As you’ve probably experienced from past Boston Book Festivals, the sheer number of sessions is like a literary feast set out for hungry readers (the last in-person Festival we hosted had over 150 sessions!). But you’ve also probably felt that panic of “What do I choose?” when you open up that two-page multi-colored spread of sessions in the program guide. (I know I have!)
Because that schedule can be a bit daunting, even in a virtual year, we’re here to help you find the sessions you want to attend so you can see a favorite author, learn something new, think about the world around you in different ways, or discover some new reads for your TBR pile. And because the majority of our sessions will be virtual this year, you don’t need to worry about sprinting down Boylston Street or Washington Street to get to the next session (being sure to grab a grilled cheese on the way). Let’s get started!
Young Adult Sessions for 2021
YA literature has grown into a category that’s not just entertaining for teens and adults alike, but that has served as the vehicle for authors to explore deeper topics of identity, belonging, relationships, societal injustices, and more. This year we’re highlighting some of those topics in our YA sessions, which range from new takes on old tales (Classics Remixed), how to act in a time of unrest (Revolution and Resistance Then and Now), a memoir of growing up Black and queer (Memoir Keynote), and new takes on nature writing (This Session’s for the Birds). We also have a session featuring the intergenerational work of a family of writers (Lifelong Learning Keynote). Teens will also have the chance to connect with other teens and learn about the arts and activist history of Nubian Square as well.
Here’s your guide to our YA sessions.
Lifelong Learning Keynote
Tamara Payne, with hosts Jurianny Guerrero and Kellie Carter Jackson
Saturday, October 16 at 5:00pm | Virtual
This session is for readers interested in…: The life of Malcolm X, but also how biography is researched and written.
What you’ll find in this session: A conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Tamara Payne, who, after her father passed away, stepped in to finish his exhaustive biography of Malcolm X, already decades in the works. She’ll be in conversation with Wellesley College professor Kellie Carter Jackson and Fenway High School senior Jurianny Guerrero.
What you’ll take away from it: The depths of research it takes to compile a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, as well as one family’s ongoing work to do just that.
Session is sponsored by the Eric and Jane Nord Family Fund.
C.B. Lee and Bethany C. Morrow, with host Laura Berestecki
Monday, October 18 at 5:30pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for readers interested in…: Discovering more YA authors who are reinterpreting classics through new cultural lenses and fresh takes.
What you’ll find in this session: How authors C.B. Lee and Bethany C. Morrow remixed their source material—one a queer retelling of Treasure Island, the other a retelling of Little Women centered on formerly enslaved Black people—to bring more culturally relevant and diverse takes on classic literature. They’ll be in conversation with BPL’s YA librarian Laura Berestecki.
What you’ll take away from it: Reimagining classics, myths, and fairy tales is hot (BookTok hot) these days, and you can hear how authors are crafting and rethinking these old stories for new audiences.
Derrick Z. Jackson, Stephen Kress, and Rosemary Mosco, with host Jeremy Spool
Wednesday, October 20 at 4:00pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for readers interested in…: Learning more about the natural world, and getting to know some feathery friends a bit better.
What you’ll find in this session: Pigeons and puffins will be the focus, as Rosemary Mosco gives us a rundown of the quirks and fun facts about pigeons, while ornithologist Stephen W. Kress and photographer Derrick Z. Jackson will tell the story of repopulating puffins in Maine. They’ll be in conversation with Jeremy Spool of the Massachusetts Young Birders Club.
What you’ll take away from it: Find out some fun facts about familiar and not so familiar birds, as well as hear from nature writers on their craft.
Kekla Magoon, Jamia Wilson, Crystal M. Fleming, and De Nichols, with host Carissa Romain
Thursday, October 21 at 4:00pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for readers interested in…: Learning about the history of activism, and finding out how to engage in the present moment.
What you’ll find in this session: Four authors—National Book Award finalist Kekla Magoon, Jamia Wilson, Crystal M. Fleming, and De Nichols—will discuss protest and activist movements, from a history of the Black Panthers and the feminist movement, to how young people can take action to speak up and fight injustice today. They’ll be in conversation with Carissa Romain.
