Concord, Massachusetts
Two weeks of talks, readings, and discussions celebrating the written and the spoken word.
Nathaniel Philbrick
Gish Jen
Andrew Bacevich
Pauline Maier
How You Can Participate
- Attend: Most events are free. All events are open to the public. Events that require a ticket are so indicated and include information about how and where to obtain tickets.
- Donate: The festival is produced by a non-profit foundation and depends greatly on individual support. Tax deductible donations in any amount are encouraged and can be made online.
- Sponsor: Corporate sponsorship is welcomed and is available. For information please .
Katherine Howe
Events: New Literary Voices 2009
Book: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Katherine Howe is completing a PhD in American and New England Studies and is a descendant of Elizabeth Proctor who survived the Salem witch trials, and Elizabeth Howe, who did not. The idea for her first novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane developed while Katherine was studying for her doctoral qualifying exams and walking her dog through the woods between Marblehead and Salem.
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is a spellbinding novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history — the Salem witch trials. Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin is handling the sale of her grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem when she finds a yellowing fragment of parchment with the name Deliverance Dane written on it. This discovery launches Connie on a quest to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power — a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.