Margaret Talcott

Director of Literary Programs and Partnerships, American Ancestors New England Historic Genealogical Society

Margaret Talcott joined American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society in 2019, taking up the mission to educate, inspire, and connect people through inspiring events and author talks. She was previously the Producer of Literary Programs at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she presented nearly 200 writers including such cultural leaders as David McCullough, Sonia Sotomayor, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Ken Burns, Tom Brokaw, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and David Brooks in the celebrated series Writers on a New England Stage presented with New Hampshire Public Radio. Over her years of producing she has interviewed authors Lee Child, Gail Collins, Amor Towles, Anna Quindlen, Daniel Pink, and Celeste Ng, among others. Margaret worked previously as a Director and Vice President of corporate marketing at Merrill Lynch in New York, in network news, and in book publishing, most notably as an editor at William Morrow and at Atheneum Publishers, under the leadership of Alfred Knopf, Jr. She graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in Religion, and did post-graduate work in English literature at The Bread Loaf of School of English (Middlebury College). She was a scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, awarded for her poetry.