Connie Chung, Colum McCann and Jean Hanff Korelitz will discuss their new books at The Montclair Literary Festival.
The ninth annual Montclair Literary Festival, scheduled from April 26 to May 3, will feature an abundant selection of authors, including Connie Chung, Jean Hanff Korelitz and Colum McCann.
Launched in 2017, the festival raises funds and awareness for Succeed2gether, the Montclair-based nonprofit organization that addresses unequal access to educational resources by providing free enrichment and academic programs and a post-high-school pathway to children in need from Montclair and other Essex County towns. They achieve their goals by offering one-one-one tutoring; after-school enrichment programs and workshops; and summer programs.
Some of the festival’s events are ticketed, but others are free. For information, visit succeed2gether.org.
May 3 at 11 a.m., Chung will discuss her “Connie Chung: A Memoir” with moderator Mary Alice Williams at First Congregational Church. In it, she reveals her journey as the first Asian woman to break into a white, male-dominated television news industry, among other stories.
April 29 at 12:30 p.m., Korelitz will discuss her latest book “The Sequel: A Novel,” a satire of the publishing industry, at Zeugma Grill. This book is a sequel to her New York Times bestseller “The Plot.” Korelitz’s other novels include “The Latecomer,” “You Should Have Known” (which was aired on HBO as “The Undoing”), “Admission” (adapted as a movie starring Tina Fey) and “The Devil and Webster.”
April 28 at 7 p.m., McCann (“Apeirogon,” “Let the Great World Spin”), who was born in Ireland and is currently based in New York, will discuss his latest novel “Twist” at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
Also coming up at the festival:
The cover of “Gabriële,” by Anne Berest and Claire Berest.
April 29 at 6:30 p.m., Anne Berest and Claire Berest will discuss their novel “Gabriële” at the Montclair Public Library.
April 29 at 7 p.m., Christian Allaire, senior fashion and style writer for Vogue, will discuss his book “From the Rez to the Runway: Forging My Path in Fashion” at the Montclair Art Museum.
May 3 at 9 a.m., the festival will host a poetry café featuring Elijah Brown, Denise La Neve, paulA neves, Frank Rubino and Anton Yakovlev. Bagels and coffee will be offered. The event will be moderated by Christine Adams and John J. Trause at Mills Auditorium in the former United Way Building.
May 3 at 10 a.m., Eric Heinze will discuss his book “Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left” at the First Congregational Church, with Michael Paris moderating.
May 3 at 10 a.m.: Maisy Card (“These Ghosts Are Family”) will moderate a discussion with novelists Helena Rho (“Stone Angels”), Crystal Hana Kim (“The Stone Home”) and Alice Austen (“33 Place Brugmann”) at the Montclair Public Library.
May 3 at 11:15 a.m.: John Kenney (“I See You’ve Called in Dead”) and Angela Brown (“Some Other Time”) will discuss their books, with Judith Lindbergh (“Akmaral”) moderating, at the First Congregational Church.
May 3 at 12:30 p.m., Alice Elliot Dark (“Fellowship Point”) will moderate a discussion about novels featuring “Women on the Verge” with Nancy Johnson (“People of Means”), Lynn Steger Strong (“The Float Test”) and Marcy Dermansky (“Hot Air”) at Mills Auditorium.
May 3 at 12:30 p.m., Edwin Frank, founder of New York Review Books (the publishing division of New York Review of Books), will discuss his book “Stranger Than Fiction,” in which he explores the history of the 20th century novel. New York Times critic Alexandra Jacobs will moderate the discussion at the Montclair Public Library. The event is co-presented with Montclair Public Library’s Open Book/Open Mind program.
May 3 at 1:45 p.m., Brian Castleberry (“The Californians”) and Alissa Wilkinson (“We Tell Ourselves Stories”) will discuss their books, which are both grounded in California. Writer and critic Kate Tuttle will moderate the discussion at Mills Auditorium.
The cover of David Greenberg’s “John Lewis: A Life.”
May 3 at 1:45 p.m., Montclair State University professor Jason M. Williams will lead a discussion with historian David Greenberg about his biography “John Lewis: A Life,” about the congressman and civil rights activist, at Montclair Public Library.
May 3 at 3 p.m., Leslie-Ann Murray will moderate a discussion about memoirs featuring Lee Hawkins (“I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free”), Omo Moses (“The White Peril: A Family Memoir”) and Elissa Altman (“In Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create”) at Mills Auditorium.
May 3 at 3 p.m., The New Yorker staff writer D.T. Max will moderate a discussion by two authors who have focused on different boroughs of New York City: Russell Shorto (“Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America”) and Ian Frazier (“Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough”) at the Montclair Public Library.
