Beth Anne Keates is Railroad Historian, Presenter and Co-Author of four books on rail transportation with Kenneth Springirth. These books are by Fonthill Media. “Union Pacific Railroad Heritage”, “Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Heritage”, “Viewing Norfolk Southern Railway” and “Viewing SEPTA’s Railway Heritage” are full of photographs taken by her and family in their travels. “Stourbridge Lion to the Stourbridge Line” talks about the evolution of Steam to the modern rails and is forthcoming. Born and raised in Lansdowne, she led the 4th of July Parade as Betsy Ross for over 25 years as Honorary Regent of the Lansdowne Chapter NSDAR.

Patricia, a professional composer and musician from the Brazilian group, MINAS, has written an autobiographical book about longing, and her family’s emigration from Sicily to Philadelphia. She has also adapted her book into a musical work, composing pieces that fuse Jazz, Opera, and Brazilian rhythms. Patricia will share her creative process in writing both a book and musical work simultaneously. She will read from her book, play musical pieces from La Giara, as well as invite the audience to share their family stories as well

Ona Gritz’s memoir, Everywhere I Look, was named the StoryTrade Award Nonfiction Book of the Year, and has won the Readers’ Choice Gold Award for Best Adult Book, a Pencraft Best Book Award in Memoir, the Independent Author Award in New Nonfiction, and the Independent Author Award in True Crime. She is also the author of two 2024 young adult verse novels,

The Space You Left Behind, which was featured in The Children’s Book Council’s Hot Off the Press roundup of anticipated best sellers, and Take a Sad Song, which has been selected as one of Kirkus Reviews’ best YA titles of 2024.

Larry was born in Pittsburgh, PA. He is an award-winning and best-selling author and now lives on a farm where he grows his stories in peaceful climes. His fifteen novels, full of clever, outspoken characters, are set anywhere from the star trails of the Galactic Rangers to a balcony on Social Security Headquarters’ third floor. Find him at larryenright.com.

Daniel Simpson’s most recent book, Inside the Invisible, published by Nine Mile Books in November, 2022, won the inaugural Propel Poetry Prize and has been nominated for the American Academy of Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Other books include Border Songs: A Conversation in Poems, co-authored with Ona Gritz (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and School for the Blind (Poets Wear Prada, 2014). His work has been anthologized in About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, Welcome to the Resistance: Poetry as Protest, and Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability, and has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Cortland Review, and many other journals. He serves as flash nonfiction editor for Wordgathering, and leads, along with Ona Gritz, online workshops in poetry and flash memoir. He sings with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia and works as a technical support specialist for the Library of Congress’s braille and audio book download service for the print-impaired. Dan moved to Lansdowne in 1993 and lives here now with his wife Ona Gritz, their rescue Chihuahua Portia, and Dan’s guide dog Boone.

An environmental activist, George W. Ambrose is author of two books, featured journal articles, and poems. He taught English and Environmental Science at Penn Wood HS (Teacher of the Year, 2017), is President of Friends of the Swedish Cabin and Director of Environmental Education at Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center. He has been appointed to the Citizens Advisory Council of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection.

Al is the author of four books of stories, poems, and humor pieces and has written and directed original plays for the Lansdowne Arts Festival. His short plays Corpse and God and Tom appeared in Philadelphia and Delaware County theaters. Al’s favorite onstage roles include David Bliss in Hay Fever, opinionated matriarch Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe, and Justice Roger B. Taney and abolitionist Thomas Garrett in two episodes of Better Angels. He designed and wrote Scorekeeping for the Congressional Budget Office and taught mathematics at Neumann University. He is a director of the Lansdowne Allied Youth Council.

Christine M. Du Bois is an anthropologist of immigration, race relations, and agriculture. She has published three non-fiction books, as well as poems in two dozen online literary magazines and anthologies. Her poetic work explores social justice, history, ecology, and interpersonal themes. She experiments with different styles, tending towards poems that are accessible and meant to be read aloud.