RMAC's 2008 Literary Arts
Festival
at and with the cooperation of
Fort
Tilden, Gateway National
Recreation Area will take palce on
Saturday & Sunday, June 7 & 8, 2008. The event will behosted by
Rockaway Artists Alliance
and
The Rockaway Theatre Company
Author panel discussions
will cover a variety of topics including mystery writing, historical
fiction, the challenges of local journalism, staying young, the Holocaust
experience, shoosing wines and spirits and much more. Films will include
documentaries and features by locally based artists.
Irish novelist Tom Phelan who will talk about his
latest work and describe the plight of Ireland's WWI soldiers.
Authors from the newly published Queens-based anthology, Queens Noir
(Akashic), will discuss the challenges of writing dark fiction.
Jill Eisenstadt, a novelist who
grew up on the Rockaway peninsula and whose first book,
From Rockaway, captured
the eighties beach scene,
will join a panel led by editor Robert Knightly that includes
authors Jillian Abbot, Maggie Estep (Flamethrower),
Alan Gordon (The Fools
Guild Mystery series), Patricia King, Liz
Martinez, Kim Sykes and K. J. A. Wishnia (23
Shades of Black).
Rockaway resident and popular thriller writer Thomas O'Callaghan (Bone
Thief, The
Screaming Room) will lead a second panel of mystery
and thriller novelists including Alison Gaylin (Trashed),
former Rockaway resident Aileen Barron (The
Gold of Thrace,
The Torch of
Tangier),
and returning author Jay Lillie (Pacific
Rebound, Havana
Passage).
Other participating
authors will discuss how their fiction intersects their lives and the
importance of developing fully realized characters
Darcy Steinke (Easter Everywhere: A Memoir,
Milk: A Novel) will join returning author Ellen Meister (Secret
Confessions of the
Applewood PTA), along with Helen Schulman
(A Day at the Beach), William Frederick Cooper (There's
Always a Reason), Anne Landsman
(The Rowing Lesson), David Evanier (The Great
Kisser) and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis) in two
panels which will be moderated, respectively, by
Carol Hoenig (Without Grace) and Pamela Popeson,
a Rockaway playwright whose most recent full length play, What
Comes Next, is
currently in performance at the Access Theater, Off-Off Broadway, with
Rebellion Dogs Productions.
Historical novelist Stephanie Cowell (Marrying
Mozart) will join Mina Samuels (The
Queen of Cups -- a novel about the wife of famous American
philosopher C.S. Peirce) to discuss the historical experiences of
women married to well known, but often difficult, men, in a discussion
moderated by Pennsylvania based author and former Rockawayite Dr.
Steven Porter (America's
Dying Democracy,
Hannes Klar).
The Holocaust experience will be discussed by survivors and
others who have written about it. Former Rockaway resident and Brooklyn
College professor Tibbi Duboys (Teaching
the Holocaust) will join current Rockaway resident Miriam
Sorger (A Raft on the River)
and past Rockawayite Rena Bernstein (Bitter Freedom), along with novelist Cheryl Pearl
Sucher (The Rescue of Memory),
to discuss the impact of the Holocaust on their own lives and on those
around them.
The Broad Channel based writing team of Dan and Liz Guarino
will be on hand to talk about their own new book,
Broad Channel: Images of America,
and discuss the special factors involved in joining words with
pictures. Fellow panelists will include Breezy Point-based Kenneth Hogan (America's
Ballparks, The
Old Firehouse), Brooklyn-based Ben Gibberd (New
York Waters) and New Jersey-based Brian Yarvin (Farms
and Foods of the Garden State).
A panel on the challenges of aging well will include Heather
Hummel (Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at any Age),
Rockaway writer Renee Lee Rosenberg (Achieving
the Good Life After Fifty), and former Rockaway resident
Alan Geller (Scary
Diagnosis). It will be moderated by Rockaway-based health
writer Nancy Gahles.The
challenge of writing for locally based newspapers will be discussed by
local newspaper staff, including Rockaway
Wave editor
Howard Schwach
and Rockaway Point News
editor, Noreen Schram in a panel led by Queens Ledger reporter
Arlene McKanic. A workshop on breaking into print for new and aspiring
writers will be presented by returning author Carol Hoenig (Without
Grace) and Beverage and Media Group Editor Perry Luntz,
author of Whiskey & Spirits for
Dummies, will speak to attendees on the finer points of
selecting liquor and liquers.
Music, poetry and dramatic readings will occur throughout
the day and will feature popular WFUV disc jockey Pete Fornatale,
talking about his new book, Simon
and Garfunkel's Bookends.
Winners of a peninsula wide school based student writing
contest will be recognized in a special ceremony and given the chance to
discuss their work while younger children will explore their own
creativity under the supervision of arts professionals in a specially
designated "kids' area".
On
the evenings of June 7th and 8th a series of films by local artists will
be presented. Saturday evening's feature is
award-winning director/producer and Rockaway resident Brett Morgen's
The Kid Stays in the Picture, about the producer of
Chinatown
and The
Godfather
Robert Evans' seduction of Hollywood. Morgen's feature will share
Saturday's bill with Westchester-based filmmaker David Baugnon, whose
special on artists who fought and painted their way through World War II (Art
in the Face of War)
will kick off the evening. Returning filmmaker Mark Street’s
new documentary, Hidden in Plain Sight, capturing the street
life of four major cities around the globe, will complete Saturday
evening's fare.
On Sunday evening, following the literary festival, Rockaway auteur
Kevin Breslin's The Other Side of the Street, a short homage to
Jimmy Breslin, will be shown. This will be followed by award
winning Rockaway filmmaker Bob Sarnoff's new entry,
Dispatch, viewing the world from the dashboard of a local car
service. Sarnoff's earlier films include the well received Irish
Ropes
which was shown widely last year at film festivals around the country and
on TV.
Rockaway-based playwright Pamela Popeson will present a short video from
one of her stage plays and, at 8:25, the evening's feature,
The Limbo Room,
by Rockaway filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt, a comedic, existential look at the
life of an off-Broadway understudy, will be shown.
The evening will conclude with an offering by Rockaway based filmmaker
Yisrael Lifschutz presenting his new documentary,
The Jewish Basketball Hall of Fame.
Admission
to all showings and panel discussions is free. Food and refreshments will
be available on-site from the newly opened Belle Harbor-based restaurant
at B. 129th Street, Rockaway
Seafood.
Books will be
offered for sale throughout Sunday's book festival by Manhattan-based
bookseller Mobile Libris with authors available to talk
about and sign books for interested readers.
For information
please email
Stu Mirsky
or call Stu at
718-634-0577