Local Writers Series Presents: A Reading with Allison Gilbert, Diana Munger Hechler, and Lucia Cherciu (in person at HVWC)

Join us in person at the Hudson Valley Writers Center as we welcome Allison Gilbert, Diana Munger Hechler, and Lucia Cherciu as they read from their most recent books. Books will be available for purchase on site.

Allison Gilbert is co-author of Listen, World!, the first biography of American writer Elsie Robinson, a newspaper columnist who came from nothing and became the most-read woman in the country and highest-paid woman writer in the Hearst media empire. The New York Times raves “One does not tire of spending time with Elsie Robinson” and the Wall Street Journal proclaims the book “an important contribution to women’s history.” Susan Orlean effuses the biography is “the rarest of things — a lively piece of unknown history, a marvelous story of a woman’s triumph, and a tremendous read.” Allison is co-editor of Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11 and author of Always Too Soon: Voices of Support for Those Who Have Lost Both Parents, Parentless Parents: How the Loss of Our Mothers and Fathers Impacts the Way We Raise Our Children, and Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive. An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Allison helps writers best position their stories for publication through her literary consultancy, Pub Day. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Gilbert lives in Westchester, New York.

Diana Munger Hechler is President of D. Tours Travel, a boutique travel company specializing in international vacations and cruises.  Founded in 1999, D.  Tours Travel draws on Ms. Hechler’s extensive knowledge of European and international travel and her organizational experience and talents. Ms. Hechler has received a Magellan Award from Travel Weekly magazine for Innovation by a Travel Advisor and her well-developed contacts at top hotels around the world allow her to serve an upscale client base particularly well.  Her clients trust that the vacations she designs are never “cookie-cutter” but are tailored to each traveler’s interests and needs. Ms. Hechler is the author of Strolling with Your Elephant: Perfect Moments in Travel, an award-winning consumer guidebook to unusual and authentic experiences around the world. For everyone who dreams of amazing travel adventures, the book describes almost 80 unique experiences ranging from fun to unusual to thrilling adventures available for everyone. Prior to founding her company, Ms. Hechler analyzed Russian politics and economics.  Ms. Hechler managed business committees on Russian-American commercial relations and on telecommunications policy for the U.S. Council for International Business in New York. Ms. Hechler is very active in community affairs and has served as President of the Larchmont Historical Society, President of the Larchmont Newcomers Club and has served on the Vestry of St. John’s Church in Larchmont and of the World Affairs Forum of Stamford, Ct. Ms. Hechler lectures on such topics as “Italian Renaissance Gardens”, “Taking Your Kids to Europe”, and “How to Find a Really Great Vacation”.  She has spoken at the Stamford Public Library, the Larchmont Public Library, Iona College, and at various Rotary Clubs in Westchester County. Ms. Hechler holds an M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University and a B.A. from Middlebury College.  She has two children.

Lucia Cherciu is the author of six books of poetry, including Immigrant Prodigal Daughter (Kelsay Books, 2023), Train Ride to Bucharest (Sheep Meadow Press, 2017), which received the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize, and Edible Flowers (Main Street Rag, 2016). Her work appeared in “Poetry,” “Antioch Review,” and many Romanian literary magazines. Cherciu is a Professor of English at SUNY / Dutchess Community College and served as the 2021-2022 Dutchess County, New York poet laureate. http://luciacherciu.webs.com.