Program Type:
Author ReadingAge Group:
AdultsProgram Description
Event Details
Join us at the Library for readings by authors from Bronxville High School's Class of 1970.
Kate Ferris, whose father was Rector at Christ Church, will read from her novel, Finding Lillie, historical fiction dealing with a privileged woman in the first years of the 1900s.
James Hockenberry, a second generation Bronxvillian, will read selections from his thriller suspense trilogy centered during World War I.
Lee Stockdale, who won the 2022 United Kingdom National Poetry Prize, will read from Gorilla and from his forthcoming collection, Bronxville.
Q&A, book sales, and signings to follow.
About the authors:
KATE FERRIS
Kate’s first published piece was a book report on Pathway to a Village: A History of Bronxville when she was in seventh grade. She doesn’t remember who published it or why, but she had just moved to the village where her father was the rector of Christ Church. She graduated from Skidmore College, majoring in American Studies with an emphasis in literature, and went on to Simmons School of Library Science to earn a Masters.
After several years working in a New York City advertising library (back when special librarians were the original search engines), her career in corporate communications and public relations led her to upstate New York and into the fields of thoroughbred horse racing, higher education, not-for-profit leadership, and government service.
Finding Lillie, her first published novel, is historical fiction dealing with a privileged woman in the first years of 1900. Kate lives with her husband in Saratoga Springs, NY.
LEE STOCKDALE
Lee’s awards include the 2022 United Kingdom National Poetry Prize, Sidney Lanier Poetry Prize, 2025 Whitefish Review Montana Prize for Humor, 2024 Atlanta Review International Merit Award, and others. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Poetry Review, Ekphrastic Review, anthologies and other journals. His debut collection, Gorilla, was brought out by Main Street Rag in 2022. Lee is a North Carolina Poetry Society Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet and readers of Asheville’s Mountain Xpress voted him 2025 Best Local Poet. He will read from Gorilla, from new work, and from Bronxville, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. His BA is from the University of Washington, JD from Case Western Reserve, Master’s from the US Army War College, and MFA from Queens University, Charlotte. “I always loved the library and am grateful for this opportunity to read here with friends Kate and Jim.”
JAMES HOCKENBERRY
Jim Hockenberry, a second generation Bronxvillian, graduated Bronxville High School in 1970. With that excellent education, he progressed to Lafayette College, Easton Pennsylvania, earning a BA. He moved to Columbia University, New York where he received an MBA. He started his professional career at the “Big-4” Accounting Firm of Ernst & Young (EY) where he became a Certified Public Accountant. He left EY and moved to W. R. Grace’s Corporate headquarters in NYC. From there, he transferred to its European headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland where he worked for 15 years, rising to Director of Finance. He returned to America when Grace closed its Lausanne office and resettled in the Princeton, New Jersey area.
For the next ten years, he held a number of Senior Financial positions in the New Jersey area. Now retired, he has redirected his life to thriller writing allowing him to interweave three of his passions: history, literature, and his German-American roots.
He has indie-published his World War One Intrigue trilogy which dramatizes America’s involvement in the transformational Great War. The award-winning books richly depict the tensions and controversies of the times and cover the extensive German sabotage campaign Germany fought in America during 1915-16 (Over Here), the military campaigns of 1918 (Send the Word), and the Paris Peace Talks and German revolutions of 1919 (So Beware). His books are known for exacting research, page-turning suspense, and complex characters.
They are available at his website: www.jameshockenberry.com and Amazon (e-book), Barnes & Noble (soft cover), and upon request at any local bookstore.