What you’ll take away from it: More context around our present moment of protest, and actions to take to combat injustice today.
BPL Roxbury Branch Reopening: BBF Unbound BEAT Tour
METCO
Saturday, October 23 at 1:00pm | In Person
This session is for readers interested in…: Discovering more about Nubian Square’s activist and arts history from METCO students on an in-person tour.
What you’ll find in this session: Attendees will be introduced to Nubian Square’s history and its many organizers and civil rights workers as they participate in the Boston Education Activism Tour (BEAT) tour, led by high school students in the METCO program.
What you’ll take away from it: New insights into our local history, and inspiration on taking action to make the world a better place today.
YA: Memoir Keynote
George M. Johnson, with host Nicholl Montgomery
Saturday, October 23 at 2:30pm | Virtual
This session is for readers interested in…: Hearing from the author of All Boys Aren’t Blue on their newest memoir.
What you’ll find in this session: George M. Johnson’s new memoir We Are Not Broken tells the story of their growing up as a queer Black boy, their relationship with their three siblings, and the fiercely loving grandmother that raised them. Johnson will be in conversation with children’s literature professor Nicholl Montgomery.
What you’ll take away from it: Inspiration in hearing the story of a queer Black author’s childhood, and the foundational love and support found there.
I hope this guide has helped you get a glimpse into the vast array of writers and what they’re working on who will join us for the 2021 Boston Book Festival. Head to the main schedule to browse all sessions and for registration links, and we’ll see you there!
As you’ve probably experienced from past Boston Book Festivals, the sheer number of sessions is like a literary feast set out for hungry readers (the last in-person Festival we hosted had over 150 sessions!). But you’ve also probably felt that panic of “What do I choose?” when you open up that two-page multi-colored spread of sessions in the program guide. (I know I have!)
Because that schedule can be a bit daunting, even in a virtual year, we’re here to help you find the sessions you want to attend so you can see a favorite author, learn something new, think about the world around you in different ways, or discover some new reads for your TBR pile. And because the majority of our sessions will be virtual this year, you don’t need to worry about sprinting down Boylston Street or Washington Street to get to the next session (being sure to grab a grilled cheese on the way). Let’s get started!
Sessions for Writers for 2021
The Boston Book Festival doesn’t just cater to readers and fans of authors and books, but wants to train and inspire the writers creating those books, too. Each year we host a series of sessions for writers to help better understand the craft or the business of writing. This year, writers can examine the role of climate change in fiction (BBF Unbound: A Warming World and Your WIP: Facing Up to the Climate Emergency in Your Fiction), prepare to apply to MFA programs (Under the Hood: A Look at What’s in a Low-Residency MFA Program), learn the path to self-publishing (Self-Publishing Your Children’s Book), discuss craft and audience with other Black writers (Who We Are Writing For: Black Authors Discuss Craft and Audience), or simply hear other writers read their flash fiction (Boston in 100 Words Awards Ceremony).
Here’s your guide to our sessions for writers.
Boston in 100 Words Awards Ceremony
Saturday, October 16 at 6:00pm | In Person/Virtual
This session is for writers interested in…: Hearing flash fiction writers read their work in person at Trident (or virtually).
What you’ll find in this session: Boston in 100 Words will be announcing the winners of their second annual flash contest that highlights everyday writers crafting stories about the neighborhoods they live in. Hear about the local and global initiative, and meet the winners.
What you’ll take away from it: A night out (or in) hearing inspired, well-crafted, insightful short stories about the city we love.
Session is hosted by Boston in 100 Words.
Under the Hood: A Look at What’s in a Low-Residency MFA Program
Danielle Legros Georges, Heather Hughes, and Janet Pocorobba
Sunday, October 17 at 2:00pm | Virtual
This session is for writers interested in…: Pursuing an MFA and who want to know more about what to look for in a program.
