Joe Donahue

This week's Book Picks comes from Connie Brooks and Heather Boyne from Battenkill Books in Cambridge, NY and Sharon Weinberg and Amy Zimmerman from Chatham Bookstore in Chatham, NY.

The 20th annual Berkshire International Film Festival is coming up next week and they will present a blockbuster lineup and celebratory weekend of films, events, and very special guests. The festival runs from May 28 - 31 in Great Barrington and Lenox. Founder and artistic director Kelley Vickery will be here with a preview.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Senior Fellow for Health Policy at The Empire Center for Public Policy Bill Hammond and Former Mayor of the City of Albany Kathy Sheehan.

Martha Banta has returned to the Adirondack Theatre Festival. Martha was ATF’s founding Artistic Director for its first 13 seasons, where she directed numerous premieres that went on to be produced in New York City and across the country.

Today, the United States is in a crisis—and it’s not just a political one: over fifty years, the pursuit of profit has undermined virtue and character, while too many of us have become convinced that happiness results from acting as good consumers, rather than as good citizens.

Novelist and memoirist Courtney Maum has built a career exploring ambition, identity, creativity, and the strange pressures of modern life. Her previous books include 'Touch,''Costalegre,' and the publishing-world favorite 'Before and After the Book Deal.'

Humorist and essayist David Sedaris has spent decades turning everyday awkwardness or family disfunction and travel disasters to some of the sharpest comedy in American letters. From ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ to his longtime contributions to ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘This American Life.’ Sedaris has mastered the art of sounding both brutally honest and hilariously off hand. His brand-new book and collection is ‘The Land and its People.’ David Sedaris will be at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck on 5/27, the speaking event is sold out. However, the singing line tickets are available.

Ellen Meeropol’s writing has been featured in ‘Ms. Magazine,’ ‘Lilith,’ ‘The Writer,’ ‘The Boston Globe,’ and ‘Solstice Magazine.’ She is the author of the novels ‘The Lost Women of Azalea Court,’ ‘Her Sister’s Tattoo,’ ‘Kinship of Clover,’ ‘On Hurricane Island,’ and ‘House Arrest,’ and she was the guest editor for the anthology ‘Dreams for a Broken World.’

The Delegation of the European Union to the United States has selected the Berkshire International Film Festival as the inaugural U.S. festival partner for its newly launched Transatlantic Rising Stars Project. The initiative is designed to deepen cultural connections and spark creative collaboration between the EU and the United States.

Barbara Kopple is an award-winning director and producer and here at BIFF she will be in conversation with Mary Mott after the Special 50th Anniversary screening of the Academy Award Winning Documentary ‘Harlan County USA’ at 2:15 p.m. today.