Annual Meeting
The Friends’ Annual Meeting occurs in the fall and includes an invited speaker. The public is welcome to attend and enjoy the speaker’s presentation, which takes place after a brief business meeting.
THIS YEAR’S EVENT
The 2024 Annual Meeting took place on Thursday, November 7. The speaker was Westford native and well-known chef Dan Souza.
It was standing room only in the Meeting Room as Dan entertained the crowd with details about his career at America’s Test Kitchen.
To see photos of this fun evening, scroll to the section below.
For details about the event, read our blog post.
To view press coverage, read this Westford CAT article.
About Dan
Dan grew up in Westford and is a 2000 graduate of Westford Academy. His mom, Marty Souza, is a long-time Friends’ volunteer who helps out with our popular used book sales.
Dan is the Chief Content Officer of America’s Test Kitchen. He’s also the former editor in chief of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, a cast member of the Emmy Award-wining television show America’s Test Kitchen, and creator and host of the James Beard Award-nominated web series “What’s Eating Dan?” He is the kitchen editor of the New York Times bestseller The Science of Good Cooking. Dan is a regular contributor to The Splendid Table radio program, and his personal stories have been featured on The Moth Radio Hour. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Dan cooked in restaurants in Boston, New York, and Hungary before finding his true calling: helping home cooks succeed in the kitchen.
PAST SPEAKERS
The Friends have hosted authors on a variety of fiction and non-fiction topics over the years.
2023: Marcella Pixley (Trowbridge Road)
2022: (Speaker unable to attend)
2021: E. Dolores Johnson (Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets and Love) (Held virtually on Zoom)
2020: Stephen Puleo (Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission) (Held virtually on Zoom)
2019: Marianne Leone (Ma Speaks Up)
2018: Kate Clifford Larson (Rosemary)
2017: Brunonia Barry (The Fifth Petal)
2016: Joe Bagley (A History of Boston in 50 Artifacts)
2015: Lylah Alphonse (news collection & reporting in the digital age)
2014: Hank Phillippi Ryan (Truth Be Told)
2013: Bridget Lancaster (The Science of Good Cooking)
2012: Andre Dubus III (Townie)
2011: Charlie Pierce (Idiot America)
2010: Elinor Lipman (The Family Man)
2009: Matthew Pearl (The Last Dickens)
2008: Elizabeth Royte (Bottlemania)
2007: Eric Jay Dolin (Leviathan)
2006: Jim McAllister (of Derby Square Tours, on Salem witch trials)
