Tunxis Community College Hosts Annual Writers Festival

The 8th Annual Writers Festival will be held at Tunxis Community College on April 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Founders Hall. Nationally recognized writers of fiction and nonfiction will speak about their works and the writing process. All events are free, and complimentary food and beverages will be served. Tunxis is located at the junction of Routes 6 and 177 in Farmington. For more information, contact (860) 255-3500 or tunxis.commnet.edu.

8:30-8:45 a.m.: Kick-off Reception Continental Breakfast and Opening Remarks

8:45-9:50 a.m.: Jennifer Mascia, an editorial assistant on the Metropolitan News desk of the New York Times, is author of Never Tell Our Business to Strangers (Villard, 2010). Expanded from an essay she wrote which was published in The New York Times “Modern Love” column in 2007, the memoir tells the story of her father’s criminal past and her mother’s lifelong attempt to keep it a secret. Mascia is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

10:10-11:15 a.m.: Elizabeth Bettina is the author of It Happened in Italy: Untold Stories of How the People of Italy Defied the Horrors of the Holocaust (Thomas Nelson, 2009), a story about the survival of Jews in Italy during World War II. While researching the book, Bettina traveled with renowned Holocaust educator Vincent Marmorale to Italy five times with survivors, bringing them back to the villages where they were interned during the Holocaust. Since It Happened in Italy was published, Bettina has been invited to speak around the country about this little-known story of how approximately 80% of the Jews in Italy survived the Holocaust while approximately 80% of the Jews in the rest of occupied Europe perished. Bettina is also co-executive producer of a documentary on Jews surviving in Italy during the Holocaust entitled Italy and the Holocaust: The Hidden Story.

11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Written in the grand pulp tradition, David Wellington’s novels include the zombie trilogy Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet (Thunder’s Mouth Press), the Laura Caxton vampire hunter series, 13 Bullets, 99 Coffins, Vampire Zero and 23 Hours, and two werewolf novels, Frostbite and Overwinter (Three Rivers Press). Den of Thieves, to be published in July 2011, marks his first foray into epic fantasy. Wellington has created comic books, podcasts, and online serials, and his work has been translated into seven languages and published around the world. For more, visit his web site at www.davidwellington.net.

1:10-2:15 p.m.: Bruce Weber has been on staff at The New York Times since 1986 as an articles editor for The New York Times Magazine, a metro reporter, theater columnist, theater critic and the paper’s first national cultural correspondent. Weber rejoined The New York Times as an obituary writer in 2008, after a two-year hiatus during which he wrote As They See ‘Em, a book about baseball umpires that was published by Scribner in 2009. He is also the author, with the dancer Savion Glover, of Savion! My Life in Tap (William Morrow, 2000). Weber has written for various publications including The New York Times Book Review, Sports Illustrated, Sport, Redbook, Mademoiselle, St. Petersburg Times, Seventeen, Diversion, The Hartford Courant’s Northeast Magazine, Signature, Esquire, Manhattan, Inc., and others.

3-5 p.m.: Winners of the Connecticut Student Poetry Circuit/Poetry Slam—Open Mic. Winners of the Connecticut Student Poetry Circuit will read their poetry, followed by a poetry slam. Participants are invited to read. 

6:40-8:30 p.m.: Sergei Burbank, a playwright, screenwriter, and performer based in Brooklyn, NY, is co-founder/coordinating director of Conflict of Interest theater company and literary manager of Oracle Theatre, Inc. He is also a consulting producer for the BoCoCa Arts Festival, Small Pond Entertainment, and A2K Productions. Burbank’s most recent films include Other Than Emily and Pretty Girl, which is currently in post production. He is author of Chords, producer of Shy of Serenity and an actor in The D Word and Lust for Vengeance. Burbank’s articles have appeared in Fed1a, College Literature, and DramaBiz Magazine. His recent play, War Crimes, was among those featured at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. The presentation will include a reading of War Crimes by Tunxis students.