2023 Moderators

Will Anderson wears many hats as a performer, musician, historian, and theater social media marketer. He is also the co-creator of The Theater Lovers, a social media brand on Instagram and TikTok that aims to make theater accessible by combining history with humor through memes, sketches, live performances, music, and theater book recommendations. He runs The Theater Lovers with his wife Rachael, hence the “lovers” moniker.

Mary Lynn Becza is the assistant director of the Morristown & Morris Township Library.  She is a graduate of Douglass College and received her Master’s Degree from Rutgers University School of Information and Library Science.  Mary Lynn has a special interest in fiction Readers Advisory and can often be found at the Library recommending her favorite new titles to patrons.

Tina Bennett is a literary agent who specializes in narrative nonfiction, literary journalism, idea books, politics, history, current affairs, memoir, and academic crossover titles. Her clients include Andrea Elliott, Atul Gawande, Malcolm Gladwell, Lev Grossman, Laura Hillenbrand, Hope Jahren, Patrick Radden Keefe, Jill Lepore, Dahlia Lithwick, Alex Ross, and Eric Schlosser. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.

Dr. Uché Blackstock is a thought leader on bias and racism in healthcare. She appears on air regularly as an MSNBC medical contributor and is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, as well as a former associate professor of Emergency Medicine at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Blackstock received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University. Dr. Blackstock’s debut book, Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, will be published next January.

Avery Carpenter Forrey is the author of Social Engagement, which was a GMA Buzz Pick and featured by Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and other publications. As managing editor at theSkimm, she co-wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller How to Skimm Your Life. Her writing has also appeared in The Cut, GQ, and Lit Hub. She holds an MFA in fiction from New York University and lives in Connecticut with her husband and daughter.

Faith Childs is a literary agent who heads an independent literary agency which bears her name. Founded in 1990, the agency is a full-service literary agency, representing noted writers: scholars, biographers, historians, critics, memoirists, novelists, and poets. Among the agency’s clients are winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and other literary honors and awards. Before becoming a literary agent, she practiced labor law for a decade. In addition to representing the current work of writers, the agency works with authors and their estates to protect their patrimony, and where possible, to place their work with appropriate repositories. A publishing activist, she has worked to expand opportunities for writers and editors in the publishing industry.

Carol Fitzgerald is the president of The Book Report Network. The company’s websites, Bookreporter.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com, have become the gathering places for a large and devoted community of booklovers since 1996. Carol is known for her in-depth author interviews. She hosts the “Bookreporter Talks To” video/podcast series, as well as “Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books,” a monthly book preview program, and the “Bookaccino Live” Book Group series, a book group discussion program with a featured author.

Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent and covered the 2016 presidential election extensively. She joined the New York Times in February 2015 as a campaign correspondent. Previously, Ms. Haberman worked as a political reporter at Politico from 2010-15 and at other publications including the New York Post and New York Daily News.

In 2018, Ms. Haberman was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, which focused on the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign. She also won the Aldo Beckman Award for her White House coverage and she was a finalist for the Mirror Awards, with Glenn Thrush, for “What is Hillary Clinton Afraid of?” which was published in 2014.

Her hobbies include singing, and she is married with three children.

Rachael Joyce is an actor, singer, and theatrical content creator best known for co-creating the cult favorite page, The Theater Lovers, with her husband Will Anderson. Starting out as a child performer at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the arts have been her lifelong passion. Her main focus lies in sharing information in a clear and humorous way that inspires community sharing instead of gate-keeping. Most recently she was featured on multiple Broadway Con panels.  

Robin Kall founded Reading with Robin in 2002 as a Saturday morning radio talk show. Marking its 20th anniversary this fall, the Reading with Robin brand has grown to include a podcast, Instagram live, a Rhode Island-based events series, and national speaking engagements. Kall is also a frequent contributor to the Providence Journal and The Ethel from AARP. You can find Robin wherever there are readers. She lives in Rhode Island with her husband and beloved corgi, Benny.

Julia Libeskind, a resident of Morris County, has been practicing as a speech language pathologist for over 20 years. She graduated from Boston University and Rush University College of Health Sciences. She has worked with people with a wide variety of communication disorders across all ages during the course of her career. An avid reader, she currently works in a public school where she founded and facilitates her school’s book club, hoping to inspire even more readers.

