2024 Saratoga Book Festival Program
Monday, September 30 (Pre-Festival)
6:00pm - 7:00pm
For Friends members only. Space is limited, so please REGISTER HERE for this event.
Join local authors Phil Bayly, Catherine Bruns, and Matt Witten in a discussion of their latest books, their approach to writing mystery and suspense, and new projects. This special pre-festival event is for members of the Friends of the Saratoga Springs Public Library. To learn more and become a member of the Friends, click here.
Friday, October 4
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Join us at Putnam Place on Friday, October 4th from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (doors open at 6:30) for an evening of laughter and fun! Authors Sally Chaffin Brooks and Beck Krefting will entertain us with sidesplitting stand-up comedy routines before inviting us into a discussion and Q&A about comedy writing. To close out the night, Sally’s book, Going to Maine: All the Ways to Fall on the Appalachian Trail will be available for purchase and signing. Tickets are just $20 per person if purchased by Thursday, October 3rd and $25 at the door. Don’t forget to bring a little extra for the cash bar and get ready for a night of humor and good times!
Putnam Place: 63 Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Saturday, October 5
10:00am - 2:00pm
Kids (and parents), pull up a rug and listen to Jen read some of her favorite picture and story books (for ages 3 – 6).
Maxwell Eaton III is the author and illustrator of numerous books for children, including Looking for Peppermint, Bear Builds a House, Bear Goes Sugaring, the Survival Scout series, The Truth About Your Favorite Animals series, The Flying Beaver Brothers series, Okay Andy, and more. Join Maxwell as he discusses his many characters and demonstrates his illustrations!
Embark on a playful journey with a Yoga Adventure for kids! Inspired by Susan Verde’s creative book, I Am Yoga, this class is all about exploring yoga with fun and imagination. Get ready to roar like a lion and romp like a playful pup, stand strong as a tree, and strike a warrior pose like never before! Join us for a dynamic class where every stretch, bend, and breath brings a sense of joy and calmness to kids of every age! Parents of our youngest yogis (ages 5 and under), please join in the fun!
Class conducted by Yoga with Jess. Find out more about Jessica and her array of classes here.
Stop by the KidZone to make a bookmark with Saratoga Children’s Literacy League. Decorate a bookmark to match your favorite series or design a new one for your next read. This fun and easy activity is for everyone in the family!
10:30am - 11:30am
New York Times Bestselling Author and Bram Stoker Award Winner Paul Tremblay (Horror Movie: A Novel) joins bestselling authors Daniel Kraus (Pay the Piper) and Clémence Michallon (The Quiet Tenant) to talk about their newest books and the art of creating thrillers. Paul Bogaards moderates.
With just weeks away from the presidential election, two experts in constitutional law and politics, Corey Brettschneider (The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It) and Beau Breslin (A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation’s Fundamental Law), explain what’s at stake and how citizens have previously stood up for democracy.
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Jill Bialosky (The Deceptions) and Helen Schulman (Lucky Dog) explore the themes of motherhood, desire, rage, betrayal, and violation. They introduce their new novels and speak about how the Patriarchy has defined and shaped our culture–including the literary arts–and the desire to map a new way forward. Moderated by Ellen Beal.
Adriana Herrera (An Island Princess Starts a Scandal), Elizabeth Everett (The Love Remedy), and Joanna Lowell (A Shore Thing) share how their historical novels are informed by womanist, BIPOC, and Queer history and their thoughts on why the romance genre doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Yaddo Artist Amitava Kumar discusses his new novel My Beloved Life, a family saga that captures the life of an ordinary man of humble beginnings who lives in a time of extraordinary change. Moderated by Aatish Taseer.
What’s it like to write for adult audiences after penning books for teens? Cecily von Ziegesar, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Gossip Girl series shares some of the unique challenges she faced writing Cobble Hill: A Novel in a session with Mai Corland, who wrote for teens and tweens before publishing her adult fantasy novel Five Broken Blades this year.
Novelist Ryan Chapman (The Audacity) joins cartoonist John McPherson (The Close to Home Anniversary Treasury) to discuss their new books and the time-tested weapon of using satire and dark humor to cut the powerful down to size.
