The Salem Literary Festival Returns This Month

Salem and the North Shore have a rich literary history that encompasses much more than being the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The history continues today, and is highlighted by the annual Salem Literary Festival.

Winter T-Shirt Sales Raise Nearly $6,000 in Heating Assistance>>>

Salem’s Literary Festival has announced the lineup for its 2015 edition. This year’s events feature opportunities to hear and meet accomplished world class authors and poets (winners of the National Books Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and New York Times Bestsellers) as well as popular local favorites, in lovely and historic venues. In addition, aspiring authors, poets, and playwrights will have opportunities to sharpen their skills and share their work with others. In order to make the festival accessible to a broad range of North Shore residents, admission to the events is either low cost or free.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
FRANK BIDART: Metaphysical Dog: Poems

Salem State University, Martin Luther King Room, Ellison Campus Center.
7:30PM, Free Admission
Kick off the festival at the Salem State Writer’s Series with a reading from poet Frank Bidart whose first books: Golden State and The Book of the Body, gained critical attention and praise. His reputation as a poet of uncompromising originality was made with The Sacrifice, published in 1983.
Bidart’s recent volumes include Metaphysical Dog: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013)- National Books Critics Circle Award; Watching the Spring Festival: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008); Star Dust (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005); Music Like Dirt (Sarabande Books, 2002); and Desire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award. The 2007 recipient of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, he teaches English at Wellesley College.

FRIDAY: NOVEMBER 13
STACY SCHIFF: The Witches, Salem 1692

Peabody Essex Museum, East India Marine Hall, 7:00 PM
Admission: PEM Members $7, nonmembers $10, reservations must be made by November 12 at pem.org or by calling 978-542-1511
Join Pulitzer Prize winning author Stacy Schiff for our keynote address and presentation of her new book The Witches, Salem 1692, which she researched at PEM’s Phillips Library.

Stacy Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry, Pulitzer Prize finalist; A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize; and Cleopatra: A Life. Schiff has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Named a 2011 Library Lion by the New York Public Library, she lives in New York City.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
SALEM ATHENAUEM A DAY FOR WRITERS

10AM-12:30PM and 2PM-6PM, Free Admission
Wake up your writer’s brain with great local authors as your guides. Join us for the whole day or just for a session or two.

10AM-11:15AM PICK A PROMPT

• Danielle Jones-Pruett

11:15AM-1230PM PICK A PANEL

• SCI FI AND FANTASY IN POETRY: Heather Hughes & Ellen Goldstein
• PAGE TO STAGE PLAY-WRITING: Mark Stevick, Kristina Stevick, Phoebe Roberts, Scott Kremer

12:30-1:45PM LUNCH BREAK Time to visit local eateries.

2-3:15PM PICK A PANEL

• Starting and Maintaining a Lit Mag: The Critical Flame and Buck Off Magazine
• The Adolescent in YA and Adult Fiction: Matt Phillion, Emily Holmes, MichaelGerhard Martin

3:15-4:15PM: OPEN MIC

4:15-5:30PM PICK A PROMPT

• Writing for social change - Tobi Dress Germain
• How to Tell Your Story Live - Audrey Martavich

5:30PM MOVIE-TELLING READING

• Shari Caplan, Joey Gould, Casey Roland, Olga Livshin, Jessica Furtado

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18

BRUNONIA BARRY: The Map of True Places
6:00 PM, HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES
Admission: House of the Seven Gables members: Free, Non-Members: $7.00 emailgroups@7gables.org, or call 978-744-0991 ext. 104
End the festival by attending the last of the “Seven Lectures at Seven Gables” series. The House of the Seven Gables welcomes back New York Times bestselling author, Brunonia Barry, for a lecture on her book, The Map of True Places. Set in Boston and Salem, this well-crafted novel is immersive and beautifully written. Finding one’s true place in the world is a theme explored in this book by the author of The Lace Reader. Join us for this exciting lecture.

Brunonia Barry is the New York Times and international best selling author of The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She was the first American author to win the International Women’s Fiction Festival’s Baccante Award and was a past recipient of Ragdale Artists’ Colony’s Strnad Invitational Fellowship as well as the winner of New England Book Festival’s award for Best Fiction. Her new book, The Fifth Petal, will be released by Crown in January 2017.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please go to salemlitfest.org, find the festival on Facebook and join the conversation on Twitter.