Holiday Book Festival

Please join our local authors for a fun-filled book sale event for all ages in the Scott Room

Marlena Maduro Baraf  immigrated to the United States from her native Panama and is author of the memoir, At the Narrow Waist of the World, “an extraordinary and memorable read.” ―Midwest Book Review. Marlena is a designer, writer, and poet. Her work has been featured in  Lilith, Read650, HuffPost, the Ekphrastic Review, On the Seawall, Night Heron Barks, Poets Reading the News, and elsewhere. Her blog, Breathing in Spanish, features Latinos and others living multicultural lives. “She examines mental illness, immigration, forgiveness and community with sensitivity and candor.”  ---Ms­­ Magazine. Marlena lives with her husband in New York. Visit her at www.marlenamadurobaraf.com

Rinku Bhattacharya is a Gourmand Award-winning cookbook Rinku Bhattacharya is a Gourmand Award-winning cookbook author, blogger and cooking instructor.  Rinku writes the blog Spice Chronicles, featuring spice infused, delicious, dependable, home cooking with a touch of the Hudson Valley.Rinku has three cookbooks – Spices and Seasons, Seasons: Simple, Sustainable Indian Flavors and Instant Indian, Classic Foods from Every Region of India Made Easy in the Instant Pot and The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles.Rinku lives in Westchester County and cooks for 3 very eclectic eaters (her husband and two children) most days of her life.Visit her at spicechronicles.com, or on Instagram @spice_chronicles, Facebook/spicechronicles and on Twitter @spicechronicles.

Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Party, "a spare, bittersweet page-turner (NYTimes)," which was an IndieNext and Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. She has been a tour guide in the former Soviet Union, a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia, and a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations Development Programme. She has blogged on raising boys for The Huffington Post and written book reviews for USA Today. She has a degree in Russian Studies from Brown University and a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. She lives with her family near New York City and spends as much time as possible in Truro.

 Patricia Dunn. "Dunn marks her adult debut (after the YA novel Rebels by Accident) with this enjoyable story of a woman's return to her riotous Italian American family in the Bronx on the eve of the Persian Gulf War. . . . Dunn's homage to dysfunctional yet loving relationships comes alive with the inexorable pull of family."-Publishers Weekly "Original and as entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, 'Last Stop on the 6' is one of those all-to-rare novels that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book itself is finished and set back upon the shelf. Showcasing Patricia Dunn's skills with respect to an impressive narrative storytelling style, 'Last Stop on the 6' is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections."

Kate Francia is a writer and editor in the New York area. Her short stories have been published in Electric Literature, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Fireside Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a co-founder and editor of Megara Publishing, where she edited the historical speculative fiction short story anthology The Haunted Quill. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in Speculative Fiction, a M.S. Ed. from Fordham University, and a BA in Medieval History and Literature from Harvard University.

Jacqueline Friedland is the multi-award-winning author of That's Not a Thing and Trouble the Water. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Law School, she practiced as a commercial litigator at the New York law firms of Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP and Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP. After determining that office life did not suit her, Jacqueline began teaching Legal Writing and Lawyering Skills at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan and working on her first book in her limited spare time. Finally deciding to embrace her passion and pursue writing full time, Jacqueline returned to school to earn her Masters of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, graduating from the program in 2016. He Gets That From Me is her third novel.When not writing, Jacqueline is an avid reader of all things fiction. She loves to exercise, watch movies with her family, listen to music, make lists, and dream about exotic vacations. She lives in Westchester, New York with her husband, four children and two very bossy canines.

 Reyna Marder Gentin grew up in Great Neck, New York. She attended college and law school at Yale. For many years, she practiced as an appellate attorney with a public defender's office before turning to writing full time. Reyna has studied at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, and her work has been published widely online and in print. Her debut novel, a romantic legal thriller entitled UNREASONABLE DOUBTS, was named a finalist for the Women's Fiction Writers Association Star Award in 2019. Her first novel for children, MY NAME IS LAYLA, (TouchPoint Press, January, 2021) is the story of a young teen with undiagnosed dyslexia. Reyna's latest novel, BOTH ARE TRUE, is contemporary fiction set in New York City, was released by Moonshine Cove Press in October, 2021. Reyna lives with her family in Scarsdale, New York. To learn more, please visit reynamardergentin.com.

Linda Hillman, Ph.D. is a psychologist, psychoanalyst, and a poet. Dr. Hillman practices in New York City and Westchester treating adults, adolescents, couples, and families. In January 2022, Dr. Hillman will be teaching graduate psychoanalysts at the NYU Postgraduate Program for Training in Psychoanalysis. She is currently a Clinical Supervisor for the City University of New York graduate program in Clinical Psychology.Dr. Hillman is co-editor and author with Therese Rosenblatt of The Voice of the Analyst: Narratives on Developing a Psychoanalytic Identity published in September 2018 by Routledge Press. In 2014, she (as Linda Hillman Chayes) published a book of poetry entitled The Lapse with Finishing Line Press. Her poems have appeared in numerous Poetry Journals. She has been a long-time resident of Scarsdale and has held leadership positions in many volunteer organizations in the community, including serving as President of the Board of Education.

