Author and CBS-TV Anchor Mary Calvi to Discuss Her New Book Dear George, Dear Mary at Sarah Lawrence College
April 8, 2019, Yonkers, NY –News anchor and award-winning TV reporter for WCBS-TV Mary Calvi will discuss how she uncovered a love affair between George Washington and Heiress Mary Eliza Philipse while researching her book Dear George, Dear Mary.
It’s one of the topics Calvi will discuss when she speaks at Sarah Lawrence College on April 18. The event, sponsored by the College’s Writing Institute, will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Wrexham Living Room, 1 Mead Way, Yonkers.
A first-time author, Calvi wrote the book based on hundreds of letters, witness accounts, and journal entries she compiled in three years of research. The book explores Washington’s relationship with his first love, New York heiress Mary Philipse, the richest belle in Colonial America. She started the project after her curiosity was piqued by the historic Philipse Manor in Yonkers. Calvi is married to Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and as First Lady of the City of Yonkers attended his inauguration there. The book, published by St. Martin’s Press, was released on February 19.
Calvi is the co-anchor of “CBS2 This Morning” and “CBS2 at Noon” at WCBS-TV in New York City, and the recipient of nine New York Emmy Awards. She has provided live breaking news reports on a wide range of stories across the tri-state area. Calvi has been honored for her writing at the New York Festival’s World Media Awards, and has earned a National ACE Award for Excellence in Journalism, a Clarion Award for Excellence in Reporting, and the ACIM Award for Excellence in Community Service. Calvi graduated magna cum laude from the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University with a degree in journalism.
Patricia Dunn, Director of The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, said she believes that writers and would-be authors will be very interested in what Calvi has to say. “As a first-time author Mary Calvi was able to enliven her book with real life details which she uncovered through careful research, a skill that all writers should cultivate,’’ said Dunn.
The Writing Institute nurtures writers on a variety of levels. In addition to non-credit courses it offers in many genres, it engages the public through writing events such as the Wrexham Road Reading Series, which brings together writers from inside and outside the Sarah Lawrence College community to share their work. Their most popular program Publish and Promote Your Book Conference draws hundreds of published and would-be authors each year in June to get practical advice from literary agents and publishing house editors on how to publish.
About Sarah Lawrence College
Founded in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College is a prestigious, coeducational liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the leading liberal arts colleges in the country, Sarah Lawrence is known for its pioneering approach to education, for its long history of impassioned, intellectual engagement, and for its vibrant, successful alumni. For more information, please visit www.sarahlawrence.edu.
About the Writing Institute
The Writing Institute helps writers explore their talent, engage with a genre, and bring their inner writer to life. Course offerings at The Writing Institute include traditional writing workshops in fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and poetry, along with specialized classes on topics ranging from screenwriting, the art of humor, and story mapping, to flash fiction and creative writing for teens. Many writers who have studied at The Writing Institute have gone on to publish novels, memoirs, poetry chapbooks, children’s books, young adult novels, and more.
About Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College provides a variety of opportunities for members of our local communities to participate in the arts and enjoy the creative work of visiting artists, students and faculty. Visual art exhibitions, open to the public, are presented regularly in the Esther Raushenbush Library Gallery and the Barbara Walters Gallery in the Heimbold Visual Arts Center. Music and dance concerts, theatre productions, poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction readings are presented, some through the Writing Institute on a regular basis throughout the academic year. From time to time the College also offers master classes in dance and music which the public are welcome to attend. For a map of the our campus, visit: http://www.slc.edu/media/campus-map/pdf/VisitorsGuide.pdf