Julie Maloney is a writer/poet and founder/director of Women Reading Aloud, a non-profit international writing organization. She teaches writing workshops, gives readings, leads domestic and international writing retreats, and speaks to “Writing as a Life Tool.” Her award-winning debut novel, A Matter of Chance (She Writes Press), was selected by Us  Weekly Magazine as a trending book and won the Eric Hoffer Book Award for General Fiction for 2019. 

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times best-selling author of eight novels including Reconstructing Amelia, A Good Marriage, and Friends Like These. She’s been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Alex awards and her books have been translated into more than twenty languages, as well as optioned for film by HBO, Amazon, Amblin and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn. Her next book, Like Mother, Like Daughter, is forthcoming from Knopf in summer 2024. 

 

Paul Rosenberg holds an M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and is board certified in psychiatry and neurology. He ran a psychiatric practice for 46 years and is an emeritus physician on the medical staff of Morristown Medical Center. He is a teacher, lecturer, expert witness, editorial board member, and author of published papers in psychiatry, and he even started a men’s book group 14 years ago, the “Every Man to His Taste Book Club”.

Nathaniel Rosenthalis is the author of The Leniad. His debut book of poems, I Won’t Begin Again, won the 2021 Burnside Review Press Book Award. His poems have appeared in Granta, The Chicago Review, New American Writing, Lana Turner, The Harvard Advocate, Denver Quarterly, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. Based in New York City, he teaches writing at NYU and Columbia University and also works professionally as an actor and singer, having performed Off-Broadway, in venues like 54Below, and earned SAG film credit.

Kathleen Sanderson is an award-winning chef, recipe developer, teacher, and lifelong learner. Depending on the day, you can find her at the Farm Cooking School in Titusville, The Cooking School at 90 Acres in Gladstone, King’s Cooking School In Short Hills, Campbell Soup in Camden, or any number of other places.

B.J. Schecter has more than 30 years of experience in sports media as a writer, editor and executive. His career portfolio includes Sports Illustrated, The Boston Globe, Baseball America and 3STEP Sports.

In addition to writing and media consulting, Schecter has served as a guest lecturer and adjunct professor at Northeastern University, Fordham University, Southern Virginia University, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and several high schools. He is involved with several charitable organizations focusing on creating opportunities for and mentoring young people.

Brian Stelter is the New York Times bestselling author of three books: Top of the Morning, Hoax, and Network of Lies. Previously, Stelter was a media reporter at the New York Times, the anchor of CNN’s Reliable Sources, and the Walter Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. He is currently a special correspondent for Vanity Fair.

Alix Strauss is a trend, culture and lifestyle journalist; an award-winning, four-time published author; and speaker.  She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, among other publications. During the past 25 years she has written over 1500 articles. Her books include: The Joy of Funerals, Based Upon Availability, and Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous and the Notorious.  She is also the editor of Have I Got a Guy for You, an anthology of mother coordinated dating horror stories. Her work has been an option for several TV and film projects. She lives in Manhattan.

Kate Tuttle is a freelance writer and editor. A past president of the National Book Critics Circle, she formerly edited the books pages at the Boston Globe and People magazine. Her reviews and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere. 

Carol VanDenHende is an award-winning author who pens stories of resilience and hope. Her Goodbye, Orchid series draws from her Chinese American heritage, and has won 30+ literary and design awards, including the American Fiction Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction First Novel Award, and Royal Dragonfly Awards for Cultural Diversity and Disability Awareness. 

Buzzfeed, Parade, and Travel+Leisure named Carol’s books a most anticipated read. Glamour Magazine recommended her “modern, important take on the power of love.” The International Pulpwood Queens selected Goodbye, Orchid as a 2022 Bonus Book-of-the-Month and Orchid Blooming as a 2023 International Book-of-the-Month.

Carol’s mission is unlocking optimism as a writer, speaker, strategist, board member, and climate reality leader. One secret to her good fortune? Her humorous hubby and twins, who prove that love really does conquer all.

< Back to KidFest authors
< Back to Main Fest authors