In his latest book, The Endurance Artist, Journalist Jared Beasley goes deep into the mind of the so-called “Leonardo da Vinci of Pain” to uncover the struggle, humor, and obsessive brilliance that drive the most grueling ultramarathons in the world. Drawing from firsthand reporting at the 2023 Barkley Marathons and the Backyard Ultra World Championship, as well as hundreds of hours of interviews, Beasley reveals how a once-aimless hippie – whose life goal was simply to stay out of jail – transformed into ultrarunning’s most notorious mastermind. More than just a story of races and runners, The Endurance Artist forces us to reconsider our limits – and why we push them.

 

Jennifer Goodrich’s short fiction has appeared in The Los Angeles Review and Chelsea. She works as the U.S. Assistant Editor for The Dark Horse poetry journal, where she has published several critical essays. Jennifer will read from her short story “An Apology,” which features Jess Linden, an empty nester, attending her 35th college reunion. Unexpectedly encountering a former boyfriend, she finds her past colliding with her present. 

 

Kirsten Oerke (BA & MFA in screenwriting, Columbia University) whose writing most recently appeared in Sad Girl Diaries and Roi Fainéant, was also a New Millennium Writing Awards finalist, and Glimmer Train honorable mention. Her short films have been selected for festivals and won challenges. She lives in Hastings on Hudson, where she is working on a book about a girl who rebels against expulsion from a ballet academy for being overweight.

 

Richard Schotter is the author of the plays Medicine Show, Benya the King, The Wood Dancer, Taking Stock and The Sussman Variations. In addition, a number of his ten-minute plays have been performed at the Boston Theatre Marathon as has his short musical, Duet for Shy People.Mr. Schotter has been a lyricist for the PBS children’s series The Puzzle Place and co-authored with his wife, Roni, the children’s book, There’s a Dragon About: A Winter’s Revel. For many years, he was a Professor of English at Queens College, CUNY, where the ran the MFA Program in Playwriting and as well as a Visiting Professor of Playwriting in the Graduate Theatre Program at Boston University.

 

Roni Schotter’s 31st children’s book, DRAGON DREAMS, has just been published!  Another new book:  STEP OUT! STEP UP! (Summer, 2026) was inspired by the efforts of so many of our neighbors to clean up and beautify the Rail Trail that runs through Hastings. Roni is the winner of many awards, including the National Jewish Book Award, Parents’ Choice Award, Washington Irving Award, (even an Emmy for the adaptation of one of her books). Like Selig, the main character of THE BOY WHO LOVED WORDS, Roni loves their power and beauty, and the way they can connect us—when used with conscience and love.

 

After six years under exclusive contract to Disney, Universal, and Columbia studios, David staffed, ran, or co-created 12 television series from Fernwood Tonight to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Full House to The Wayans Brothers to Sister, Sister, and most recently, There’s

Johnny which is currently streaming for free on Roku.com.

He is an award-winning playwright and now, most improbably, a poet thanks to his involuntary collaboration with loss, grief, and the always entertaining biological phenomena of aging.

 

Rachel is a Pushcart nominated writer. Her stories and poems have been published in Lilith, the anthology, The Man Who Ate His Book, the best of Ducts.org and other publications. Closer to home, Rachel is known for directing plays at Hastings high school and for the Middle School One Acts, where she trains today’s 7th and 8th graders to be tomorrow’s theater directors. 

 

Steve is the Founding Director of City Lore, launched in 1985, now a thriving gallery and cultural center and a Smithsonian Affiliate. Steve is the recipient of the Botkin Award for lifetime achievement from the American Folklore Society and an Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress. He has directed and coproduced a dozen documentaries, including Free Show Tonight about the traveling medicine shows in the l930s and ‘40s.  He is the author of twelve books on American folk culture, and the author of a volume of poetry, I Hear America Singing in the Rain. 

 

Steve will be presenting “I’m Right, You’re Right, He’s Right Too”: Teasing Out the Poetry in Jewish Humor and Storytelling:

 

Join us for a presentation of Jewish humor and storytelling by folklorist Dr. Steve Zeitlin, author of Because God Loves Stories: an Anthology of Jewish Storytelling and JEWels: Teasing Out the Poetry in Jewish Humor and Storytelling.  In this engaging and humorous talk, we enter the cave of Jewish jokes and stories, hold up a miner’s lamp, chip away at the schist and sift through the dust of legends, tales, poems, jokes, and stories to find those that stand the test of time.  Mining for meaning, we journey through these jokes and tales in a quest to uncover the JEWels. Then we polish hard so each of us can see—our own reflection.  Bring your own poetic or philosophical Jewish jokes and tales to share.