SPORT In the Zone

The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks by Ben Cohen, Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed by Matthew Futterman, and Astroball: The New Way to Win it All, by Ben Reiter, are books that use sports to explore the world, in particular why we’re so fascinated with that magical feeling of beating the odds, becoming temporarily superhuman and transcending our internal limits. Some call it “the hot hand,” others call it “the runner’s high”, but it’s something we’ve all felt in one way or another. The authors explain why they wrote books about it and what they learned along the way from Olympic runners, Oscar-winning directors, Nobel-winning academics, and basketball phenom Stephen Cur. 

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

ADDICTION and the Family

Eilene Zimmerman’s powerful memoir, Smacked: A Story of White Collar Ambition, Addiction and Tragedy, examines the world of white-collar drug abuse as the author pieces together the mysteries surrounding her ex-husband’s descent into drug addiction, while Dr. Larry Westreich, an addiction expert and author of A Parent's Guide to Teen Addiction: Professional Advice on Signs, Symptoms, What to Say, and How to Help, talks about treatment options. Moderated by Gabrielle Glaser, author of Her Best-Kept Secret: Why Women Drink and How They Can Regain Control. 

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church  

CULTURE/GENDER Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis

An essential event for all middle-aged women – or anyone – who feels exhausted, overwhelmed and under-employed. Author Ada Calhoun talks with book critic Kate Tuttle about the cultural and political contexts of the new midlife crisis facing Gen X women and the  unique circumstances that have brought them to this point. Join them for an empowering conversation about how to pull oneself out of the abyss―and keep the next generation of women from falling in. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library Auditorium

FICTION Dark Matters: Outsider Female Narrators.  

Mona Awad (Bunny, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl), Lauren Acampora (The Paper Wasp, The Wonder Garden) and Laura Sims (Looker), consider their female characters’ tendencies toward loneliness, obsession, delusion, and, ultimately, violence. Why are these characters and “outsider” female narrators increasingly popular, and does this mark a significant shift in representations of women in literature? Moderated by Laurie Lico Albanese. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library, YA Room

POLITICS/RACE American Poison

Veteran NY Times journalist Eduardo Porter’s book, American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promise,  is a sweeping examination of how American racism has broken the country's social compact, eroded America's common goods, and damaged the lives of every American—and a heartfelt look at how these deep wounds might begin to heal. He discusses these issues with Jim Johnson, a NJ politician, attorney, and community activist, who was formerly an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and former NJ gubernatorial candidate.

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

JOURNALISM Final Draft: The Collected Work of David Carr.  

Local author Jill Rooney Carr has edited a career-spanning selection of journalism by her late husband, legendary reporter David Carr. This wide-ranging volume showcases Carr’s sharp and fearless observations, his uncanny sense of fairness and justice, and his remarkable compassion and wit. We are pleased to welcome Jill Rooney Carr to the festival to discuss the book, and her experience editing it, with NJTV News Anchor, Mary Alice Williams. 

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church

FICTION New Voices

Then the Fish Swallowed Him is Amir Ahmadi Arian’s first novel in English after a career as a journalist, author and translator in Iran. Douglas Stuart has published his first novel, Shuggie Bain, after a successful career in fashion design, while Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer is a psychology professor and science writer who has turned to fiction with her first novel, The Mask Collectors. Nancy Star talks to these compelling debut novelists, accomplished in other fields, about what drew them to fiction, and what they have learned and gained from writing their first novel.  

Venue: Montclair Public Library Auditorium

IMMIGRANT VOICES Carrying Stories Across Borders and Generations 

Immigration populates our news feeds. But too often missing are the voices of immigrants themselves — who and what they left behind, what it means to create a life in a new and not always welcoming country, and the stories their children inherit. A group of diverse writers, all immigrants or children of immigrants, will share their work and speak to the weight and importance of writing immigrant perspectives. We’ll go beyond stereotypes, to explore racism, xenophobia, and the traumas that transcend borders and generations. Novelists Stephanie Jimenez They Could Have Named Her Anything (Little A), Marco Rafalà How Fires End (Little A), and memoirist Neda Toloui-Semnani They Said They Wanted a Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents (Little A) talk with poet Hafizah Geter, Un-American. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library, YA Room

MO ROCCA Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving

Don’t miss beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Mo Rocca discussing Mobituaries, a book that celebrates the dead people who have long fascinated him. Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries—reading about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world. But not every notable life has received the send-off it deserves. Rocca's quest to right that wrong inspired Mobituaries, his #1 hit podcast. Now with Mobituaries, the book, he has gone much further, with all new essays on artists, entertainers, sports stars, political pioneers, founding fathers, and more. Come hear Rocca bring these men and women back to life with dogged reporting and his trademark wit, as he talks with his co-author and college friend, MSU English Professor Jonathan Greenberg.

Tickets: $35, including a copy of Mobituaries. 

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

FICTION Writing Across Cultures in English and Spanish

The publication of American Dirt generated intense debate about cultural appropriation and the marginalization of Hispanic authors. These notable writers discuss their journey to getting published, as well as writing in English vs. Spanish, and how they found an audience. Ernesto Quiñonez, author of the landmark novel, Bodega Dreams, and the new book, Taína; and Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, author of  Daughters of the Stone, talk with Montclair State University Spanish literature professor Marta López-Luaces, author of Los traductores del viento.