Lyn Slater, Instagram sensation and author of How to Be Old: Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon, shares how to reinvent yourself and live a modern, culturally relevant life at any age. In her 60s, she became the “Accidental Icon,” known for her unique fashion sense that attracted close to a million followers on Instagram. Now in her 70s, Lyn is fashioning a new life for herself in the Hudson Valley. This session is for anyone who wants to live more intentionally and authentically–rules and other people’s expectations be damned. Moderated by Abby Tegnelia.
For Scholar Jaye Austin Williams, reading Black Science Fiction has long been a portal into the intergenerational impact of racial slavery, violence, and injustice. She shares her thoughts about the future imagined by Octavia Butler and several other Black Science Fiction writers with Shawntelle Madison, whose new historical fiction debut novel The Fallen Fruit is a sweeping multi-generational epic about a woman who travels through time to end a family curse that has plagued her ancestors for generations.
The “Black to the Future: Science Fiction & Fantasy by Black Authors ” session is a presentation of the Our Lodge Foundation, Inc, a non-profit organization that supports minority populations in the Saratoga Springs community through cultural, educational, civic, and creative programs. The organization also works to support the activities and efforts of the Frederick Allen Elks Lodge #609 (I.B.P.O.E.W.) and its historical building.
A multi-layered project, Black to the Future: Science Fiction & Fantasy by Black Authors, was organized by the Our Lodge Foundation and received funding from a Saratoga Arts community re-grant.
Saratoga Arts made this speaker and program possible through the Community Arts Regrant Program, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
3:30pm - 4:30pm
Mai Corland, author of the bestselling new fantasy novel Five Broken Blades joins Karen McManus, the #1 New York Times bestselling YA author of Such Charming Liars, and Melissa Caruso, author of the Obsidian Tower and the soon-to-be-released novel The Last Hour Between Worlds, to discuss their latest works.
Garth Risk Hallberg (The Second Coming: A Novel) and Roxana Robinson (Leaving) discuss their new novels that ask the questions ‘What do we owe our children, other people, ourselves?” Moderated by Paul Bogaards.
Jennifer Dugan (The Ride of Her Life: A Novel) and Ella Dawson (But How Are You, Really: A Novel) introduce their new books and discuss characters who are figuring out life, relationships, and adulting after college.
Comedian Sally Chaffin Brooks talks about her hilarious new memoir Going to Maine: All the Ways to Fall on the Appalachian Trail with Skidmore College Professor, Humor Expert, and Comedian Beck Krefting.
Journalist and essayist Carrie Mullins, author of The Book of Mothers: How Literature Can Help Us Reinvent Modern Motherhood discusses classic novels that have shaped our cultural notions of motherhood and what lessons we can draw from them. Joining her is author and essayist Daphne Uviller, whose new book This Was Not the Plan is a thought-provoking examination of the personal and political complexities of abortion.
7:00pm - 8:30pm
TICKETS at UPH Warren Zanes
Proctors/UPH partners with the Saratoga Book Festival to present Warren Zanes, one of the founding members of the American 1980s garage-style rock band The Del Fuegos. Author of several biographies of the world’s most iconic rock stars, Zanes will share stories and perform songs inspired by his latest book, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.
Sunday, October 6
10:00am - 11:00am
Authors Ann Dávila Cardinal (We Need No Wings), Elizabeth Gonzalez James (The Bullet Swallower), and Shawntelle Madison (The Fallen Fruit) introduce their new novels and explore how each uses elements of magic realism to conjure up the past wrongs, tragedies, and triumphs of those who came before us.
11:30am - 12:30pm
Personal essayist Melora Wolff and poet-critic Jay Rogoff read from their current books and interview each other about the varieties and challenges of writing their brands of nonfiction. Melora Wolff’s brand-new essay collection, Bequeath (LSU Press, 2024), presents a flawed, funny, impressionable narrator who tries to solve the mysteries of bequeathed artifacts, family myths, and haunting mistakes, while figuring out how to grow up in dangerous, glamorous 1970s New York City. Jay Rogoff’s book about poetry, Becoming Poetry: Poets and Their Methods (LSU Press, 2023), winner of the Lewis P. Simpson Award for literary criticism, explores what makes a poet’s work endure and also shares his own experience as a poet and reader.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link talks about her acclaimed, bestselling first novel, The Book of Love, and the art of blending the real with the unreal with fellow panelists Jedediah Berry (The Naming Song) and GennaRose Nethercott (Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart). Moderated by Rachel Person.
