What We Do

and Who We Are

Our aim is to celebrate and expand the literary arts in the Hudson Valley, with a strong focus on inspiring and connecting book-loving audiences to diverse, high- quality literary voices in and around Beacon, NY.

Producers and Partners

  • A woman with gray, wavy hair and a white shirt, smiling and resting her face on her hand while sitting at a table with wine glasses, in a cozy bookstore or cafe setting.

    Hannah Brooks

    Founder, Exec Producer, and Curator of Beacon LitFest and Newburgh Literary Festival.

    BIO:

    Hannah Brooks, physician and diehard community activist, and award-winning writer Danielle Trussoni established the Literary Festival in 2019 in partnership with Safe Harbors of the Hudson in Newburgh, NY. When Brooks moved to Beacon, NY she developed the Beacon LitFest 2023 and 2024 at Howland Cultural Center. In 2025, Litfest joined forces with Stanza Books and branched out to multiple Beacon venues. Simply put, “the goal is to highlight and expand the literary presence in the midHudson Valley.”

  • A man and woman hugging inside a bookstore, surrounded by wooden shelves filled with books. The man is wearing a baseball cap, glasses, and a white t-shirt. The woman is wearing glasses and a checkered shirt, smiling at the camera. The bookstore has warm lighting, green and brick walls, and framed pictures hanging on the walls.

    Andrea Talarico & Mark Harris

    Exec Producers and Curators BLF 2025. Owners of Stanza Books

    BIO:

    New BLF partners Andrea Talarico and Mark Harris opened Stanza Books in Beacon in 2023. Andrea helped found the Scranton, PA book festival, Pages & Places, as part of her bookstore work for Anthology New & Used Books. She is so excited to team up with this year’s LitFest! Andrea is a poet, writer, and editor. She has several published chapbooks and has been included in a number of anthologies, including Belt Publishing in 2024. Her work has appeared in The Poetry Project at St. Mark's, Luna Luna, Brokelyn, Yes, Poetry, Electric City magazine, and more.

  • Lily Friedrich

    Social Mediator and Producer BLF 2026

    BIO:

    Lily Friedrich was born and raised in the Midwest, and has been overjoyed to find this vibrant writing community since moving to Beacon. Alongside her volunteer work for The Beacon LitFest, she co-hosts a free drop-in writing group called “I Feel I’ll Write Today,” creating a welcoming and supportive space for writers of all levels, forms, and genres. Lily, herself, is a passionate writer and has completed four novels. She is a wiz at goal-oriented teamwork and thrives on the grand visions and hustle of the startup culture. (We also have Lily to thank for our fresh new website look.)

  • Bernie Lombardi

    Curator and Producer BLF 2026. @bernie.lombardi bookstagram

    BIO:

    Bernie Lombardi is a local bookstagrammer (@bernie.lombardi) whose content is focused on contemporary “lit fic” and book prize culture. He has partnered with the Booker Prizes, the National Book Foundation, the Carol Shields Prize, and other international literary foundations. When he’s not bookstagramming he does research and teaching at Rutgers University in Newark, and has published multiple works on queer African and African diasporic literature. We are mutually thrilled he’s joined us for the 2026 Litfest planning!

  • Christopher Metts

    Marketer and Producer BLF 2026. @christophermetts bookstagram

    BIO:

    Christopher Lee Metts is a southern transplant from Tennessee and is super excited to connect with and explore the reading community of Beacon. He works on the marketing team for Pantheon, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Chris is a voracious reader—day, night, and every moment in between—and he reviews and promotes books through his bookstagram account (@christophermetts). We think that’s where we found him and wrangled him onto the Litfest 2026 team! (Either that, or Andi couldn’t get him out of Stanza Books at closing time…)

  • A woman with blonde hair wearing a red shirt, sitting in front of a brick wall with string lights and a skull ornament.

    Shane Killoran

    Producer and Curator BLF. Founder of Hit House Creative

    BIO:

    Shane Bly Killoran has been a production partner and curator for Beacon LitFest in 2023 and 2024. With Hit House, she developed and staged multiple outstanding dramatic performances including the Vagina Monologues in 2023 and Red Silk in 2024, and led the drama component at BLF 2025. She is Founder of Hit House Creative, based in Beacon, NY, and specializes in creating theatrical works, dramaturgical services, copywriting, and programs initiatives via Hit House Film.

  • Smiling elderly woman with gray hair sitting in a cozy room with wooden shelves filled with decorative items and ceramics.

    Ruth Danon

    Producer and Curator BLF. Founder of Live Writing-Poetry

    BIO:

    Ruth Danon has been Co-Curator and Co-Producer of The Newburgh Literary Festival in 2021 and Beacon LitFest in 2023 & 2024. She has published five books of poetry, and her work has appeared in multiple anthologies, including Tupelo Quarterly, Paris Review, BOMB, and many others. Her work was selected by Robert Creeley for Best American Poetry, 2002. Dr. Danon taught and directed the creative and expository writing program in the School of Professional Studies at New York University. She is the founder of Live Writing: A Project for the Reading, Writing, and Performance of Poetry, and curated the Spring Street Reading Series for Atlas Studios.

Our BLF Team

  • An elderly man with long, curly, gray hair sitting at a table indoors, smiling at the camera.

    Noah Rosaler

    BLF Volunteer

    Recently retired from a career in healthcare management, Noah gives back to the community by volunteering locally with the Animal Rescue Foundation, Beacon Reads, Fareground, Beacon Welcome Center, past Beacon Litfests, and is a long time board member of River Pool at Beacon. An amateur photographer, Noah’s work has been shown at The Howland Public Library and Howland Center.

  • A smiling man with gray hair wearing a blue checkered shirt, standing in front of a colorful drawing of a smiling moon on a black background, framed and hanging on a beige wall.

    Sandy Santra

    BLF volunteer

    Sandy Santra was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in the California Bay Area.
    He worked in the legal tech industry for forty years as an analyst, project manager, and production specialist and in publishing for many years as a copyeditor, typesetter, and layout artist. Sandy is also a professional musician, an award-winning independent filmmaker and a professional photographer in New York City. He gives occasional readings and musical performances at the Howland Cultural Center, and attends Beacon Litfest every year. He is writing a speculative fiction series, set in NYC, that follows the travails of seventy pieces of sentient furniture.

  • A woman with curly hair wearing sunglasses smiling and holding a yellow Labrador Retriever dog.

    Deborah Kapchan

    BLF Volunteer

    A great supporter of BLF in many capacities, Deborah Kapchan is a writer, translator and ethnographer. A Guggenheim fellow, her book, Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Moroccan Contemporary Poetry (2020), was shortlisted for ALTA’s National Translation Prize for Poetry. Her latest work, Taking Leave, a memoir about her relation to the three religions of the book, was released Oct 2025, Duke University Press. She is also an amazing talent in the kitchen.

  • A woman with blonde hair and blue eyes smiling with her mouth open, holding a clear bottle with a white label and green text that reads 'Absinthe Prelude' and 'BiAncHe', standing inside a room with wooden walls and a coat rack in the background.

    Jackie Corley

    BLF Volunteer

    Jackie is a content strategist and writer living in the Hudson Valley. She’s a novelist, journalist, publisher, and drone operator. These days, she is a VP of content, programming, and audience development for Townsquare Media..and she’s coming to get you! She’s got the scrappiest lil pup in Beacon.

  • Boo Two

    BLF Volunteer

    We don’t know what we’d do without our animal support system!

  • Christopher Lee Metts

    BLF Volunteer