The eleventh annual Newburyport Literary Festival (NLF) will take place April 29-30 in various venues throughout downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts. This year the Festival will honor the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and local teacher and poet Deborah Szabo. 

This year we introduce a first – a Festival overture. Beginning at 4:00 p.m., Senator George J. Mitchell (The Negotiator: Reflections on an American Life) will be in conversation with journalist Dyke Hendrickson at the Firehouse Center for the Arts. This event is now sold out.

The Festival’s Opening Ceremony will begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Firehouse Center for the Arts. Poet/biographer Daniel Mark Epstein and poet/arts journalist Carl Little will discuss the life, work and influence of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Dinner With the Authors immediately follows at the Masonic Center, 31 Green Street in downtown Newburyport. The Opening Ceremony is free of charge. Tickets for Dinner With the Authors are $50/person, available online at newburyportliteraryfestival.org or by sending a check, made out to the Newburyport Literary Association, to the Newburyport Literary Association, Box 268, Newburyport, MA  01950.  

On Saturday, April 25, the Festival will be in full swing beginning at 8:30 a.m. with Coffee with the Poets. During the day, a wide range of distinguished short story writers, children's authors, biographers, nature writers, critics, screenwriters, poets, novelists, and journalists will read from and discuss their work. Elizabeth Strout, Mary Gaitskill, Andre Dubus III, Alfred Nicol, Midge Goldberg, Anita Diamant, John Brady, Holly Robinson, Anne Easter Smith, Katherine Howe, Megan Abbott and Kate Christensen are among the 65 participating authors and poets.

For the most up-to-date Festival information, authors and events, please visit the Festival website, newburyportliteraryfestival.org, friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

The NLF is made possible through the generosity of our founding sponsors, the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank and the Institution for Savings. Additional support is provided by the Massachusetts Local Cultural Councils in Newburyport, Amesbury, Georgetown, Merrimac, Newbury and West Newbury.

The Newburyport Literary Festival (NLF), organized by the Newburyport Literary Association, annually celebrates reading and the love of books. For more information about the 2016 NLF, including authors and their work, please visit http://newburyportliteraryfestival.org