 she was named inaugural Writer in Residence at Mass General. Suzanne’s essay collection, Letter to a Young Female Physician, was published by W.W. Norton & Co. in 2021. Her memoir, The Mirror Box: A Doctor’s Story will be published by W.W. Norton & Co. on March 23, 2027.

For more information on the Concord Festival of Authors, please visit www.concordfestivalofauthors.org.