The “Roots and Wings: Wellesley High’s Legacy of Nurturing Creativity” program at Wellesley Free Library (530 Washington St.) on Oct. 12 at 7pm will celebrate Wellesley High School’s long history of graduates who are writers, and the teachers who inspired them. Those attending are invited to a reception at 6:30pm where they can have a chance to speak with the writers and writers.

You can attend the event in person or online via Zoom. Registration for the event is required either way.

The program, sponsored by Friends of the Wellesley Free Libraries, will feature a discussion with:

Richard Preston, author of bestseller “The Hot Zone”
Adam Haslett, twice-nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award
Nina Shope,novelist of “Asylum”
Vanessa Mártir, writer, educator, and social activist.

Town historian Beth Hinchliffe, herself a presidential speechwriter and town historian, will moderate the discussion along with longtime WHS English teachers Jeanie and Brooks Goddard.

“The response has been tremendous—we have over 125 names on the authors’ list, and are astounded at the variety of accomplishments,” says Hinchliffe, referring to a work-in-progress list of Wellesley High graduates who are writers that will be hosted on the Wellesley Free Library website. “This project (which will be ongoing) will be a way to share with the town the special way that WHS nurtured and encouraged these writers.”

The project celebrates writers of all kinds, including fiction, nonfiction, scriptwriting, journalism, and poetry.

The event and project are in honor of Katharine Lee Bates (WHS Class of 1874), Sylvia Plath (Class of 1950), Wilbury Crockett (WHS English teacher 1944-1980, Chair for 30 years), and all WHS writers and teachers past, present, and future.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com