Storytelling—For the Love of the Game

Ann Marie Catabia grew up on the South Shore, playing basketball in her backyard with her brothers’, Dad and friends. Today, she continues to play the sport, along with coaching at the Beverly Y. Ann Marie is also freelance graphic designer that also enjoys performing music at local open mics, both her own and covers. Ann Marie is excited to be performing at the Athenaeum’s “Playing the Game: Stories about Sport” because it gets to combines some of her favorite things, sports and writing.

Alexis Dwyer is the Salem High school swim coach and a resident of Salem since 2007. Her journey with swimming includes 15 years of competitive swimming experience, New England and National recognition, an offer to swim on the 1996 Greek Olympic team, a full athletic scholarship to Boston College, and was named 2024 “Northeast Conference Coach of the Year.”  After only 2 seasons as head coach, Alexis doubled the swim team student enrollment with 24 swimmers and coached the Salem high school swim team to their first win in 5 years for a 3-5-1 record for the season!

Maryellen Groot holds a B.A. in Written Arts from Bard College and an M.A. in English from Salem State University. She recently won “Best Essay” at the 2023 Master’s in English Regional Conference for her short story, "Felix and the Flying Tiger." She likes to tell tall tales, folk tales, fables, and, sometimes, the truth. Her work has previously appeared with Vox, Racked, Molecule, and The Graduate Review.

Beth Kapnis Livermore was born and raised in Salem. She was a starting guard on the 1986 Salem State University Division 3 National Championship basketball team. She currently teaches in the Wilmington public schools.

Salem native Kris Olson is an award-winning journalist with more than a quarter century of experience. He is currently a reporter for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and a co-founder and consulting editor of the nonprofit newspaper the Marblehead Current. The Current has filled the void left by the hollowing out of the Marblehead Reporter, which Olson led as editor for more than 14 years. He is also a contributor to the website BaseballHQ and to the annual book, "Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster." He lives in Beverly with his wife, Wendy, an administrator at St. John's Prep, son Max, who just finished his junior year at Bates College, and two adopted shelter cats, Pablo and Ruth.

Jean Marie Procious is Executive Director of the Salem Athenaeum and co-chair of the Salem Literary Festival. She is a librarian and archivist with degrees from Simmons University and Hiram College. An avid reader and pie baker, her activities also include serving as a trustee of Harmony Grove Cemetery, volunteering with the Clothing Connection and other local nonprofits. Jean Marie developed a love of sport by growing up playing lots of different ones. She has kept the scorebook for basketball teams, had brief stints coaching elementary school cheerleading and basketball, and is now a swim team super fan.