Montclair Literary Festival

Welcome to Succeed2gether's MONTCLAIR LITERARY FESTIVAL!We are excited to announce our schedule for the ninth annual Montclair Literary Festival, which will take place from Saturday April 26 to Saturday May 3, 2025. We have TWO Festival Days with free events held at partner Montclair State University on Saturday April 26 and downtown Montclair on Saturday May 3. In addition to the many free event. SCHEDULE: 10:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M. NON-FICTION To Create is Human? Science journalist and author Fred Guterl investigates the role of Artificial Intelligence in the arts with David Hajdu and Fred Ritchin. Hajdu tells the story of art’s relation to machines, from the Baroque period to the age of AI in The Uncanny Muse: Music, Art and Machines from Automata to AI. Ritchin’s The Synthetic Eye: Photography Transformed in the Age of AI offers a revelatory glimpse into the future of photography, one where the very nature of how images are created is fundamentally transformed. What does it mean to be human in a world where machines, too, can be artists? These books examine new, increasingly urgent questions about technology’s role in culture. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1010. 10:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M. FICTION The Past is Prologue Anastasia Rubis (Oriana) presents two exciting new works of historical fiction.  Lauren Francis-Sharma’s Casualties of Truth is a riveting literary novel about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, D.C., and 1990s South Africa, during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings that uncovered many horrors of the Apartheid state.  Following one young woman’s journey through war-torn Italy, Georgia Hunter’s One Good Thing is a remarkable tale of friendship, motherhood, and survival. Both works deftly chronicle history and its intersections with humans struggling to find peace in unjust circumstances. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1030. 11:15 A.M. – 12:15 P.M. NON-FICTION The Political is Personal Acclaimed memoirist Dionne Ford (Go Back and Get It) is in conversation with Irvin Weathersby, Jr. about his literary debut, In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space, a stirring journey into the soul of a fractured America. Amid the ongoing reckoning over America’s history of anti-Black racism, scores of monuments to slaveowners and Confederate soldiers still dot the country’s landscape. Weathersby offers a hopeful reimagining of the spaces we share in order to honor our nation’s true history, encouraging us to make room for love as a way to heal. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1010. 11:15 A.M. – 12:15 P.M. Family Drama All happy families may be alike, but otherwise, it’s complicated. A psychiatric patient’s desperate search for answers in Lisa Williamson Rosenberg’s Mirror Me reveals peculiar memories in a twisty novel of love, race, family and identity.  In Fruit of the Dead, Rachel Lyon reimagines a Greek myth with alternating mother and daughter perspectives, exploring themes of addiction, sex, independence and control. Elizabeth Harris’ How to Sleep at Night is a witty novel for everyone struggling with political divides within families, keeping marriages alive, and deciding who you want to be. Moderated by Montclair Literary Festival's Elizabeth Riggs. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1030. 12:30 P.M. – 1:30 P.M. FICTION Thrillers: Double Jeopardy In the mood for a riveting page-tuner? Mark Rotella (Amore) introduces two thrillers that just may keep you up all night. Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 is Squid Game meets Survivor, a high-stakes game of extreme hide-and-seek and one woman’s fight to survive, from the bestselling queen of suspense, Lisa Unger. In Friends Helping Friends, a young man must infiltrate his own family’s white nationalist group or go to prison himself, from acclaimed author and private investigator Patrick Hoffman. Complicated, true-to-life characters, and timely themes make these entertaining and thought-provoking reads. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1010. 12:30 P.M. – 1:30 P.M. FICTION Rooted in New Jersey Join us to celebrate some of New Jersey’s finest authors who hail from the Garden State and their novels that take place here. Featuring The House on Cold Creek Lane, a thriller set in the North Jersey suburbs by Liz Alterman; Where I Went Wrong, David Galef’s dark comedy of mid-life reckoning and Lisa Russ Spaar’s Paradise Close, a poetic saga that is part coming-of-age, part thriller, part meditation and wholly unique. Whatever your interest, there is something for everyone on this panel. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1030. 1:45 P.M. – 2:45 P.M. Voices of Tomorrow: Creative Writing Readings from High School students Students from the Montclair Kimberley Academy, Glen Ridge High School, Montclair High School and Nutley High School read short works of creative writing, as chosen by each school's review committee. Open to all. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1020. 