hilarie burton morgan

Hilarie Burton Morgan has built a dynamic career as an actress, businesswoman, best-selling author, and producer.  Most notably, she established a loyal fan base for her role as Peyton Sawyer on the hit CW series ONE TREE HILL, which ran for six seasons. She reunited with her co-stars Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz to launch the “Drama Queens,” a Podcast for iHeartRadio.  
Burton is a New York Times best-selling author of Grimoire Girl, a collection of memoir essays and magical practices that connects readers to the enchantment that exists inside us all, and The Rural Diaries, her debut memoir that tells the inspiring story of leaving Hollywood for a radically different kind of life in upstate New York—a celebration of community, family, and the value of hard work in small-town America.
Burton is the host of “True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here” on SundanceTV and AMC+. In “It Couldn’t Happen Here,” life-long small-town community member and advocate Burton visits different small towns in an effort to shine a much-needed light on the unique ways in which crime impacts rural communities and their judicial systems. Too often the heartbreaking events in these towns are largely overlooked because they lack the national media platforms and advocacy resources found in larger cities. In each episode, Burton hears the facts of the case from family members and local insiders in an attempt to understand the challenges the community faced investigating the crime, learn the lasting impact the crime has had on the fabric of the town, and ultimately call attention to where justice currently stands. Burton embraces these communities, where many know not just the victims, but the perpetrators and those who enable them.
Born and raised in Sterling, Virginia, Morgan began her career as a former host of MTV’s TOTAL REQUEST LIVE and has since established herself as a versatile multi-hyphenate who has moved effortlessly throughout film and television as an actress and producer.
Her episode of THE WALKING DEAD opposite her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan was one of the production’s top 5 rated episodes for the entire series. She and Jeffrey also produced under their production banner, Mischief Farm, Shudder’s horror feature Bloody Axe Wound. Her other television credits include COUNCIL OF DADS, LETHAL WEAPON, WHITE COLLAR, TOGETHERNESS, GREY’S ANATOMY, HOSTAGES, EXTANT, and FOREVER. Her film credits include GROWING UP SMITH opposite Jason Lee, acclaimed feature THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and producing and starring roles in numerous Lifetime and Hallmark holiday films.

jennifer finney boylan

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of 18 books, including Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult. Her memoir, She’s Not There was the first bestselling work by a transgender American. Since 2014, she has been the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University; she is also on the faculty of the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference of Middlebury College and the Sirenland Writers’ Conference in Positano, Italy. In 2022-23, she was a Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She graduated from Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins, and holds doctorates honoris causa from the College of the Atlantic, Sarah Lawrence College, the New School, and Wesleyan. She was also awarded a masters ad eundem gradum from Colby College. For many years she was Contributing Opinion Writer for the opinion section of the New York Times. Her work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Downeast, and many other publications. She has been a guest of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS News’ 48 Hours, and 30 Rock with Brian Williams. On public radio, she has been a guest on Fresh Air with Terri Gross as well as on “Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me,” where she was quizzed about hot dogs, and got all three questions right.

joshua boettiger

Joshua Boettiger is a great-grandson of Eleanor Roosevelt. Joshua is a rabbi and writer. He is the Jewish Chaplain and Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities at Bard College, and the Rosh Yeshiva (Head of School) at the Center for Contemporary Mussar. Josh is the great-grandson of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Deborah caldwell-stone

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. For over twenty years she has worked closely with library professionals and library trustees on a wide range of intellectual freedom issues related to library service in the United States. She has served on the faculty of the ALA-sponsored Lawyers for Libraries and Law for Librarians workshops and is a contributor to the 10th edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual. She has contributed articles on law, policy, and intellectual freedom to American Libraries and other publications.

