Admired and best-selling authors offer advice and discuss their latest books.
Writers Read
John Pielmeier, Sarah Bracey White, Wendy Goldman, Ann Levin, Kathy Curto, Steven Lewis, Mercy Tullis-Bukhair, Minnette Coleman, Corinne O'Schaughnessy
Hosted by Edward McCann, Founder and Host, Writers Read
John Pielmeier has been entertaining audiences for decades – in the theatre, on film and television. He started with playwriting, scoring a hit on Broadway with Agnes of God. Since then, he’s had plays on Broadway and more than twenty-five films, television movies and miniseries produced. He’s won Camie, Christopher, Edgar and Gemini awards and was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe. His stage adaptation of The Exorcist will be coming to New York next season.
Sarah Bracey White is a southern storyteller and mines her life for poems, essays, and stories. In 2021, her memoir Primary Lessons was transformed into a musical which debuted at the Paramount Theater in Peekskill. Her literary work includes The Wanderlust: A South Carolina Folk Tale and Feelings Brought to Surface, a poetry collection. Her work has been collected in several anthologies and has also appeared in the New York Times, the Baltimore Afro American Newspaper, the Scarsdale Inquirer, and the Journal News.
Chicago native Wendy Goldman studied improv at Second City, then began her career as an actress and company member of the famed LA comedy troupe, The Groundlings. She and fellow Groundling, Judy Toll, created an original musical, “Casual Sex.” A surprise hit, the award-winning work was adapted for film with producer Ivan Reitman and Universal Studios. Wendy’s career has included stints as a writer-producer on numerous TV shows. Wendy currently teaches workshops here in New York and inspires creativity as a writing coach.
Ann Levin is a widely published writer and book reviewer who enjoyed a long journalistic career at the Associated Press, covering elections as well as every imaginable natural and human disaster. A recipient of an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas, Ann’s work appears regularly in many literary journals.
Kathy Curto teaches at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, Montclair State University, and The Writers Circle. Kathy’s has appeared in the New York Times’ 2021 Best of Tiny Love Stories, on NPR and in the anthology Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now. Among her many publications is her memoir, Not for Nothing-Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood.
Steven Lewis is a writer, mentor, and editor. His work has been published widely, in every place from the New York Times to the Road Apple Review. His credits also include a long list of parenting publications. Steve’s recent books include a novel, The Lights Around the Shore, and a poetry collection titled Fire in Paradise, co-authored with his daughter Elizabeth Bayou-Funk.
Mercy Tullis-Bukhari is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer who focuses on the woman's experience through individuality, motherhood, and sexuality. Mercy was named one of the “8 Authors Bringing Afro-Latina Stories to the Forefront” by Remezcla magazine and was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2016 and 2018. Mercy’s third anthology of poetry, The Little Deaths, will be published by Get Fresh Books Publishing this year.
Minnette Coleman is a member of the Harlem Writers Guild. She grew up in Atlanta and launched her writing career with entertainment reviews for the Atlanta Daily World. She is the author of three historical novels, The Blacksmith's Daughter, No Death by Unknown Hands, and The Tree: A Journey to Freedom. Her most recent novel, The Hair Women, will be published later this year.
Corinne O’Shaughnessy is a retired New York City public school literacy teacher, now retired. Her essays can be found in HerStry blog, the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Dorothy Parkers Ashes, and Catbird Lit, among others. Her published fiction is available online at Survivor Lit and Book of Matches Lit.
In 2013, Writers Read founder and host Edward McCann created a new kind of literary event that gathers a select group of talented writers to present five-minute takes on a single topic. Writers Read creates performance opportunities for writers and celebrates the spoken word through live events and podcasts. Over the last decade, the organization has presented hundreds of stories in association with partners like Vassar College, the National Arts Club and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and City Winery New York. Ed’s own writing has appeared in many journals and magazines, including Country Living, Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping, The Irish Echo, and The Sun, and he’s a regular contributor to Milieu, a magazine about design.