Veera Hiranandani is the author of several novels for young people and the chapter book series, Phoebe G. Green. Her most recent middle-grade novel, How to Find What You're Not Looking For, has received starred reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, and is a Junior Library Guild selection. The Newbery Honor winning, The Night Diary, also received the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award, the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature, and several other honors and state reading list awards. The Night Diary is also a New York Times Editor's Choice Pick, and was chosen as a 2018 Best Children's Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Amazon, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews. Her first novel for young readers, The Whole Story of Half a Girl, was named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a South Asia Book Award Finalist. She earned her MFA in fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she now teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College's Writing Institute and is working on her next novel. You can find out more about Veera by visiting her website: www.veerahiranandani.com or on Twitter @veerahira and Instagram @veerawrites.

Barbara Josselsohn is an award-winning novelist and journalist who loves crafting stories about strong protagonists facing a fork in the road. She is the author of five novels: The Lily Garden, The Bluebell Girls, The Lilac House, The Last Dreamer, and the newly released The Cranberry Inn. She’s written hundreds of magazines articles and essays in a range of publications including New York Magazine, Parents Magazine, Consumers Digest, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, and Westchester Magazine and Fig Tree Lit. She teaches novel writing at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and other venues, and is the coordinator of the Scarsdale Library Writers Center, which supports and promotes local writers. Visit her online at www.BarbaraSolomonJosselsohn.com, @Barbara_Josselsohn_Author (Instagram), @BarbaraJoss (twitter) or Facebook.com/BarbaraSolomonJosselsohnAuthor,

Gillian Lynn Katz was born in South Africa and immigrated to the United States as a teenager in the 1960s. She grew up in the apartheid era and has written and published extensively on this subject.  She published her poetry book Portrait with Kelsay Books in 2020, and a chapbook, Kaleidoscope, with Finishing Line Press. Ms. Katz won Second Place in the micro-fiction contest in Italics Mine in 2021, and also won Second Place in the Greenburgh Poetry Contest in 2012. Her poetry has been featured in Inkwell, Westchester Review, Epiphany, Italics Mine, and other journals, as well as in anthologies:  Magnum Opus 2019, Austin International Poetry Festival 2017, Best Emerging Poets 2017, Across the Long Bridge 2006.  Ms. Katz has a Master of Arts in Writing from Manhattanville College and a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Purchase College. She has taught creative writing and poetry to teenagers at the Scarsdale JCC in the Summer Arts Writing Program. Ms. Katz is currently working on a novel about her experience of culture shock in combining American and South African culture into her psyche as a teenager. http://gillianlynnkatz.net

Leslie Kimmelman is the author of more than 40 popular and award-winning books for children, including Write On, Irving Berlin, the recipient this year of the Charlotte Award, given by the New York State Reading Association, and the Bat and Sloth early reader series. For more than 24 years, Leslie was an editor at Sesame Workshop, where she also worked on the autism initiative and was one of the creators of Julia, an autistic Muppet. She lives in Ardsley, New York. 

Carolyn Lyall grew up in the UK, but has since lived in New York, India, Belgium and Hong Kong. Despite her undiagnosed childhood dyslexia Carolyn has published, as C.B. Lyall, two novels: The Virus of Beauty - Book 1 and The Veil of Corruption - Book 2 in her three book YA Fantasy Series (available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc). She’s also a contributor in the Short Story Anthology - 25 Servings of Soop - Volume 1. She is currently working on the last book in her fantasy series and a historical fiction novel based on the British Women’s Emigration Association .Carolyn has studied at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and The Scarsdale Library’s Writers Center. She lives in Hastings on Hudson with her husband. She has three adult sons and one grandson. To learn more, visit cblyall.com. Listen to her podcasts on iTunes - Story_Hub by C. B. Lyall https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/story-hub-with-c-b-lyall/id1510006979?mt=2&ls=1

Annabel Monaghan is the author of two novels for young adults, A Girl Named Digit and Double Digit. She is also the author of Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big? a collection of essays based on her column that appears on the Huffington Post, The Week and The Rye Record. She has taught novel writing at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Rye, New York with her husband and three sons. Her first novel for adults, Nora Goes Off Script, will be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in June 2022.

Leah Witman Moore has been teaching English and Theater for over sixteen years. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and has a master’s in Educational Theater from New York University. She was the recipient of the prestigious, Teacher of the Year award, presented to ten New York City Teachers annually. She first premiered her writing on her parenting blog, www.lovingyoubig.com, which has an international audience in over 57 countries. Her family has been featured in a documentary about cri du chat, a rare chromosomal disability. She has been a guest on popular media outlets, such as ESPN and Forbes, working to create more stories centering around individuals with disabilities. She lives in New York with her husband, three children, and her daughter’s collection of rainbow wigs .

