Gold Coast Forum hosts author and literary events year-round to promote literacy and literary culture on Long Island. Below are the events coming up on our calendar.
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POSTPONED
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20 at 7PM
Theodore’s Books, 17 Audrey Avenue, Oyster Bay NY
Gold Coast Forum presents an evening with historian, documentary filmmaker, and three-time New York Times bestselling author, Jonathan Alter as he discusses and signs his new book, American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial — and My Own.
American Reckoning is a vivid eyewitness account of the historic first criminal trial of a president and a cri de coeur for democracy. As one of a handful of journalists allowed in the courtroom, for 23 days Jonathan Alter sat just feet away from the most dangerous threat to democracy in American history, watching the spectacle of the century: the felony trial of Donald Trump. Highly publicized but untelevised and thus largely hidden from public view, this landmark trial offered hope of real justice amid a grueling eight-year national ordeal and foreshadowed the drama of the 2024 presidential election.
JONATHAN ALTER is a columnist, historian, and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers about American presidents and covered the Trump felony trial for NYTimes Opinion, The Washington Monthly, and Old Goats, his Substack newsletter. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
THURSDAY DECEMBER 5 at 7PM
Theodore’s Books, 17 Audrey Avenue, Oyster Bay NY
Gold Coast Forum presents an evening with award winning author, Stephanie Kepke, as she discusses and signs her new novella, Rescue Me.
Rescue Me follows fifty-two year old Tess Holden who likes dogs better than people. The widowed mom to a teen on the autism spectrum has sworn off men. Her life revolves around her son, Gavin, a musical savant battling demons; their rescued pit bull Henley (for Don Henley); and her second-act career as a dog masseuse. That is until she finds herself drawn to Everett Rosenberg, the owner of Tess’ favorite client—a giant, elderly rescue named Bruce (as in Springsteen). When Tess finally meets Everett, she can’t shake the feeling she knows Everett from long ago. She’s shocked to discover their connection runs deeper than she ever imagined—beyond both naming their dogs after musical icons. And although Everett has been living in anonymity in his suburban Long Island mansion Tess did know him well once…at least in her fantasies. Will their tragic pasts and Everett’s growing bond with Gavin bring them together or will one mistake rip them apart forever?
STEPHANIE KEPKE is an award winning writer and blogger. Kepke’s second grade teacher told her that she should be a writer and she hasn’t wavered in her path since. As a former arts reporter and music journalist, Stephanie spent her twenties listening to loud rock bands in bars all around Boston and New England (including her drummer husband’s), before returning to her Long Island roots in her early thirties. Stephanie has published six books: Feel No Evil and Goddess of Suburbia, both novels; Rocky Road Home, A New Life, and You & Me, all novellas; and Boys, Dogs and Chaos, a book of essays. Stephanie also wrote a one-woman show based on Boys, Dogs and Chaos and performed it Off-Broadway as part of the Emerging Artists Theatre’s New Work Series.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11TH at 7PM
Community Synagogue, 160 Middle Neck Road, Sands Point NY
Gold Coast Forum in collaboration with Book RePort presents an evening with podcast host and author, Liz Hirsh Naftali, as she sits in conversation with Rep. Steve Israel and AJC Long Island Regional Director Eric Post to discuss and sign her new book, Saving Abigail: The True Story of the Abduction and Rescue of a Three-Year-Old Hostage.
Saving Abigail is the true story about a little girl taken hostage by Hamas the morning of October 7, 2023. Abigail’s mother and father were murdered in front of their children, and Abigail—the youngest—was abducted. With no prior experience or road map for how to save a hostage from captivity, Abigail’s great aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali undertook an international effort to share her niece’s face and story—with the US government, bipartisan congressional leaders, and world leaders—finding unlikely allies and supporters along the way. Though not a diplomat, politician, or military expert, Liz was determined to extricate this child from an ongoing geopolitical nightmare and free her from the Hamas terrorists who held her.
LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI is a businesswoman and the host and creator of The Capitol Coffee Connection podcast, a platform where she invites prominent, diverse leaders to talk about the common thread that binds us all together — our shared experiences, stories, and the very essence of our heart and humanity — leaving out politics and policy. Naftali is the mother of five children and has lived between Israel and the U.S. since 1992.