Salem Lit Fest Returns For 15th Year In 2024

SALEM, MA — The Salem Lit Fest will return for a 15th year early next month with more than 60 notable writers at in-person locations across the city with a few sessions offered online.

The event runs from Sept. 4 to Sept. 8 with all sessions free with the support of corporate and cultural sponsors.

Highlights for the 2024 Salem Lit Fest include:

• One Book, One Salem — Back by popular demand, our community read began on Juneteenth 2024 and culminates with a live, in-person event at the Salem Literary Festival. Everybody is invited to participate in this community read and discussion of Ilyon Woo's 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography winner, Master Slave Husband Wife. A discussion on the themes of the book will be held on Sept. 8 at 3 p.m. at the Salem Academy Charter School. This event will be translated into Spanish via headset.
• Online Keynote Session with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Geraldine Brooks— Geraldine Brooks will speak about her internationally best-selling historical fiction sensation, Horse, with long-time Salem Lit Fest supporter and internationally best-selling author Brunonia Barry.
• Enduring Hawthorne at The House of the Seven Gables—This open mic evening inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The House of the Seven Gables will be followed by a special performance of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," adapted to folk song by local musician Dan Blakeslee and accompanied by a Crankie created by local artist Ben Wickey. Enduring Hawthorne takes place on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. Creatives are invited to perform works inspired by Hawthorne during the open mic session.
• Children's Lit Fest: Scott Magoon, illustrator of Rocket Ship, Solo Trip, Cathy Ballou Mealey, author of Make More S’mores, and Lori Haskins Houran, author of Jane Goodall, A Little Golden Book Biography, will give a reading at the Community Life Center in Salem on Saturday, September 7 from 10 am to noon. The event will include snacks, activities, and a special sensory-sensitive session with author Cathy Ballou Mealey. Additionally, there will be a self-guided story walk in the Peabody Essex Museum's Ropes Mansion garden with Rocket Ship, Solo Trip from Sept. 5 through Sept. 8.

The full lineup of authors and sessions is available here.

Advance registration is required to obtain login credentials for online sessions. Register online here. In-person sessions will be first come, first seated.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)