May 3 at 4:15 p.m., three writers will present their debut novels: Alejandro Heredia (“Loca”), Zee Carlstrom (“Make Sure You Die Screaming”) and Josh Duboff (“Early Thirties”). Moderated by Kim Coleman Foote, the event will take place in the Mills Auditorium.
May 3 at 4:15 p.m., Rebecca Brenner Graham (“Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany”) and Cindy Schweich Handler (“A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany”) will discuss their books at the Montclair Public Library, with Dale Russakoff moderating.
May 3 at 5:30 p.m.: Revisit the culture clashes of the late 20th century at a Montclair Public Library event featuring Guy Trebay (“Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of ’70s New York”) and Paul Elie (“The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s”).
May 3, 6:45 p.m.: Festival-closing celebration at First Congregational Church.
Featured discussions at Montclair State University’s University Hall on April 26 will include:
• 10 a.m.: “Fiction: The Past Is Prologue” with Lauren Francis-Sharma (“Casualties of Truth,” a book about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge during the Truth and Reconciliation period of the South African apartheid state) and Georgia Hunter (“One Good Thing,” a novel about war-torn Italy). Anastasia Rubis (author of the captivating novel “Oriana”) will moderate.
The cover of David Hajdu’s “The Uncanny Muse: Music, Art, and Machines From Automata to AI.”
• 10 a.m.: “Non-Fiction: To Create Is Human?” with David Hajdu (“The Uncanny Muse: Music, Art, and Machines From Automata to AI”) and Fred Ritchin (“The Synthetic Eye: Photography Transformed in the Age of AI”). Science journalist Fred Guterl will moderate.
• 11:15 a.m.: “Non-Fiction: The Political Is Personal” with Irvin Weathersby Jr. (“In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space”). Dionne Ford (“Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing”) will moderate.
• 11:15 a.m.: “Fiction: Family Drama” with Lisa Williamson Rosenberg (“Mirror Me”), Rachel Lyon (“Fruit of the Dead”) and Elizabeth Harris (“How to Sleep at Night”). Camille U. Adams (“How to Be Unmothered: A Trinidadian Memoir”) will moderate.
• 12:30 p.m.: “Thrillers: Double Jeopardy” with Lisa Unger (“Close Your Eyes and Count to 10”) and Patrick Hoffman (“Friends Helping Friends”). Mark Rotella (“Amore: The Story of Italian American Song”) will moderate.
• 12:30 p.m.: “Fiction: Rooted in New Jersey” with Liz Alterman (“The House on Cold Creek Lane”), David Galef (“Where I Went Wrong”) and Lisa Russ Spaar (“Paradise Close”).
• 1:45 p.m.: “Voices of Tomorrow.” Students from Glen Ridge High School, Montclair High School, Montclair Kimberly Academy and Nutley High School will present their creative writing.
• 1:45 p.m.: “Non-Fiction: Uncovering the Truth” with David Enrich (“Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful”), Ray Brescia (“The Private Is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism”) and Benjamin Wallace (“The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto).” Timothy L. O’Brien (“TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald”) will moderate. This event will be co-presented with Montclair Public Library’s Open Book/Open Mind program.
• 1:45 p.m.: “Fiction: Next Generation Stars” with Montclair High School graduates Daisy Garrison (“Six More Months of June”) and Lily Braun-Arnold (“The Last Bookstore on Earth”). Boo Trundle (“The Daughter Ship”) will moderate.
• 3 p.m.: “Literature’s Rising Stars.” Montclair State University creative writing award recipients will read their poems, short stories and works of nonfiction.
The cover of Carl Zimmer’s “Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe”
• 3 p.m.: “Non-Fiction: The Nature of Illness” with New York Times columnist Carl Zimmer (“Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe”) and science journalist Lina Zeldovich (“The Living Medicine: How a Lifesaving Cure Was Nearly Lost ― and Why It Will Rescue Us When Antibiotics Fail”). Science and technology writer Ivan Amato will moderate.
• 3 p.m.: “Fiction: Lights, Camera, Drama” with Sash Bischoff (“Sweet Fury”) and Daniel D’Addario (“The Talent”). Filmmaker Wilhelm Kuhn will moderate.
• 4:15 p.m.: “Non-Fiction: Crime as History” with historical crime writers Gary Krist (“Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco”), Abbot Kahler (“Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II”) and Michael Wolraich (“The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age”). Joe Pompeo (“Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime”) will moderate.
• 4:15 p.m.: “Fiction: Fairy Tales & Fantasy” with Cecy Robson (“Bloodguard”), Nat Cassidy (“When the Wolf Comes Home”) and Lindy Ryan (“Another Fine Mess”). Henry Neff will moderate.
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