1:45 P.M. – 2:45 P.M. NON-FICTION Uncovering the Truth Timothy L. O’Brien (TrumpNation) leads us on a deep dive into issues of free speech, online privacy, the origin of crypto and the impacts on democracy with three thought-provoking reads. In Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful, David Enrich produces an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to overturn sixty years of Supreme Court precedent, weaponize our speech laws, and silence dissent. Ray Brescia’s The Private is Political exposes threats to our personal and political identity in the age of surveillance. The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto is Benjamin Wallace’s thrilling investigation into the identity of Bitcoin’s creator and crypto’s origin story. This event is co-presented with Montclair Public Library's Open Book, Open Mind program. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1010. 1:45 P.M. – 2:45 P.M. FICTION Next Generation Stars Boo Trundle (The Daughter Ship) speaks with Montclair High School graduates, Daisy Garrison and Lily Braun-Arnold, about their debut young adult novels. Six More Months of June is a romantic debut about the exhilarating highs and messy lows that swirl together when high school comes to an end. In The Last Bookstore on Earth, two teen girls fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore weeks before a cataclysmic storm threatens to bring about the end of the world. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1030. 3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Literature's Rising Stars: Montclair State University's Creative Writing Award Readings Student recipients of the English Department's Creative Writing Awards at Montclair State University will read their poems, short stories, or works of creative nonfiction. Open to all. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1020. 3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. NON-FICTION The Nature of Illness Science and technology writer Ivan Amato delves into two fascinating books at the intersection of science, medicine and public health. In Air-Borne, New York Times columnist Carl Zimmer leads us on an odyssey through the air we breathe, the hidden life it contains, and invisible dangers that can turn the world upside down, weaving together gripping history with the latest reporting on Covid. Science journalist Lina Zeldovich reveals the remarkable story behind a long-forgotten and life-saving cure—healing viruses that can conquer antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections—in The Living Medicine, an illustration of how our future may be saved by knowledge from the past. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1010. 3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. FICTION Lights, Camera, Drama Two wildly entertaining new novels give an insider’s look at life behind the movie camera. In Sash Bischoff’s Sweet Fury, a movie star and her film director fiancé embark on a feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, offering a fresh take on the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. As Hollywood prepares for its most glamorous evening in The Talent, from Variety chief correspondent Daniel D’Addario, five actresses compete to see who will claim the top prize and are forced to confront truths about themselves that they would rather ignore. Moderated by filmmaker, Wilhelm Kuhn. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1030. 4:00 P.M. – 5:30 P.M. NON-FICTION Montclair Film's StorySLAM Presented in partnership with Montclair Film, StorySLAM comes to campus to showcase the lived-experiences and identities of Montclair State University (MSU) students. This performance will include six-minute stories, written and performed by 10 MSU students. Raw, witty, and profound– listen to students’ stories of cultural diversity and identity. This new and exciting collaboration brings Montclair Film’s Duncan Miller to MSU as he coaches student storytellers and hosts the event. Venue: Montclair State University, Dickson Hall, Brantl Hall/Room #177. 4:15 P.M. – 5:15 P.M. NON-FICTION Crime as History True crime appeals to our most lurid sensibilities. But there's a genre within the true crime genre that transports readers to the past, infusing these page-turning sagas with rich historical context and cinematic period detail. This panel explores tales of murder and mayhem from top historical true crime writers: Gary Krist (Trespassers at the Golden Gate), Abbott Kahler (Eden Undone), and Michael Wolraich (The Bishop and the Butterfly). The discussion will be moderated by Joe Pompeo (Blood & Ink). Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1010. 4:15 P.M. – 5:15 P.M. FICTION Fairy Tales & Fantasy Choose your own adventure! Delve into a steamy world of gladiators and Elven princesses in Cecy Robson’s Bloodguard. Prepare for the fright of your life in a pop horror twist on Little Red Riding Hood in When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy. You won’t know whether to laugh or scream when the undead rise up in Lindy Ryan’s Another Fine Mess. Moderated by acclaimed fantasy author Henry Neff. Venue: Montclair State University, University Hall, Room #1030.