Calendar

Books for the book sale will be provided by Aesop's Fable. You can PREORDER books by any of our authors and Aesop's will bring your books to the Fest - easy peasy and no worries that they'll sell out! 

Walk-ins are welcome, but we're also requesting registration so we know how many chairs to have out (and you'll receive reminders). 


Schedule of events (subject to change):

12:30-1:30pm - Panel with Diane, Jane, Marjan, William, and Krystal (topic TBD)
1:30-2:00pm - Dedicated book sale/signing
2:00-2:30 - Small discussion group with Diane and Jane
2:30-3pm - Small discussion group with Marjan, William, & Krystal
3-3:30pm - Dedicated book sale/signing 

About our authors:

Diane Hanks

Diane Hanks has a BFA in Creative Writing from Roger Williams University and an MA in Professional Writing & Publishing from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. A medical writer by day, she has written numerous screenplays and recently returned to her first love—writing novels. Diane also is a mentor for the Writers Guild Initiative, which makes the art of storytelling accessible to underserved populations. When not writing, she enjoys walking by the river and playing in the dirt (otherwise known as gardening). She and her family live in southeastern Massachusetts.

Jane Healey

Jane Healey is the author of The Beantown Girls, a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller, The Secret Stealers, which was an Amazon First Reads Editor’s Pick and a Historical Novel Society’s Editors’ Choice, and her debut, The Saturday Evening Girls Club. Goodnight from Paris is her newly released novel from Lake Union Publishing. Jane is also the host of Historical Happy Hour, a monthly webinar and podcast featuring interviews with premier historical fiction authors and their latest novels. She lives outside of Boston with her husband, two daughters, two cats and a dog.

Marjan Kamali

Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of The Stationery Shop (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), a national bestseller, and Together Tea (EccoBooks/HarperCollins), a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.

Kamali holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from New York University. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, Kamali spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, Kenya, and the U.S.  She currently teaches creative writing at GrubStreet and lives in the Boston area with her family.

William Martin

William Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, a PBS documentary, book reviews, magazine articles, and a cult-classic horror movie, too. His first Peter Fallon novel, Back Bay, established him as "a master storyteller." He has been following the lives of the great and anonymous in American history ever since, taking readers from the Mayflower in Cape Cod to Ford's Theater in The Lincoln Letter to the South Tower on 9/11 in City of Dreams. Bound for Gold (2018), sweeps readers back to California in the legendary year of 1849 and "solidifies his claim as king of the historical thriller" (Providence Journal). And his latest, the "propulsive" December '41, captures the atmosphere in the United States int the weeks after Pearl Harbor.

He was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious New England Book Award, given to an author "whose body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region." In 2015, the USS Constitution Museum gave him the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, for "patriotic pride, artful scholarship, and an eclectic interest in the sea and things maritime." And in 2018, the Mystery Writers of America (New England Chapter) gave him the Robert B. Parker Award. He serves on the boards of many of Boston's historical and cultural organizations, lives near Boston with his wife, and has three grown children.

Krystal Marquis

Krystal Marquis happily spends most of her time in libraries and used bookstores. She studied biology at Boston College and University of Connecticut and now works as an environmental, health, and safety manager for an online retailer. A lifelong reader, Krystal began researching and writing on a dare to complete the NaNoWriMo Challenge, resulting in the first partial draft of The Davenports. When not writing or planning trips to local bookstores to discover her next favorite romance, Krystal enjoys hiking, expanding her shoe collection, and plotting ways to create her own Jurassic Park.

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library.

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