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.

BLF Volunteer

Sam is a local writer who runs I Think I’ll Write Today at local venues in Beacon. He also contributes at local events LitLit and others. In his words “I think there is real magic in literacy. Reading and writing are miraculous skills that connect us across life and death and cultural boundaries, deepening and enriching the drama of our eternal coexistence. There is real magic in our lives when we are looking for and reading the stories around us. In my bi-weekly writing group, I Feel I'll Write Today, I encourage people to open themselves to the page, and share what is within them…”

BLF Volunteer

Lily 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. And she’s completed four novels.

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.

BLF Volunteer

Caroline has lived in many places, but Beacon is currently her favorite. She writes about her family and the rest of her life to learn how it all works. Caroline is an also a lead consultant and a professional coach that helps business and academic leaders master and implement rhetorical and quantitative research skills to enhance their careers, and serves as the technology specialist for Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English. Caroline also created the well-received ‘In Comparison’ book club and workshop at Stanza Books that pairs classics with contemporary literature.

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, is forthcoming from Duke University Press. She is also an amazing talent in the kitchen.

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.

BLF Volunteer

Samuel Grandaw received his B.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College and a Professional Certification from NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute. He was formerly the editorial intern at Blind Corner Literary Magazine, a digital publication dedicated to speculative fiction, and now works for Stanza Books as a seller, buyer, and keyword database developer. Outside of the world of books, he was formerly a professional classical singer in Boston, and spent a year and a half teaching abroad in Poland