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Community Corner

A Bellevue Avenue Library Centennial Salon: Authors of Montclair Choose Their Art Form - Memoir

In this centennial year, the Montclair Public Library system is celebrating the 1914 opening of the Bellevue Avenue Library, our landmark Carnegie Library. Join the celebration by attending this exciting literary fundraising event on Thursday evening, March 27th, from 7-9pm, 185 Bellevue Avenue in Upper Montclair.


Our panel of memoirists includes Montclair locals Louise DeSalvo, Benilde Little and Laurie Lico Albanese, with our moderator, Julie Maloney, a writer and founder/director of "Women Reading Aloud," a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of women writers. We will learn how these talented writers chose memoir to have their voices heard in order to tell their stories. Learn how they hone their craft and leave with insight into the writer's journey.


A dessert reception with an opportunity to chat with the authors will be held after the panel discussion.

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Watchung Booksellers, our town's independent bookstore that has long been a strong supporter of community events, will be on hand to sell our authors' books.


Sponsored by Friends of the Bellevue Avenue Library in cooperation with the Montclair Public Library. Tickets are $20 and reservations are recommended. For information and reservations, contact www.montclairplf.org or 973-744-0500, Ext. 2222

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Brief biographies:


Louise DeSalvo is the Jenny Hunter Endowed Scholar for Literature and Creative Writing at Hunter College where she began the MFA in Memoir Program. She has published six memoirs, among them, the award winning Vertigo and Crazy in the Kitchen as well as Writing as a Way of Healing, a biography of Virginia Woolf, and several other works of literary criticism. Her most recent work, The Art of Slow Writing will be published by St. Martin's Press in the Fall and she is currently finishing a memoir about her father's World War II experiences, called War Stories. http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~creativewriting/desalvo.shtml


Benilde Little is the author of the best-selling novels: Good Hair, The Itch, Acting Out and Who Does She Think She Is? Her memoir, Welcome to My Breakdown (also the name of her blog), will be published in the spring by Atria (Simon and Schuster). She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, People magazine among other media outlets. She has written for the New York Times, Essence (where she was a senior editor), and numerous anthologies. She teaches creative writing at Ramapo College and lives in Montclair with her family. http://benilde-little.com/Home.html


Laurie Lico Albanese is published in almost every genre including fiction, poetry, journalism, travel writing, creative nonfiction and memoir. Her books include BLUE SUBURBIA: Almost a Memoir, LYNELLE BY THE SEA, and THE MIRACLES OF PRATO, co-written with art historian Laura Morowitz. Her travel and general-interest pieces have appeared in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Mothering, Coastal Living and many other periodicals. Her travelogue/memoir piece about her three weeks in Cambodia, "22 Days of Living Dangerously" was published in the July/August issue of MORE Magazine. www.laurielicoalbanese.com


Julie Maloney is a poet and writer and founder/director of WOMEN READING ALOUD, a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of women writers. She is a frequent speaker on writing as a life tool. She is the author of Private Landscape, a book of poems. After an extensive career as a dancer/choreographer in New York City, she enjoys dancing on the page. This June, she returns to the island of Alonnisos in Greece to lead her fourth international writer’s retreat. .www.womenreadingaloud.org.


The Friends of the Bellevue Avenue Library (FBAL) is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving, promoting and perpetuating the Bellevue Avenue Library, Montclair’s landmark Carnegie library. FBAL helps to enhance the Library’s mission by producing public programs, recruiting volunteers and raising funds. FBAL works with the Montclair Public Library’s Director, Trustees and Foundation to promote public awareness and encourage continued community support to ensure that the Bellevue Avenue Library remains a cultural cornerstone and educational asset for Montclair and all who love libraries.


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