Arts & Entertainment

Fort Lee Historical Society Guest Speaker, Emmy Award winning writer Alan Brennert

Fort Lee Historical Society Guest Speaker on  October 11 at 8PM at the Fort Lee Museum (1588 Palisade Avenue)

Emmy Award winning writer Alan Brennert - Alan will read from a book he is on work on "Palisades Park" - in this  book Alan creates a fictional story about Palisades Amusement Park but uses actual real life park workers, such as lifeguard Bunty Hill, in the story.

Admission is free - seating limited - first come first serve.

Call (201) 693-2763 for more info or visit www.thefortleehistoricalsociety.org.

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BIOGRAPHY

Alan Brennert was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in Cliffside Park, Palisades Park, Edgewater, and Haledon.  Since 1973 he has lived in Southern California, where he received a B.A. in English from California State University at Long Beach and did graduate work in screenwriting at UCLA. 

In addition to novels, he has written short stories, teleplays, screenplays, and the libretto of a stage musical, Weird Romance, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Spencer.  He earned an Emmy Award for his work as a writer-producer on the television series L.A. Law in 1991 and his short story "Ma Qui" was honored with a Nebula Award in 1992.  

His novel Moloka'i, about the forced segregation of leprosy patients to the settlement of Kalaupapa in Hawai'i, won praise from The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, andPublishers Weekly, and became a national bestseller in paperback as well as a favorite selection of reading groups across the country.  

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His next novel, Honolulu, was also well received—the San Francisco Chronicle called it “a moving, multilayered epic by a master of historical fiction” and The Washington Post named it one of the Best Books of 2009—and has also become a popular book club selection.  

He is currently at work on a new novel, Palisades Park, which tells the story of a quirky family of dreamers who own a concession at New Jersey’s legendary Palisades Amusement Park (and featuring supporting appearances by many real-life characters from Palisades history).  The book follows them from the Great Depression and World War II, up through the Swinging Sixties and the park's closing in 1971.


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