DR. STEPHANIE NEWMAN is a psychologist-psychoanalyst, a visiting scholar-clinical supervisor at Columbia University and faculty member at PANY, the institute affiliated with NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Newman has over 20 years’ experience providing insightoriented talk therapy for those with anxiety, depression, and relationship, health, and workplace difficulties. She is a co-editor of Money Talks, the author of Mad Men on the Couch ,and a regular contributor to Psychology Today online. Barbarians at the PTA is her first novel.

Kristin van Ogtrop is a literary agent at InkWell Management. In her previous life, she wrote a column called the Amateur for Time, was the editor in chief of Real Simple, and was named by Fortune as one of the “55 Most Influential Women on Twitter,” a designation she now finds absurd. She was a contributor to the New York Times bestseller The Bitch in the House and the author of Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom. She lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband, two dogs, and any number of children, depending on the day. 

Ines Rodrigues is a Brazilian writer, teacher, and journalist, based in New York for many years.She is currently doing her MFA in Fiction Writing at Columbia University/NY, after publishing her first novel, Days of Bossa Nova, in 2017. Days of Bossa Nova is a not just a modern Latin American family saga. It’s also a portrait of the chaotic, dangerous and fascinating city of São Paulo over the last 70 years. Read the novel and discover how history, coffee and Brazilian music shaped the life of Felipe Navarra, the ambitious, clever and charming main character.Rodrigues is the former editor of Scarsdale Living Magazine (2020-2021). She is a writer deeply interested in multicultural issues and literary translation. Before settling down in Scarsdale, she lived in Brazil, Italy, and London. She still travels a lot, but currently teaches creative writing and languages at Bronxville Adult School and The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College (You’re Beginning your Novel workshop). She also curates The Scarsdale Salon, a literary event in partnership with the Scarsdale Public Library and Bronx River Books, and an annual Literary Fundraising for the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Foundation. She’s currently working on her second novel. She loves to write on her laptop, on the sofa, enjoying the company of her two spoiled cats, Franklin and Marshmallow. Visit Ines Rodrigues’s website and read her blog, The Weekly Escape: https://www.inesrodriguesauthor.com/

Therese Rosenblatt, PhD, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and Westchester County, New York.  She treats adults, adolescents, couples and families. Dr. Rosenblatt is on the faculty of the Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She will be teaching at the NYU Postgraduate Program for Psychoanalytic Training. She is Adjunct Clinical Supervisor at Yeshiva University and Pace University in New York. Dr. Rosenblatt writes & presents on various topics in Psychology. Recent publications include, How Are You? Connection in A virtual Age; A Therapist, A Pandemic and Stories About Coping with Life, by Rosetta Books in July, 2021. She wrote a chapter entitled The Analyst’s Illness From the Perspectives of Analyst and Patient, in a book entitled What Happens When the Analyst Dies: Unexpected Terminations in Psychoanalysis, published by Routledge in July 2019. She is co-editor and author with Linda Hillman of The Voice of the Analyst: Narratives on Developing a Psychoanalytic Identity published in September 2018 by Routledge.  Her  regular blog for Psychology Today is entitled Inside Real Peoples’ Heads; the Hearts and Minds of Patients.Dr. Rosenblatt runs workshops on the topic of pandemic related mental health and the practice of teletherapy.

Dan Schorr is a sexual misconduct investigator at his firm, Dan Schorr, LLC, and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where he teaches a course on sexual misconduct and domestic violence. Previously, he served as a New York sex crimes prosecutor, the Inspector General for the City of Yonkers, and an adjunct law professor with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He has been a regular television legal analyst for Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News Channel, Law & Crime Network, and elsewhere. Dan holds a BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a JD from Harvard Law School. He lives in Westchester with his wife and two children. Final Table is his first novel. More information is available at danschorrbooks.com and you can connect with Dan via Twitter (@danschorr) and Facebook (facebook.com/danschorrbooks).

 Phyllis Shalant is my official name and it’s the one I’ve used on most of my books. The pen name I chose, Annabelle Fisher, was actually my mother’s name. My earliest memories are of her reading to me from a big book of Mother Goose rhymes. I still know dozens of those rhymes by heart. When I started writing The Secret Destiny of Pixie Piper, the story of a modern fifth grader who is descended from Mother Goose, it just felt right to honor Mom by using Annabelle Fisher as the author-name for the series.Writing is something I’ve loved since elementary school and I’m still at it. This fall, I’m working on my 20^th book for middle grade readers. I also spent twelve years teaching in the MAW department of Manhattanville College. And each July, you can find me teaching teenage students in the Chappaqua Summer Scholarship Program, hoping to create some future writers.

Ellen Shapiro is a private investigator and the author of four novels of the Tracey Marks Mystery series. Acting on her passion for writing, Ellen enrolled in the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute where she took courses in creative writing. Her professional experience led her to create the storylines and develop the characters for her novels. In addition to her novels, Ellen has written articles related to her field for both local and nationwide newspapers. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America. When she is not writing or working, you can find Ellen on the golf course yelling at her ball. Ellen resides in Scarsdale, New York.