A Reading with Mary Calvi and Joann Smith (in person & via Zoom)

Join us in person at the Hudson Valley Writers Center or live on Zoom as we welcome Mary Calvi and Joann Smith as they read from their most recent books. Books will be available for purchase on site.

Mary Calvi is an American television journalist and author of If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt’s First Love, which is based on love letters from Gilded Age to and from Roosevelt and his first love, many of which have never been published. Her first book was named Dear George, Dear Mary: A Novel of George Washington’s First Love. Her research is profiled in the Smithsonian Channel documentary, “George Washington’s Secret Love.” She is the co-anchor of the daily morning and noon news broadcasts at WCBS-TV in New York City and since July 2020 has been the weekend anchor and a weekday fill-in anchor for the syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition. Over the course of her career, Calvi has won thirteen New York Emmy Awards. Find a link to Calvi’s CBS morning feature story here: https://youtu.be/d8J6HtPq0fY

Joann Smith’s collection of short stories “A Heaven of Their Choosing” was published by 7.13 Books in September 2021. Her stories have been anthologized and published in many literary journals. When I Was Boudicca, her novel of historical fiction is available online. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts: Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College, and an MA in English from Lehman College, CUNY. She has taught creative writing for many years and mentors writers through the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). Joann was born, raised, and lives in the Bronx, N.Y.