The Scarsdale Writers' Center Presents: Family Stories

Program Type:

Online, Writing

Age Group:

Teens, Adults, Seniors
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Event Details

Scarsdale Library Writers' Center Presents…

Join us once a month when the writers from our critique group program and other local authors present their short essays, poetry or book excerpts, all revolving around a theme. Here’s your chance to be moved by the creativity and talent of your local friends and neighbors — and to get the scoop on their upcoming publications!  Watch our bulletin or social media for each month’s theme and the readers who’ll be appearing!

Aliaa Dawoud wrote her very first story at the age of 11, while sitting for an English exam at the British International School of Warsaw, Poland. It was in response to the question: Write a story beginning with the phrase, “I walked into the classroom late that Monday morning.” Aliaa wrote that she walked into the classroom to find an elephant! Lately, most of her writing is inspired by her mischievous identical twin boys, Tarek and Eyad. In 2019, Aliaa read a story about her twins at the story telling show ‘Every Family’s Got One’ in Roslyn, Long Island. And today, she will be reading another story about her twins called ‘The Twins and the Burned Tortilla.’

RICHARD FITZHUGH was a copy writer and creative director at advertising agencies in New York City for 38 years. One day he walked out of his office, enrolled at Columbia University and got a Masters Degree in Social Work. He was an addictions therapist in    an outpatient substance abuse treatment center in Westchester County, and had a private psychotherapy practice in Hartsdale. He is retired and has been taking naps and writing essays.

Beth Fonfrias is a member of several poetry writing groups in Westchester, including DownRiver Poets, the Armonk Poetry Circle, and Poetea, and has read her poems at the Greenburgh, Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, and Armonk Libraries, and at the Peekskill Art Alliance and at Sundays at the J with George.  In  addition, for the last seven years, she has led a weekly creative writing group, Writing from the Heart.   Accompanied by a jazz pianist, she  has performed at  Christ  Episcopal Church and with drummer and guitarist at an event space in Mamaroneck.  Last year, her poems were  included in Visions: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Poetry.  Now retired, Beth taught Literature and Writing at Manhattanville College.  She lives in Hastings-on-Hudson with her husband.

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, 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, came out in January, 2021, and Reyna's latest women’s fiction novel, Both Are True, is available for pre-order now from Bronx River Books in Scarsdale and online and will be released in October, 2021. Reyna lives with her family in Scarsdale, New York. To learn more, please visit reynamardergentin.com.

Rainy Horvath is an award-winning writer from Scarsdale, New York who began her career writing over 50 technical and training manuals for Fortune 500 corporations in Chicago and New York City. She transitioned to more creative work as an Adjunct Writing teacher at several area colleges while earning her Master of Arts, and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, degrees from Manhattanville College.
An active member of the Westchester writing scene, Rainy now writes memoir and historical fiction. Her short fiction, non-fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous online and print publications and her first memoir, The Able Queen, was published in 2020. She plans to release her second memoir, Job Hopper – My Hop to the Top, in spring 2022.

Linda Lindman has been writing all her life as an attorney, practicing more than 35 years.  She has taken creative writing classes at the New School and New York University.  Ms. Lindman began exploring writing things that will NOT put people to sleep by joining The Scarsdale Writers' Center during the pandemic. Ms. Lindman is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Philosophy and a graduate of Harvard Law School. She resides in Scarsdale, New York, with her two daughters and two cats. This is her debut in sharing her personal writing with a wider audience

Janice Peran lives in Scarsdale with her husband Michael and their sons Mitchell, a junior at Scarsdale High School, and Avi, in sixth grade at Scarsdale Middle School.  Janice and Michael had a baby in between them that Janice’s story is about.  Janice has been a member in Barbara’s group for many years, and studied writing in both college and graduate school..

INES RODRIGUES is a Brazilian journalist, writer, and teacher. Her first novel, Days of Bossa Nova, was published in 2017 by Black Opal Books. Ines teaches Creative Writing at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and at Bronxville Adult School. She worked as a journalist and radio host in Brazil and lived in Italy and London before making New York her home years ago. Since 2015, she has also been promoting the Scarsdale Salon, a quarterly literary event in partnership with the Scarsdale Public Library and Bronx River Books. Ines has just been accepted for an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University, starting in September.

Khris Tahmin Lifetime Westchester resident. Mom says great things about me. Need to go to Walmart but can't find my pajamas. Prefers to be known as 'your majesty'. Binge-watches EPISODES with Matt LeBlanc. Has a secret crush on Matt LeBlanc. 

Van Wallach is a writer based in Katonah, NY. A native of Mission, Texas, he holds an economics degree from Princeton University. He started his career in business journalism and then moved into corporate communications. Van’s a language buff, having studied Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian (don’t ask him to speak any of them). His first book, A Kosher Dating Odyssey: One Former Texas Baptist’s Quest for a Naughty and Nice Jewish Girl, appeared in 2012 (available on Amazon). He’s been doing open-mic appearances for the last decade, at venues that include the Hudson Valley Writers Center, the Museum of Sex, the Katonah Library and the Delaware Art Museum. He blogs at mission2moscow.blogspot.com and at the Times of israel.

Mary Wasacz is a clinical specialist in psychiatric nursing, certified by the American Nurses Association and a family therapist.She was a bereavement and spiritual care coordinator for hospice where she presently volunteers with her parrot, Gracie.Mary is new to writing and has been a participant in the Writers Circle since it began. Barbara Josselsohn has been instrumental in helping her with her unpublished manuscript about her newborn who died.
     
 


Follow on social media: 
www.Facebook.com/WritersCenterScarsdaleLibrary for updates on which local authors will be reading! 

You will receive an email with the Zoom link approximately 1 hour before the beginning of the event.