11:30am - 1:00pm
Meet and greet Cecily von Ziegesar author of the Gossip Girl series that inspired not one but two hit TV series and dozens of knock-offs, over brunch at Universal Preservation Hall. The Palette Community’s CEO Marcella Hammer joins von Ziegesar on stage for an exclusive interview, presented with Saratoga Living Magazine.
Event Highlights:
- 11:00 – 11:30 AM: VIP Experience – Early access to the event with exclusive photo opportunities, a personalized book signing, and a take-home treat.
- 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM: Brunch – Enjoy a delectable spread while sipping on complimentary signature cocktails. You’ll also receive a signed copy of the Gossip Girl book and participate in an engaging conversation with Cecily.
Tickets: All tickets go on sale September 9th. Discounted pre-sale, regular admission tickets are available September 1st – 8th.
- VIP Tickets: $125
- Regular Tickets: $100
- Pre-sale: $85
(All tickets include complimentary signature cocktails, brunch, a signed Gossip Girl book, and a conversation with Cecily. A cash bar will be available for additional drinks.)
12:15pm - 1:15pm
As engaging as it is enraging, Paulina Bren’s The Untold Story of the She-Wolves of Wall Street is an illuminating deep dive into the collision of women, finance, and New York. Joining Bren on stage is Daphne Uviller, author of the novel This Was Not the Plan.
1:30pm - 2:30pm
The New York Times bestselling author Liz Moore shares her ambitious and riveting new novel The God of the Woods in a conversation with Joe Donahue, a nationally acclaimed host and interviewer of the Nationally Syndicated “Book Show” and WAMC Radio’s “The Roundtable.” Named one of Barack Obama’s favorite summer reads of 2024, Moore’s latest tale of suspense is about family secrets and a child who goes missing from an Adirondack camp.
Saratoga Book Festival and the Tang Teaching Art Museum present a “What is Color Workshop” with Steven Weinberg, whose new book What is Color is a zany, inclusive, vibrantly illustrated guide to all things color. Admission is free but reservations are recommended. RESERVE HERE
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Emily Layden (Once More from the Top), Mandy McHugh (It Takes Monsters), and Sarah Sawyer (The Undercurrent), introduce their books and what drew them to write psychological thrillers. Moderated by Donna Liquori.
A conversation with memoirist Hyeseung Song (Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl) and novelist Ryan Chapman (The Audacity). Both are first-generation Americans whose paths to becoming artists are complicated by financial hardships, family strife, and cultural expectations.
Independent scholar and freelance writer Amy Godine discusses her 2023 book The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier. Godine will share stories about the Black pioneers who carved from the wilderness a future for their families and their civic rights.
Three popular authors for middle grade students, J.S. Lemon, Cindy Rodriguez, and E.L. Shen, introduce their most recent books and share why and how they write about challenging issues for young people, their views on book bans, and more. Moderated by Lisa Glazer.
Kelly Link, author of the bestselling new novel The Book of Love and the award winning short story collection White Cat, Black Dog and Mary Jones, author of The Goodbye Process, will do a short reading and discuss the art of writing short stories. Moderated by Leigh Haber.
Monday, October 7
6:00pm - 7:00pm
A special launch event in partnership with Northshire Bookstore
Award winning and bestselling authors Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin will join us on the eve of the publication of their new middle grade historical adventure. The audience will be the very first readers in the country to be able to purchase this novel, which follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s disappearance.
Note: SBF's event with Brenda Wineapple will be rescheduled. We'll announce the new date and details later this Fall.
Concluding Featured Session with Brenda Wineapple, author of the new bestseller Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation. Wineapple introduces the dramatic story of the 1925 Scopes trial, which captivated the nation and exposed profound divisions in America that still resonate today—divisions over the meaning of freedom, religion, education, censorship, and civil liberties in a democracy. Admission is free. No tickets required.