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church  

RACE/HISTORY America’s Journey 

An exploration of the legacy of slavery in our country and its impact on racial segregation, African-American culture, and the preservation of African traditions and identity, with Steve Luxenberg, author of Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation and Melissa Cooper, author of Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination.  Moderated by Dionne Ford, editor of the book, Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation.

Venue: Montclair Public Library Auditorium 

YA FICTION Building Worlds

Marina Budhos engages three authors of very different Young Adult books in a lively discussion of world-building, inspiration, and what makes a successful YA novel. Tochi Onyebuchi’s action-packed, futuristic fiction includes War Girls and Beasts of the Night, and his latest, the adult novel Riot Baby. Writer and performer Abby Sher’s darkly comic new novel Miss You Love You Hate You Bye considers friendship and mental health, while Emma Lord’s debut Tweet Cute is a witty rom-com reinvention. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library, YA Room

CRIME FICTION Long Bright River  

Author Liz Moore in conversation with her editor Sarah McGrath about her latest book, Long Bright River, a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate. In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. When Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins, Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit – and her sister – before it's too late.

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

TECHNOLOGY The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World

Government and tech expert Alexis Wichowski reveals how Facebook, Google, Amazon, Tesla, and other tech giants are disrupting the way the world works, and outlines the growing risk they pose to our future if we do not act to contain them. Moderated by Steve Lohr, technology writer for The New York Times and author of Data-ism.

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church  

THE FUTURE OF READING A Conversation with Maisy Card, Peter Coyl and Leah Price.  

Montclair Library Director Peter Coyl talks with Newark Librarian Maisy Card about her electric family saga, These Ghosts are Family, and about how being a librarian impacted her as a writer. They are joined by Leah Price, founder and director of the Rutgers Initiative for the Book and author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, to consider the importance of reading and the role of libraries, how they create readers and writers, and our shared responsibility for the history and future of reading. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library Auditorium

EDUCATION/YA When Adults Listen to Kids: Young People on the Forefront of Social Change. 

As some young people are taking action on issues from gun violence to climate change and LGBTQ rights, others are pulled into activism through circumstance. What is it like to live through major social change and be caught up in social activism? In her novel The Long Ride, Marina Budhos tells the story of three mixed-race girls who are part of the social experiment of bussing in 1970s New York, while journalist Candy Cooper explores the Flint water crisis in Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for their Lives and Warned the Nation. They are joined by MHS junior Devany Kurtti, who talks about her activism. (Age 11+)

Venue: Montclair Public Library, YA Room

FICTION Yellow Earth

In his new novel, Yellow Earth, acclaimed film director, screenwriter, actor and author John Sayles introduces an epic cast of characters. When rich layers of shale oil are discovered beneath the town of Yellow Earth, all hell breaks loose. Through the intertwining lives of its characters, Yellow Earth lays bare how the profit motive erodes human relationships, as well as our living planet.

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

PARENTING Hotspots and Coping Strategies 

Ylonda Gault (Child, Please) leads a discussion on how to cope with some of parenting’s toughest challenges, including anxiety, technology, risky behavior, school challenges, learning differences and more. With clinical psychologist Dr. Sharon Saline (What Your ADHD Child Wishes you Knew), author and journalist Judith Newman (To Siri with Love),  and author and podcaster Hillary Frank (Weird Parenting Wins).  

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church

SPORT Elevated: The Global Rise of the NBA

New York Times sports columnist and Hall of Fame honoree Harvey Araton speaks about his new book and the NBA, from Magic and Bird to the present, in this collection of Times’ coverage of the sport, with Daily News NBA writers Stefan Bondy and Kristian Winfield.

Venue: Montclair Public Library Auditorium

EDUCATION Kid Quixotes

Schoolteacher Steven Haff introduces his forthcoming book, Kid Quixotes: A Group of Students, Their Teacher, and the One Room School Where Everything is Possible. Dale Russakoff talks with him about this unlikely, inspiring true story of a one-room school where children of undocumented immigrants and their teacher discover their voices and speak truth to power. National DACA activist Indira Islas joins the conversation, as well as Succeed2gether students Natalia and Mia Morales. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library, YA Room

CULTURE/RACE Writing Jewishly in an Age of Anti-Semitism

In 2019, the Jewish Electorate Institute found 73% of Jews feel less secure in the United States than they have for generations. As antisemitic attacks increase, many contemporary Jewish writers feel it is more critical than ever to explore Jewish culture, its place in history and in the modern world, and to build a better understanding of Jewish history and belief. Historical novelists Mitchell James Kaplan and Michelle Cameron and poet/short-story writer Erika Dreifus join journalist Johanna Ginsberg in a far-reaching conversation about how the rise of antisemitism has touched and even deepened their writing.  

