The Newburgh Literary Festival, conceived by Safe Harbors Board member, Dr. Hannah Brooks, and curated by authors Ruth Danon and Belinda McKeon, will feature the work and words of eight acclaimed writers and will be enlivened by readings, conversations, interviews, interactive workshops, a Local Writers’ Fair and a cocktail mixer catered by Hudson Valley eatery, Orange Hill Restaurant.  

This year, the Festival committee is thrilled to present poets Erica Hunt, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado and Evie Shockley, as well as fiction writers Julie Chibbaro, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh and Laura Sims, essayist Jordan Kisner and memoirist Julie Metz. These visiting writers will be introduced by the festival curators, poet Ruth Danon and novelist Belinda McKeon, both of whom live locally. 

Danon and McKeon will also moderate a special keynote event Saturday afternoon, a conversation with celebrated broadcaster Joe Donahue, Vice President of News and Programming for Northeast Public Radio and host of the hugely popular programs The Roundtable and The Book Show, nationally syndicated on over 250 stations.

The Local Writers’ Fair & Cocktail Reception, which begins Saturday at 4 p.m., will give festival goers a chance to meet, greet and mingle with the featured authors from the full day of programming as well as local authors, playwrights and poets Dr. Marianna Boncek, Melisa Clarke-Dawson, Daniel Guilfoyle, Iris Jackson, David Levine, Santesha Patterson, Jennifer Place, David Surface, Professor Tommy Zurhellen, Mayor Torrance Harvey, Marina Antropow Kramer and Donna Minkowitz.

The Newburgh Literary Festival is a fundraiser for Safe Harbors of the Hudson. Tickets to attend the main program on Saturday, October 30 are $25 each and available to purchase on OneCause 1cau.se/cVQ. The two-hour writing workshops held on Sunday, October 31 are $25 each and are available for purchase on OneCause 1cau.se/cVN.