Succeed2gether literary fest will bring authors, music events and more to Montclair

The seventh annual Succeed2gether Montclair Literary Festival will kick off on May 3 and run through May 11 with more than 90 authors and speakers who will host talks, poetry readings, a story salon, the Pitchapalooza book pitch contest, musical performances and activities for children.

Highlights will include Broadway legend Chita Rivera, who will discuss her new memoir with theater columnist Richard Ridge; a discussion between the First Lady of Iceland Eliza Reid and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kate Zernike; the Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman, and French author Anne Berest, who will talk about her award-winning book "The Postcard."

On May 5, a discussion between novelist Alice Elliott Dark of Montclair (“Fellowship Point”) and Joyce Maynard (“The Bird Hotel”) will be followed by a words-and-music show with Montclair author and musician Warren Zanes about his obsession with the making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska album, detailed in his new book "Deliver Me from Nowhere." Co-presented with Outpost in the Burbs, the show will feature musicians Laura Cantrell and James Maddock, backed by a house band featuring David Mansfield, Ray Kubian and Chris Hartford.

A new partnership with Montclair State University will bring more events to that campus, along with free parking and a shuttle bus for festival-goers.

The main festival day is set for Saturday, May 6, with a full slate of mostly free events for adults and children at Montclair State University, the Montclair Public Library and First Congregational Church. Authors who will be speaking include Margo Jefferson, Mary Beth Keane, Mary Louise Kelly, Kwame Alexander, Jai Chakrabarti, Amy Poeppel, Jenny Jackson, Soman Chainani, Dionne Ford, Benilde Little, Marina Budhos and Laurie Lico Albanese, among many others.

The rapid-fire pitch contest, Pitchapalooza, will once again be hosted by author and book agent David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut; last year, middle-school teacher Dan Gill won the contest and garnered a contract for his children’s book ‘No More Chairs’.

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Also on May 6, Newberry medalist and TV producer Kwame Alexander will talk about his new book "How to Write a Poem" and Laurie Albanese ("Hester") will lead a discussion among novelists Amy Poeppel ("The Sweet Spot"), Megan Tady ("Super Bloom") and Jenny Jackson ("Pineapple Street"). A panel of authors who wrote biographies of Sondheim (DT Max), Sonny Rollins (Aidan Levy) and Martha Graham (Neil Baldwin) will be hosted by award-winning biographer Amanda Vaill.

Saturday ends with a meet-the-authors festival party.

On Sunday, a climate migration talk will feature journalists Jake Bittle and Eric Roston, and be followed by a discussion about banned books. Panelists include Jake Silverstein from the 1619 Project/New York Times Magazine, William Johnson from PEN America, Skip Dye from ALA, Amol Sinha from the ACLU and Diane Wachtell from New Press.

The last event scheduled for the opening of the festival on May 3 will be the Montclair Story Salon, featuring storytellers, actors, singer-songwriters and artists sharing ‘Books That Changed My Life.”

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For a full schedule of events, to buy tickets and reserve for free events, visit succeed2gether.org.

In keeping with the mission of Succeed2gether, to promote literacy, many festival events are free. Through sponsorships and donations, the festival raises funds and awareness for Succeed2gether’s work to address unequal access to educational resources by providing free, high-quality enrichment and academic programs and a post-high-school pathway to children in need from Montclair and Essex County, New Jersey.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Chita Rivera among authors to be at Montclair NJ literary fest