The Montclair Literary Festival will present book events with Connie Chung, Wally Lamb and Scott Turow this month.
Suceed2gether’s ninth annual Montclair Literary Festival, scheduled from April 26 to May 3, will feature an abundant selection of authors, including Wally Lamb, Connie Chung and Jean Hanff Korelitz. For information, visit succeed2gether.org.
In an additional, pre-festival event, it will present Scott Turow, bestselling author of “Presumed Innocent” and other novels, at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, April 17 at 7 p.m.. He will be interviewed by Sarah Lyall about his latest courtroom drama, “Presumed Guilty.”
Turow’s books have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and have been adapted for movies and television. Lyall writes news, features and reviews for The New York Times and also has a monthly column on thrillers.
JEAN HANFF KORELITZ
On April 29, Korelitz will discuss her latest book “The Sequel: A Novel,” a satire of the publishing industry. This book is a sequel to her New York Times bestseller “The Plot.” Korelitz’s other novels include “The Latecomer,” “You Should Have Known” (which was aired on HBO as “The Undoing”), “Admission” (adapted as a movie starring Tina Fey) and “The Devil and Webster.” The event will take place at Zeugma Grill in Montclair.
On May 3, Chung will discuss her “Connie Chung: A Memoir” at a location TBA. In it, she reveals her journey as the first Asian woman to break into a white, male-dominated television news industry, among other stories.
The majority of the other festival event will be free, and will take place at various Montclair locations, including Montclair State University and The Montclair Public Library.
Featured authors will include:
April 26, noon: Irvin Weathersby Jr. will discuss “In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space.” Location TBA.
April 28, 7 p.m.: Irish writer Colum McCann, author of “Apeirogon” and “Let the Great World Spin,” will discuss his latest novel “Twist” at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Montclair.
April 29, 6:30 p.m.: Anne and Claire Berest will discuss their novel “Gabriële” at Montclair Public Library.
CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE
April 29, 7 p.m.: Christian Allaire, senior fashion and style writer for Vogue, will discuss his book “From the Rez to the Runway: Forging My Path In Fashion” at The Montclair Art Museum.
May 3: Lamb will discuss his novel “The River Is Waiting.” Location and time TBA.
Other authors will include Carl Zimmer, Georgia Hunter, Omo Moses, Christina Li, David Hajdu, Benjamin Wallace, Paul Elie, Lee Hawkins, Marcy Dermansky, Helena Rho, Nancy Johnson, Crystal Hana Kim, David Greenberg, Lisa Williamson Rosenberg, Rebecca Brenner Graham, Alejandro Heredia, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Lily Braun-Arnold and Daisy Garrison.
The festival will host additional authors after the festival dates, including Isabel Allende, who will discuss her “My Name is Emilia del Valle” on May 5; and Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt, who co-wrote the thriller “Please Don’t Lie.”
The festival’s 2024 program included Joyce Carol Oates, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Frank Bruni, Ruth Reichl, David Baldacci, Vinson Cunningham, Carlos Lozada and Barbara McQuade.
Launched in 2017, the festival raises funds and awareness for Succeed2gether, the Montclair-based nonprofit organization that addresses unequal access to educational resources by providing free enrichment and academic programs and a post-high-school pathway to children in need from Montclair and other Essex County towns. They achieve their goals by offering one-one-one tutoring; after-school enrichment programs and workshops; and summer programs.
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