Lit Festival

Wow, what a day!

It was my first Literary Festival and it was fantastic. I started off the morning by going to the breakfast with poets then went to City Hall to hear two great authors, Frank Schaeffer and Lou Ureneck, talk about their new books. I bought Schaeffer's book "Crazy for God" and plan to buy Ureneck's "Backcast." Both are about father-son relationships.

Following that I met up with fellow NLF volunteers and co-conspirators Melanie Wold and Jennifer Karin (and fellow writer's group member Jean Foley Doyle) for a heart-fluttering hour with Andre Dubus III at the Firehouse. The man has charisma oozing from every pore.

We moved on to a panel featuring two other members of the writer's group, Aine Greaney and Elisabeth Brink. Both have new books in the works. I haven't read Elisabeth's 2006 novel "Save Your Own" yet (since I just bought it) but I did manage to breeze through (and thoroughly enjoy) Aine's slim volume of short storis, "Sheep Breeder's Dance," before heading off to the closing ceremony.

Later we hooked up again to attend a panel on which another of our little group, Anne Easter Smith, discussed women writing about women with 3 other authors. Anne's new book is "Daughter of York."

The closing ceremony included our lovely lady poet and festival honoree, Rhina Espaillat, and an equally inspiring Alfred Nicol (I believe from Amesbury) reading their poetry to musical accompaniment (guitarist John Tavano). I was entranced while Nicol recited his poem about a bat, aptly titled "Bat."

At a post-festival party in Newbury, I talked a little with Ureneck and Nicol and three beautiful women writers, including Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Mirta Ojito.

A great day, all in all.