Salem has a long, distinguished literary history that continues today. This special event, hosted by J.D. Scrimgeour, will allow you to sample the writing of several authors who are members of the Athenaeum or North Shore residents — the prose and verse of your talented neighbors. Join us to get a taste of their work, explore their books, talk writing. Most authors will have copies of their books will be available for purchase too!
Check back for updates to the line up:
An Irish native, Áine Greaney now lives and writes on the North Shore. In addition to her five published books of both fiction and nonfiction, which includes the writer’s guide Writer with a Day Job, her short works have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Salon, Another Chicago Magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine, The New York Times, Books Ireland, NPR/WBUR and other publications. Greaney is also a trained teacher who has designed and led fiction and non-fiction workshops, presentations and keynotes for regional, national and international organizations. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, cited in Best American Essays and named a ‘Great Group Read’ by the Women’s National Book Association. Her latest, Trespassers and Other Stories, published in March 2025.
Karen Gross is an author of adult and children’s books, an artist and an educator. A former college president, she focuses her work on student success both academically and psychosocially. Her children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest, features a multi-racial heroine who against all odds becomes a knight in the Middle Ages. Now in its second edition, this trauma sensitive series has been read in English and Spanish to, with and by children (and adults) across the globe.
Danielle Jones holds an MFA from UMass Boston. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets, Incessant Pipe, Memorious, The Museum of Americana, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Danielle is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, and has received fellowships from the Brother Thomas Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, and St. Botolph’s Club Foundation. She works at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches writing, directs the Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival, and manages YAS Press.
Rod Kessler‘s collection of poems, Self-Portrait with Tree, was published in Salem by Winter Island Press in 2024. Kessler taught creative writing at Salem State from 1983 to 2014. His Off in Zimbabwe (1985) won the Associated Writing Program (AWP’s) annual award for a short story collection. Known also for championing the work of Salem poet Malcolm Miller, Kessler lives with his wife, Maile Black, near Winter Island Park and contributes op-ed columns to the Salem News.
Paul Marion is the author of Union River: Poems and Sketches and Lockdown Letters & Other Poems and editor of Jack Kerouac’s early writing, Atop an Underwood. Recent books are City Hikes: Field Notes, essays on walking in Lowell, MA, and Portraits Along the Way, fifty profiles of persons he has encountered, some well-known and others not household names. He lives in Amesbury, MA.
Victoria Sirianni is a first-generation American who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, immersed in the Italian culture by her family. She studied history at Carnegie Mellon University and earned an M.Ed. at Harvard University. She spent most of her career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was awarded honorary membership in MIT’s Class of 1954. She has worked as a consultant, writer, and lecturer, now focused on Italian American history and culture.
Tickets: Free to Members | $20 Non-members | Card to Culture
This is a hybrid event. Zoom link will be sent to all registrants an hour before the program starts.
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Ticket Policies
Tickets are refundable if canceled up to 24 hours before the event.
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The Athenaeum building is not currently wheelchair accessible. Walking a flight of stairs is required to enter and exit.