You Belong at Your Library - Watertown Authors Welcome!

You belong @ your library! Why? Because not only will you find your favorite authors’ daring acts, romantic episodes, or compelling history, you will find your neighbors’ talents waiting to be discovered! Watertown local authors may have grown up here, moved in into town, worked a number of years in or for the town or lived temporarily in Watertown during which time they were published in any format. Many may already be a favorite author, like Liza Ketchum, who says “My library cards are treasured possessions. I have found essential resource materials at Watertown Library, as well as at the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Public Library, the American Antiquarian Society and the Massachusetts Historical Society.” Liza writes historical fiction and non-fiction so her readers will “feel [as if] they have stepped into a time machine…”

Jan David Blais muses, “When you come upon a child sitting happily with a book on a bright, sunny day, you are seeing someone opening up to a lifetime of excitement. And once snared, he’ll never abandon that book, but exchange it for another and another. All writers were readers first. Look closely at a person enchanted by books – chances are there’s a writer somewhere inside, aching to get out.  To the writer, a library stands as reminder and reproach: get back to work, put something new on the shelves that gives pleasure, that inspires.” Mr. Blais writes mysteries occurring in the world of the airline industry.

Artist Joseph Flack Weiler states, “For me books from the Watertown Free Public Library are a major source of vetted, reliable information for my writing.” View the graceful beauty of the black and white photos Mr. Weiler has captured in his books. Phyllis Birnbaum writes, “… as my world has expanded so, I find, have the resources of the Library. I especially appreciate the Watertown library when I go abroad where resources of local libraries are much more limited than the one just down the street from me on Main Street.” Explore the world of Asia and Japan through Ms. Birnbaum’s insightful eyes.                      

“A good library is not only necessary for an informed public, but doubly essential to writers for inspiration, opinions, and facts on the shelf and through inter-library loans. A knowledgeable library staff is a word-smith’s treasured ally," says Marilynne Roach, author of both adult and juvenile literature concerning the history of Salem, Mass., as well as other juvenile stories.

Watertown Free Public Library invites you to the Local History Room to view the works of Watertown’s own local authors. Find Armenian, Spanish or the Romagnolis’ cookbooks, fiction writers – George ­­­­­Donahue, Stephan Dobyns, Dennis McFarland, Tom Perrotta, or children’s writers – Kathy Caple, Virginia Tashijan, Audrey Jones Child, and Fred Grandinetti. Interested in topics of foreign languages, poetry, U.S. postal investigations, light houses or environment? Look for the titles Black Veil, Witness for the Dead, Boston Bay Murders or Rescue at Engine 32. Be surprised by local authors William Saroyan, Elliot Norton, Theodore Parker, Christopher Ives, Joseph Curran, Jonathan Pond, Celia Thaxter, Walter Woodman and Anne Whitney. Can you provide more authors? Then you belong @ your library. No better time than National Library Week, April 8-14, to become part of the collection!