Venue: Montclair Public Library, The Classroom

FICTION Madeline Miller's Circe 

Madeline Miller speaks with her editor Lee Boudreaux about her phenomenally successful retelling of the life of the Greek goddess, Circe. “A daring feminist take on a classic narrative” (O Magazine), Circe has won numerous awards and accolades, and was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

Tickets: $25, including a copy of Circe.

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

GENDER POLITICS Breaking Boundaries 

MSU Professor and Chair of Sociology, Yasemin Besen-Cassino talks to the authors of three new books about women breaking cultural norms and how their experience reflects on the gender politics of today. Nancy Princenthal’s Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art and Sexual Violence in the 1970s is a groundbreaking exploration of how women artists of the 1970s combined art and protest to make sexual violence visible, creating a new kind of art in the process. Adrienne Miller’s In the Land of Men is a memoir about coming of age in the male-dominated literary world of the nineties, and becoming the first female literary editor of Esquire, while Victoria James’s memoir Wine Girl charts her career as America’s youngest sommelier and addresses repercussions, solutions and inclusion in the hospitality industry after #MeToo. 

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church

POLITICS Can This Party Be Saved? Republicans, Democrats and their Future

In this year’s politics panel, New York Times National Correspondent Kate Zernike leads a discussion of the ground-breaking new leadership and political currents shaping the future of government in America. Time correspondent Charlotte Alter defines the class of young leaders who are remaking the nation in her book, The Ones We've Been Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America, while New York Times congressional editor and deputy Washington editor Julie Hirschfeld Davis has covered the Trump administration from its earliest days and looked in particular at its immigration policies in her book Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration. They are joined by Jack Jenkins, one of the country’s most respected religion reporters, who introduces American Prophets, a paradigm-shifting discussion of how the Religious Left is the moral compass that has long steered America’s political debate. 

Venue: Montclair Public Library Auditorium

WRITING COMMUNITIES We Are Family: The Kimbilio Community of Writers from the African Diaspora

Kimbilio is a community of writers and scholars committed to developing, empowering and sustaining fiction writers from the African diaspora and their stories.  Projects include readings, presentations at professional conferences, social media networking, and an annual summer retreat for fiction writers who are members of the Kimbilio community. Project Director David Haynes welcomes five Kimbilio Fellows to share highlights from their work and to discuss the importance of culturally-based creative communities. With Renee Simms, Brian Gilmore, Dahlma Llanos Figueroa, Leslie-Ann Murray, and Deesha Phillyaw.

Venue: Montclair Public Library, YA Room

FICTION Love and Loneliness. 

In Very Nice, Marcy Dermansky’s brilliantly funny novel of bad behavior, people fall into relationships through unexpected living arrangements. Lily King’s Writers and Lovers explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.  Teddy Wayne’s novel Apartment interrogates the origins of our contemporary political divide and its ties to masculinity and class through the relationship of roommates in Manhattan. The authors talk with Benilde Little about the proximity and dislocation of urban vs suburban life, and how the lost souls in their fiction find ways to connect. 

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church

FOOD Adventures in Professional Gluttony

Marissa Rothkopf Bates talks with Adam Platt, New York Magazine food critic and the author of The Book of Eating: Adventures in Professional Gluttony. Don’t miss this wildly hilarious and irreverent memoir of a globe-trotting life lived meal-to-meal, by one of our most influential and respected food writers.

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church

PITCHAPALOOZA!

Pitchapalooza is American Idol for books (only kinder and gentler). Twenty writers will be selected at random to pitch their book to an all-star publishing panel. Each writer gets one minute—and only one minute! Dozens of writers have gone from talented amateurs to professionally published authors as a result of participating in Pitchapalooza. Whether potential authors pitch themselves, or simply listen to trained professionals critique each presentation, Pitchapalooza is educational and entertaining for one and all.  At the end of Pitchapalooza, the judges will pick a winner. The winner receives an introduction to an agent or publisher appropriate for his/her book. As always, bestselling author David Henry Sterry and agent-to-the-stars Arielle Eckstut will host the party, with Susan Weinberg, publisher of Perseus Books, and other guest panelists from the publishing industry. 

Venue: Montclair Library Auditorium

HISTORY The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. 

For our closing event on Festival Day 2020, we welcome Erik Larson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake, to talk about his latest book, a compelling portrait of Churchill and London during the Blitz. Join one of “the modern masters of popular narrative nonfiction” (New York Times Review of Books) for an insightful conversation with longtime Montclair resident and #1 New York Times bestselling author, Christina Baker-Kline. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when – in the face of unrelenting horror – Churchill’s eloquence, strategic brilliance, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

Tickets: $40, including a copy of The Splendid and the Vile

Venue: The Sanctuary at First Congregational Church 

FESTIVAL PARTY Meet the Authors

Join festival authors and supporters for jazz, drinks and light refreshments to celebrate the fourth Montclair Literary Festival. Round off the day in style while supporting Succeed2gether’s important work to close the education achievement gap.

Tickets: $50, with drinks and hot and cold food provided by local restaurants  including the MC Hotel (Allegory), Mercado, Mish Mish/Marcel, Vesta Chocolates, Wood Legacy Productions, and Little Daisy Bakeshop. 

Venue: The Guild Room at First Congregational Church