Readers and writers come together at the 2025 Festival

This year, the Milford Readers and Writers Festival (MRAW) is still fulfilling its mission of bringing readers and writers together in an intimate setting, but it has been streamlined from the original MRAW which was launched in 2016. Some of the original board remains, but new voices and viewpoints have emerged.

There are many more free offerings around town at the Pike County Public Library, St. Patrick’s Church, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, Grey Towers, The Dimmick Inn, and The Fauchere. The opening night was streamlined to include a presentation, but no dinner as it was in the past.

The four main stage presentations for passholders was still at the Milford Theater, but it’s now all on Saturday with still plenty of time for discussions and even lunch between sessions. Sunday was dedicated to all free sessions, nine of them. There were also three free sessions on Saturday and four on Friday.

Vice president and Festival co-chair Brian Carso said that he got a lot of positive feedback for all three days - including main stage and free sessions. He teaches at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania (near Wilkes Barre) and they brought 35 students from the school’s honors and business programs. The students had an opportunity to meet with Richard Morais, Matt Winkler, and Richard Behar and talk about financial journalism. They all asked to come back next year.

Attendees mentioned that the quality was so good that it was an embarrassment of riches as it was hard to pick just one or two sessions.

Friday Night’s session was a panel of Lenape and Lakota tribes discussing “On the Turtle’s Back” by Camilla Townsend and Nicky Kay Michaell. They told stories from the book illustrating Lenape culture, humor and symbolism.

The Saturday main stage session began with Jeff Arch (author of “Sleepless in Seattle”) in conversation with Milford’s own John DiLeo about his latest book “Attachments.”

Winkler was a financial journalist at Forbes when Mike Bloomberg hired him away to start Bloomberg News. He spent 25 years at Bloomberg as co-founder and Editor in Chief. He takes on as many challenges as lie before him and embraces them with a combination of childlike fascination and excitement with steely-like tenacity and organization.

He not only practically co-wrote “Bloomberg by Bloomberg” - he is also the author of “The Bloomberg Way,” a definitive guide on style and ethics for journalists. In his current role as editor-in-chief emeritus, he helps oversee Bloomberg journalism programs internationally and in the U.S. and tries to inspire careers in economic reporting among students of color.

Winkler was in conversation with Phil Roosevelt, another financial journalist currently the Editorial Director of Barron’s.

Behar, has garnered more than 20 major journalism awards and is currently the Contributing Editor of Investigations at Forbes magazine. He was in conversation with Morais about his book, “Madoff, The Final Word.” Behar gave a real behind-the-scenes look at Madoff and the Madoff family.

“I’ve given speeches throughout my career, but rarely have I experienced the enthusiasm I felt from the Milford Festival audience,” he said.

The fourth and final session was with Adriania Trigiani in conversation with Carol Fitzgerald about her latest book, “The View from Lake Como.”

“It was the most successful session of the day,” board member Rebecca Lindsey said.

Trigiani has been a stand-up comic and had the audience in stitches. Even when talking about her novels and screen plays, she is funny. An Italian growing up in Appalacia is funny enough, but when you add that to her more serious positions - like supporting immigrants - she becomes very uplifting and embracing. She just received the Ellis Island award for her work supporting immigrants. The audience gave her a standing ovation.

The main stage presentations ended on a positive note with everyone looking forward to 2026.