News

September 20, 2023

Five Cape Cod Writers Chosen for “Reading Local” at the Provincetown Book Festival Saturday, September 30th at 9:30 a.m.

Provincetown, MA—The Provincetown Book Festival will kick off at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, September 30, with a curated reading by local authors, chosen by award-winning novelist and short story writer Joe Okonkwo. The selected writers are Katy Abel, Denise Coffey, Steven Bruce Myerson, Dan Perdios, and Judith Stiles.

The Provincetown Book Festival is three days of free literary events for readers, writers, and book lovers of all kinds. Featured guest authors at the Festival include Ilyon Woo, author of the non-fiction title Master Slave Husband Wife; novelist Alice Elliott Dark; Jamaican-born memoirist Prince Shakur; and outer Cape historian John Taylor Williams. More information and reservations for programs are available at provincetownbookfestival.org.

For this event, dubbed “Reading Local,” Mr. Okonkwo reviewed over thirty submissions from local and regional writers. The five selected writers will be reading fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Mr. Okonkwo will also moderate the program.

When she's not writing fiction, Katy Abel works as an anti-bias facilitator for the Anti-Defamation League, training student leaders how to recognize and combat antisemitism, racism and LGBTQ+ hate in their schools and communities. Previously, she worked as an associate commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, where she created state-funded housing programs for homeless college students, and as a news reporter and producer at WHDH-TV in Boston. She divides her time between Boston and Provincetown.

Denise Coffey is a local author, currently a senior reporter with the Cape Cod Times. Prior to coming to Cape Cod, she wrote for the Hartford Courant for several years. She also writes fiction and poetry, and has written and read several essays for New Hampshire Public Radio.  Arts and Academic Publishing, a small publisher in Woodstock, CT, released her book of poetry in 2020. “This Raucous Worship” contains 21 poems, many of which she worked on after a residence at Audubon’s Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary in Hampton, NH. In her earlier days she taught Freshman English at the University of New Hampshire where she received an MA in writing in 1988. She was the assistant supervisor of the university’s COAST bus service and later the coordinator of the non-traditional student center. Her work history has been eclectic: she drove buses, painted houses, worked as an academic advisor and health insurance correspondent. Writing has been a touchstone throughout.

Steven Bruce Myerson is a playwright, poet, director, and performer whose work has been presented at theaters and festivals in CA, CT, IL, MA, NY, and RI. On the Cape, his plays have been presented at the Barnstable Comedy Club’s 2019 Playwright Festival, for Sailor Beware’s series of monologues at WHAT, and at Provincetown Theater for the 24 Hour Plays and the Day of the Dead Festival. In 2020, his play, “TO THE EXTREME!,” received a Winter Read for new play development at Provincetown Theater under the direction of the theater’s Artistic Director, David Drake. As a poet, he has read at open mics at the Writers Voice Café, the Coffeehouse at the MEWS, and the Fine Arts Work Center where he was twice named a Summer Scholar. He is a member of the Provincetown Playwrights Lab and is honored to have previously been chosen to read his poetry for “Reading Local.” As an actor, he premiered his solo show, “LOST LOVE POEMS,” at the Providence Fringe Festival (Wilbury Theater Group, RI, 2022), has acted in readings for the Truro Playwright Collective, and can be spotted in “The Gilded Age” (HBO Max).

Dan Perdios has been a civil rights activist since he was 19 in the days of Harvey Milk and the gay rights movement. When the AIDS epidemic raged it was an easy shift to AIDS activism. Dan attributes his survival during the pandemic to the love and loyalty of his dogs. Specifically, Golden Retrievers. For the last thirty years, Dan and his Goldens have returned to Cape Cod in the summer to reconnect with his large extended family and to explore the beauty of the Cape and the Islands. Dan is an extensively published PEN Grant award-winning journalist. His articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers such as: We The People, The Press Democrat, the Bay Area Reporter, the Russian River Times, the Desert Times, In LA Magazine, and The Desert Sun. He is also the author of the book A Golden Retriever and His Two Dads. In the last few years Dan has taken his love of nature and his dogs a step further. Now his passion lies with the animal rights movement. His articles have appeared in Bay Woof and The Dodo – an online magazine about animals. He believes animal rights is the new gay rights. He recently bought his first vegan belt and is moving more and more to an animal free diet.

Judith Stiles writes for the Italian publication, Ytali.com about all things American. For ten years she wrote a weekly column for The Villager Newspaper in NYC for lousy pay and the love of writing. Her literary essays and short stories have appeared in Europa Quotidiano, ZibbyMag, Ex-Puritan, and the anthology Hemingway Shorts. “Pheromones and Fusion” was published in the New York Times.

The Provincetown Book Festival is supported by many sponsors, including the Friends of the Provincetown Library, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Provincetown Tourism Fund.