Third annual LitFest scheduled for June 12-15
Beacon LitFest returns June 12 to 15 for its third year, again bringing one-stop shopping for all things literature to the city.
For its first two years, in 2023 and 2024, LitFest was centered at the Howland Cultural Center and attracted 100 to 125 people. This year, organizers are preparing for 450 attendees at multiple venues.
The lineup includes a Pulitzer Prize-winner, a double poet laureate, bestselling authors and literary voices from near and far.
“Working with businesses on Main Street, we were able to expand LitFest into a larger citywide event,” said Hannah Brooks, its founder, who is producing the event with Andrea Talarico, co-owner of Stanza Books. “We are both here for the same reason: to make literature accessible, experiential and fun,” Talarico said.
Ruth Danon, a poet who is a founding producer and curator, called LitFest “a galvanizing force for the community. It’s bringing people together for literature, and it engages the community in a joint venture.”
Brooks, Danon and writer Danielle Trussoni were the driving forces behind the Newburgh Literary Festival, which began in 2019. When they brought it across the river, Beacon LitFest was born.
Brooks, a retired surgeon, is a poet and essayist working on her first novel. Talarico, also a poet, formerly owned a bookstore in Scranton, Pennsylvania, called Anthology.
“It was a literary destination and a haven for writers and helped to form a literary community,” she said. “We’re working on the same in Beacon. The first day Stanza opened, Hannah was there with a lot of enthusiasm.”
“I was so excited,” says Brooks. “I knew that after meeting Andrea we would be perfect partners. I’ve been here for a while so I had connections from prior festivals, and Stanza was new, so it was fortuitous to meet and grow something bigger than it ever could be before.”
Adds Talarico: “Naturally a bookstore is the perfect place to find writers.”
Rounding out the team is producer and curator Shane Killoran of Hit House Creative, who has been with Beacon LitFest from the start.
Here is a look at the schedule:
Thursday (June 12)
Denning’s Point Distillery, 10 N. Chestnut
The kickoff party, hosted by Drew Prochaska of The Artichoke, will include storytellers Jamie Mulligan, Bridget O’Neill and Linda Pratt and writers Lily Friedrich, Nina Robins, Sam Petty and Matan Broshi. Distillery owner Susan Johnson will be mixing cocktails and Donna Minkowitz, author of Donnaville and the host and founder of the monthly writers’ open mic, Lit Lit, will read from her work.
Friday (June 13)
Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St.
Women in Noir will feature crime and thriller novelists Margot Douaihy, Jode Millman and Julia Dahl, who will read from their books and answer questions from Cynthia Weiner of The Writers Studio and Jackie Corley of Townsquare Media.
Saturday (June 14)
Beacon Beahive, 6 Eliza St.
Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St.
Memorial Building, 413 Main St.
The festival wraps up with morning poetry at Beahive with Danon (the Beacon and Dutchess poets laureate); John Yau (2018 winner of the Jackson Prize in Poetry) and Gregory Pardlo (2015 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry) and evening fiction and non-fiction writers’ panels at the Memorial Building with Francine Prose, Kris Jansma, Co Moed, Stacey D’Erasmo and Dinaw Mengestu, moderated by writer Caroline Eisner and Brian Mahoney of Chronogram, followed by book signings and cocktails. An afternoon drama session at the Howland with Vieve Radha Price and Chuk Obasi of TEA Artistry on how dramatic pieces are conceived, adapted and expressed has been rescheduled for June 28.
Sunday (June 15)
The Dutchess Inn, 151 Main St.
The festival will launch LitWorks, a series of two-hour writing workshops that begin at noon with Kristen Holt Browning (poetry), Stephen Clair (songs), Josh Boardman (memoir/nonfiction), Andrew Harris Salomon (journalism/essay) and Peter Ullian (fiction).
Tickets range from $15 to $45 per event, or an all-access pass is $125, excluding the Sunday writing workshops, which are $30 each. See beaconlitfest.org.