Founded in 1969, the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is a non-profit legal and educational organization affiliated with the American Library Association.  FTRF protects and defends the First Amendment to the Constitution and supports the right of libraries to collect—and individuals to access—information. Staff and trustees do this work with a focus on First Amendment education, litigation, and advocacy.

anna eleanor fierst

Anna Eleanor Fierst is a great-granddaughter of Eleanor Roosevelt and the daughter of Mrs. Roosevelt’s oldest grandchild, Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves. Anna has a professional background in publication editing and marketing and managed the communications department at the Woman’s National Democratic Club before becoming its president in 2013. Upon retiring from that official role, and just before the pandemic, she joined the Board of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center (ERVK) to promote the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Her main goal now is to modernize one of ERVK’s “legacy” programs and build programming support for this and a bold new endeavor, the annual Bravery in Literature Award. A native of New York State and Washington DC, Anna currently serves as the Vice Chair of the National Women’s Foundation, an organization that promotes women’s history, youth voting and civic engagement. She and her husband raised two children in Bethesda, Maryland.

Cameron samuels

Cameron Samuels (they/them/theirs) organized nationally recognized efforts against book banning and LGBTQ+ internet censorship in the Katy Independent School District in Texas. Within months of once facing the school board alone, receiving no applause while other speakers stoked fear with bigotry, Samuels packed school board meetings and distributed hundreds of banned books to students across Texas. With the ACLU, Samuels filed legal action that resulted in the district unblocking queer internet resources like the Trevor Project and the Montrose Center. Later that year, President Barack Obama recognized Samuels for their efforts against book banning.

Samuels is now organizing a coalition of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas to demonstrate youth visibility in policymaking. In the Texas Legislature, SEAT has organized on the frontlines in opposition to legislation diminishing students’ rights, authored bills increasing student representation in educational decisions, and developed amendments against the House Bill 900 book ban bill. With SEAT, Samuels has spearheaded grassroots opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ mandates in Texas school districts, organized events with high-profile creatives and policymakers, visited the White House to meet President Joe Biden and join federal efforts, and testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary for a hearing on book bans.

In 2022, Samuels was named the inaugural Youth Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week, a Seventeen Magazine Voice of the Year, an NBC Pride 30 trailblazer, and one of Teen Vogue‘s 21 Under 21 and GLAAD’s 20 Under 20. This past year, Samuels received the Trailblazer Award from the Human Rights Campaign, was recognized in OutSmart as a hometown hero, and was honored as Pride Houston’s Honorary Trendsetter Grand Marshal. In 2024, Samuels was a SXSW EDU panelist with best-selling author Angie Thomas for “How to Be a Freedom Fighter” on the unprecedented attacks on education and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Rebekkah Smith Aldrich

Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, MLS, is executive director of the Mid-Hudson Library System (MHLS), a cooperative public library system that serves more than 600,000 Hudson Valley residents in partnership with 66 independent public libraries. Rebekkah is the mind behind the MHLS Book Haven collection which guarantees access to any title found on the American Library Association’s Most Challenged List, a list of book most frequently the target of attempted book banning in the U.S. Rebekkah is the co-creator of The Library of Local Program, which is devoted to strengthening community resilience through partnerships catalyzed between public libraries and neighbors in the Hudson Valley. Rebekkah is the co-founder and board president of the award-winning  Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI) and principal author of the award-winning Sustainable Library Certification Program for public, academic and school libraries. Rebekkah was the principal author of the National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries and the companion implementation guide. For over twenty-five years, Rebekkah has worked with public libraries across the globe to ensure library services are relevant and responsive so that communities can thrive. A lifelong Hudson Valley resident, Rebekkah currently lives in Columbia County with her husband Adam.

jOE DONAHUE

IN CONVERSATION WITH MARGARET ATWOOD

Joe Donahue is a nationally acclaimed host and interviewer. Historian David McCullough said, “There is simply no better interviewer in the business.” His guest list is long and impressive. He has been awarded a slew of national and regional awards for his interviews and journalism. He can be heard on the Nationally Syndicated “Book Show” and weekday mornings from 9 to noon as the host of The Roundtable on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio.