Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Journal

12/11/2024

The latest issue of Neshaminy features a pictorial essay on Laurel Hill, known as one of the Philadelphia area’s most distinctive and historic places of eternal rest. The grounds include the graves of many famous people, including Civil War General George Gordon Meade and Thomas McKean, who signed the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation, and also served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1808.

Learn more about Laurel Hill in the Fall/Winter 2024 issue, available for purchase here https://shorturl.at/662BT.

03/11/2024

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/doylestown/neshaminy-journal-witches-evil-spirits-superstition

One of your neighbors posted in Arts & Entertainment. Click through to read what they have to say. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)

21/10/2024

Happy book birthday to friend-of-Neshaminy Chris Bauer and his latest release CRADLE. Some of the early praise:

"Another whip-smart thriller from Chris Bauer. Fast paced and tightly plotted from the opening sequence until the last, CRADLE will have you hanging on for dear life. I can’t recommend this book highly enough!” —Bruce Robert Coffin, international bestselling coauthor of The Turner and Mosley Files

"In Cradle, Chris Bauer blends a widely diverse set of characters and events into a punchy, crisp, and timely thriller. Bauer has become a leading practitioner of the genre—and Cradle is no exception." —Don Swaim, author of Jitterbuggin’ with the Renaissance: A Jazz Age Epic and former host of CBS Radio Book Beat

"With COBALT, Chris Bauer delivers a masterclass in thriller writing, weaving a complex tapestry of intrigue and action that's both sharp and compelling." —Andrew Watts, USA TODAY bestselling author

Check it out at www.chrisbauerauthor.net.

15/10/2024

Neshaminy will have several representatives in attendence. Should be a great night!

BCBF is thrilled to have Jamie Brenner join us as moderator for A Taste of Book Fest!

Jamie will be in conversation with some outstanding authors including Chuck Wendjg, John Vercher, and Jo Piazza. An incredible venue, great food and drink, all things book-ish, and a chance to support Bucks County Book Festival?? What are you waiting for!

Tickets are still available but space is limited so reserve your spot now! Link in bio or www.bucksbookfest.org to get your ticket and learn more.

Jamie Brenner is the author and ghostwriter of nearly twenty books, fiction and nonfiction. Her novels include the national bestseller The Forever Summer (Little, Brown) and her nonfiction includes the forthcoming False Claims (HarperCollins). Jamie’s short story Gold Party (Blackstone Publishing) is currently in development as a feature film. She divides her time between Bucks County, PA and New York City.

14/10/2024

It's always lovely to experience Neshaminy cover art work in the real world. If you stop by M&H Custom Framing and Gallery in Warminster, you'll be able to see "Waterfall at Graeme Park" and more of Addie Hocynec's beautiful work. And maybe pick up a copy of Neshaminy!

12/10/2024

We were out and about with our semi-reluctant intern doing our deliveries this week. Be sure to check out Neshaminy at one of our community partners:

* Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, PA
* Lahaska Bookshop in Lahaska, PA
* Commonplace Reader in Yardley, PA
* Farley's Bookshop in New Hope, PA
* Exhibit B Gallery in Souderton, PA
* ArtWRKD in Newtown, PA
* M&H Custom Framing and Gallery in Warminster, PA..and our newest partner, Newtown Bookshop in Newtown, PA!

11/10/2024

Neshaminy is a labor of love for so many, but we wouldn't be able to do what we love without support from our community partners, including M&H Custom Framing and Gallery. Please stop by and support local art and artists!

10/10/2024

Meet Bucks and Montgomery County artist Addie Hocynec, the genius behind our Fall/Winter cover. Inside, read a full profile on Addie by Managing Editor William J. Donahue.

From the interview: "Like the rarest of birds, Hocynec is a multifaceted artist, someone who is unafraid to continually explore new terrain. That includes any artistic medium that interests her: photography, woodworking, oils and acrylics, pastels, dyes on silk, digital fractals, etcetera.

“Sometimes it’s good to jump to a different medium,” says Hocynec, whose creative pursuits extend to gardening and the culinary arts. “It’s good to stretch different muscles. … There are still other media I want to explore..."

Read more in the latest issue of Neshaminy, available NOW at neshaminyjournal.org or at local bookstores.

