The Litfest got its start in Newburgh “by a combination of happenstance and necessity” says festival founder and co-organizer Hannah Brooks, a retired physician. “I’ve always been a lover of books, and I’ve pursued more creative writing as my medical career was winding down. An award-winning writer, Danielle Trussoni, moved next door to me in Newburgh. We agreed a festival to highlight and expand the literary presence in the area was an essential need. Like any birth, it included a couple of glasses of wine and more love than money.”
That initial Newburgh Litfest was in 2019. Brooks has since moved across the river to Beacon and partnered with creative writing prof and Live Writing founder Ruth Danon and producer/director Shane Killoran, founder of Hit House Creative, to reinvent the party on the eastern shore. Brooks credits Danon with much of the organizing of a lineup of local legends: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan (A Visit From the Goon Squad), accomplished memoirist and novelist Amitava Kumar (My Beloved Life), attorney and multi-award winning author Jode Millman (The Empty Kayak); and acclaimed fiction writer and memoirist Abigail Thomas (Still Life at Eighty). Poets include Edwin Torres, a performance poet and audience favorite; Timothy Liu (Lui Ti Mo), an award-winning poet and editor of An Anthology of Gay American Poetry; Tina Cane, poet, YA author, and past poet laureate of Rhode Island; and a special appearance by David Herskovits, multiple Obie award-winner and founding artistic director of Target Margin Theater in New York City.
The fun starts Friday evening with a party with food, drinks and entertainment from Core Improv and local writers Caroline Eisner, Terry Nelson, Marjorie Lewit, and Magda Schonfeld. The main program the next day will feature readings, interviews, audience Q&A sessions and “a special focus on dramatic adaptations and interpretations of written work” followed by book sales, signings and a cocktail bash. Sunday will feature three workshops: “Imagination Belongs in Memoir, Too,” “Building Blocks in Fiction,” and “Poetry Live Writing.” For dessert, organizers have planned a June 20 “special edition” evening of performance at the Towne Crier Cafe featuring journalist and memoirist Lucy Sante with an intro by Richard Eagan.
