Panel #3: Fiction: Escaping the Past • Sun., June 14 • 12:30-1:15pm
Join us for a panel with two renowned New Hampshire writers, who ask: can you escape your past, and how do you make amends? For fans of Tell Me Everything and Heartwood, Diane Les Becquets’s Where the Water Meets the Sky is the story of a brave young woman seeking wholeness and love in the untamed forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—and answers about a fire that took away everything. Whereas Ernest Thompson’s Out Clause asks: What if you could leave your life? Oxton Paris, years ago, left his and repurposed his angst to help others escape by creating Out Clause, providing thousands of Travelers with a new life.
Diane Les Becquets is the author of Breaking Wild and The Last Woman in the Forest. Breaking Wild was a national bestseller, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist, and was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. It was the recipient of the Colorado Book Award in Fiction and the New Hampshire Outstanding Work of Fiction.
Ernest Thompson has written numerous films, plays, and songs, and has worked extensively as an actor and director. In addition to his Oscar for On Golden Pond, Ernest’s work has won two Golden Globes, a Writers Guild Award, a Broadway Drama Guild Award, and been nominated for a Tony, an Emmy, and a British Academy Award.
Panel’s Moderator: Lara Prescott is an award-winning, bestselling novelist whose debut novel, The Secrets We Kept, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Lara received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas and currently lives in coastal New Hampshire with her family.
Post-panel book signing will follow in The Lounge, 131 Congress Street.
About Seacoast LitFest
An inspiring multi-day celebration, the Seacoast LitFest brings together bestselling authors, thought leaders, and curious readers for an unforgettable literary experience on New Hampshire’s Seacoast. From lively book chats and author talks to a vibrant book fair and community events, the festival invites audiences of all ages to connect. Presented by New Hampshire Public Radio and The Music Hall, two of the state’s leading voices for storytelling and culture.