10/10/2024

Here's some wonderful coverage of the latest Neshaminy issue in today's Bucks County Herald! Check out the link to the full article in the comments.

10/10/2024

In Neshaminy's Fall/Winter 2024 issue, Laura Irvine looks at the history of Halloween in Bucks County and shows the area’s preoccupation with mischief, costumes, black cats, and haunted houses.

Check out all the spookiness in the new issue, available NOW at neshaminyjournal.org and local bookstores and galleries.

09/10/2024

In the Fall/Winter issue of Neshaminy, Managing Editor William J. Donahue interviews YA horror author Diana Rodriguez Wallach who recounts her fascination with the supernatural, the nature of evil, and high-profile murders of the distant past.

Read all about her horrific inspiration in the new issue of Neshaminy, available today at neshaminyjournal.org and local bookstores and galleries.

09/10/2024

In the Fall/Winter issue of Neshaminy, Don Swaim takes a candid look at Pennsylvania-born novelist and poet John Updike, detailing how Updike rose from middle-class beginnings in Berks County to become one of America’s most significant literary voices.

Swaim also sheepishly depicts himself in less than flattering terms, detailing how two of Swaim’s three encounters with Updike were awkward, if not embarrassing.

Credit to illustrator Pat Achilles for her evocative portrait.

Read all about Updike in the latest issue available now at neshamjournal.org

08/10/2024

Neshaminy’s Fall/Winter issue, is available TODAY at Bucks County indie bookstores and art galleries and online at neshaminyjournal.org. See below for all of our wonderful content!

• A biographic essay of Pennsylvania son John Updike, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Rabbit, Run, by Don Swaim

• A horrible history of Halloween in Bucks County by Laura Irvine

• A profile of the late John Philip Falter, a Bucks County artist considered a contemporary of Norman Rockwell

• An interview with YA horror novelist Diana Rodriguez Wallach by William J. Donahue

• Scenes from the Grounds and Graves of Laurel Hill Cemetery

• Local history of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

• New fiction by Maximillian Bogus III and Jill Lupine

• A profile on Addie Hocynec by William J. Donahue

• History of the Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, and Arboretum

• Poetry by Arlene Geller, Joseph Brunetti and Kal Stein

07/10/2024

We are getting excited...👀👀👀

06/10/2024

Calling all local writers! Check out the free writing workshop today, Sunday, October 6 from 2-3:30 at the Doylestown Branch of the Bucks County Free Library. Run by the Friends of the Doylestown Library, it features local publisher, editor and writer LCW Allingham Author.

.

01/10/2024

The staff of Neshaminy is very excited to reveal the cover of our Fall/Winter 2024 issue, featuring a peaceful autumnal waterfall by Bucks and Montgomery County artist Addie Hocynec.

We're very excited about the insides of this issue, too, with fiction, poetry, history and art from 10 Bucks County area creators, including:

• A biographic essay of Pennsylvania son John Updike, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Rabbit, Run by Don Swaim
• A horrible history of Halloween in Bucks County going back to the 1800s by Laura Irvine
• A profile of the late John Philip Falter, a Bucks County artist considered a contemporary of the great Norman Rockwell
• An interview with YA horror novelist Diana Rodrieguez Wallach
• Poetry by Arlene Geller, Joseph Brunetti and Kal Stein

Available at your local indie bookstore and gallery and online at neshaminyjournal.org this October.

26/09/2024

In honor of Banned Books Week, here is a throwback photo of Daniel Dorian, Neshaminy's Senior Advisor, delivering his lecture entitled "The Past (and Unfortunate Present) of Book Banning” at the Doylestown Historical Society on July 26, 2023.

An excerpt of his magnificant speech in Daniel's enviable frankness:

"Vamsee Juluri, a professor of media and Asian studies at the University of San Francisco, worries if books are banned in schools, students will go without important cultural education. 'If a book is banned or suppressed,' he says, 'they're not even going to realize that something very important is being excluded from them.' What these people say in simpler terms is that book banning will eventually create a generation of morons incapable of thinking for themselves.

Will this eagerness to censure persist, increase, will it spread like a cancer, or will it simply be a passing trend? ... I would like to believe that book banning is indeed a passing trend, that the nation will not remain divided forever, that the actions of a few will not continue to impact the lives of us all, that eventually reason and sanity will prevail..."