What you’ll find in this session: Lesley University program director Danielle Legros Georges, associate director Janet Pocorobba, and MFA alum Heather Hughes will answer all your questions about what attending a low-resident MFA program is like, the work required, what to look for in a program, and more.
What you’ll take away from it: Knowledge and insight to make the right decision for the future of your writing career.
BBF Unbound: A Warming World and Your WIP: Facing Up to the Climate Emergency in Your Fiction
Julie Carrick Dalton and Erica Ferencik
Monday, October 18 at 12:30pm | In Person
This session is for writers interested in…: Investigating climate change in their fiction—or who know they’ll have to someday soon—in an outdoors session at the waterfront.
What you’ll find in this session: Held on the Seaport’s waterfront, authors Julie Carrick Dalton and Erica Ferencik will lead a discussion of how climate change is represented in fiction, how fiction writers should approach climate change in their writing, and writing prompts for further story creation.
What you’ll take away from it: Further your awareness of craft by learning how to tackle new themes, and how to use them in future work.
Session is presented in partnership with GrubStreet and ICA Boston.
Who We Are Writing For: Black Authors Discuss Craft and Audience
Tatiana Johnson-Boria and Simeon Marsalis, with host James Bennett II
Thursday, October 21 at 5:30pm | Virtual
This session is for writers interested in…: Discussions around how to craft stories and narratives for certain audiences.
What you’ll find in this session: Authors Tatiana Johnson-Boria and Simeon Marsalis will have a craft talk on how Black writers can approach their work and their audiences. They’ll be in conversation with GBH News Arts & Culture reporter James Bennett II.
What you’ll take away from it: A better understanding of the Black literary community.
Delanda Coleman, Valerie Foxx, and Candelaria Silva, with host Cagen Luse
Friday, October 22 at 3:00pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for writers interested in…: Learning the ins and outs of how to self-publish a children’s book.
What you’ll find in this session: Three self-published children’s authors—Delanda Coleman, Valerie Foxx, and Candelaria Silva—will share their journey from story idea to story writing to how to successful take the self-publishing journey. They’ll be in conversation with co-founder of Comics in Color Cagen Luse, whose son Coleman will join to tell about how he’s self-publishing his own comic book.
What you’ll take away from it: Both the knowledge and the confidence on how to self-publish the children’s book that you’ve always wanted to write and send out into the world.
I hope this guide has helped you get a glimpse into the vast array of writers and what they’re working on who will join us for the 2021 Boston Book Festival. Head to the main schedule to browse all sessions and for registration links, and we’ll see you there!
How does a writer respond to events as heavy and impacting as those of these past two years? A global pandemic and the disruption of health, business, and societal connections as we knew them, as well as grassroots movements fighting for the end of systemic racism, a political race with the future of our nation at stake, all against the backdrop of an impending climate crisis.
Everyone lived it. But writers and artists also have the added task of making sense of the world around them, creating meaning from chaos, and finding the humanity, connection, and truth at the core of our shared existence.
That’s what our 2021 Boston Book Festival headliners are seeking to do in their work: make meaning of recent events, or look at history through the lens of new ideas, insights, or identities, or interrogate big themes through fiction, satire, or genre, or simply find the human connection between all of us.
Here are some of the common themes found in our headliners’ work, and how they are fulfilling the Boston Book Festival’s mission by using “the power of words to stimulate, agitate, unite, delight, and inspire.”
Analyzing the Societal Impact of COVID
The Boston Book Festival kick-off keynote session will feature Nicholas A. Christakis, whose book Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live not only details the COVID-19 pandemic, but seeks to understand its impact on human society. A sociologist and physician whose research focuses on both the social and biological ways people form connections, Christakis asks what it means to live during a pandemic—something few of us have done across history.
Joining Christakis will be Sandro Galea, whose new book The Contagion Next Time looks at how to combat new epidemics, and how it will involve a commitment to—and perhaps a reimagining of—public health that starts with addressing systemic poverty in order to create a more equitable, just, and healthy society.
The Past Informs the Present
The theme of using history to inform our current time continues with headliners who seek to address the racial unrest in our country and examine how its roots in the past continue to branch into the present.
Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed’s book On Juneteenth details the events leading up June 19, 1865, the date that marks the end of legalized slavery in America, a history that informed the long-awaited creation of Juneteenth as a national holiday this past year. The long shadow of the Civil War is also the topic of Clint Smith’s How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award), which examines the sites where monuments and landmarks keep slavery alive, and the stories they tell—or don’t tell. Kekla Magoon looks to history to inform the present moment as well in Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People (longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for young people’s literature), a history of the Black Panther Party and Black community activism, tracing a line to the Black Lives Matter movement today. The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning biography The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, completed by Tamara Payne after the death of her journalist father Les Payne, seeks to put Malcolm X within the context of history: his upbringing, his family’s beliefs, and the systemic racism that still continues. Former Poet Laureate of the U.S. Tracy K. Smith also explores the impact of history in her new collection Such Color: New and Selected Poems, asking questions of America’s history of racism and pushing back against the shadows of the past.
Family, Community, and Connection
Our headliners are also looking to the past to inform their present, but on a much more micro scale, investigating family history—whether their own or someone else’s—and the community around them to make sense of their personal history, identity, and connection.
George M. Johnson’s new memoir We Are Not Broken seeks to tell their own story of Black boyhood, growing up with three brothers and the grandmother that raised them, and to use that story to demonstrate the connections of family and how they inform the adults we become. In All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award), Tiya Miles also seeks to uncover family connections—literally—as she researches a mother and daughter parted in the slave trade in 1852, and the objects that linked them and their descents. Author Tricia Elam Walker and artist Ekua Holmes looked to the past—their childhood in Roxbury—to create the picture book Dream Street, about the everyday people that live in a community and the importance of the connections between them.
Action Today for a Better Future
Our headliners also look at the events and culture around us and anticipate the future—and ask how we should respond.
In his collection of graphic essays Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest, Nate Powell interrogates the idea of what it means to be a parent in our current age of protest and unrest and in what ways he should prepare his children for future activism. Anita Diamant investigates the state of people who menstruate worldwide in Period. End of Sentence. A New Chapter in the Fight for Menstrual Justice and uses stories, anecdotes, and historical fact to encourage normalization of the conversation and ongoing action against menstrual injustice. In Imagine It!: A Handbook for a Happier Planet, Laurie David provides an actionable guidebook for those wanting to reduce their footprint and adopt more sustainable living habits to help combat the increasing threat of climate change.
Race in the (Fictional) Workplace
Unlike historians or reporters, fiction writers have the freedom to use crafted characters and literary tools like metaphor, satire, and analogy to explore timely truths—and two of our fiction headliners are doing just that.
The novel Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour takes a satirical look at workplace culture in America through a main character who is a mysterious company’s only Black salesman, and his witty commentary on the inherent racism of startup culture. Zakiya Dalila Harris’s novel The Other Black Girl follows the only Black editorial assistant at a prestigious white publishing house—and her reaction to the second Black employee that arrives—and provides a commentary on the lack of Black representation in publishing through the guise of a thriller.
Leveraging Genre Fiction to Imagine and Subvert
Authors have long used genre to explore questions of race, justice, equality, identity, and other topics that mainstream or literary fiction doesn’t give the latitude to explore. Two of our headliners are using genre as their medium through which to explore the world around us.
Alyssa Cole’s romance novel How to Find a Princess is rife with the elements of a good rom-com—a secret past, a fake marriage, a high-seas journey—yet those tropes are the vehicle for a queer retelling of the story of Anastasia as well as the inclusion of neurodivergent characters. In the speculative fiction novel The Freedom Race, Lucinda Roy imagines what an America that has reinstituted slavery after a second Civil War would look like and how emancipation can come by competing against others in a race to freedom.
Join the BBF Headliners October 16-23
So how does a writer respond to the world around them, and create art not just from the events and unrest of the current moment, but from the connections between them and others, and from their own understanding of themselves and their identity? Find out at the Boston Book Festival, held virtually on October 16-23. Look for our headliner session list to be released soon.
The Boston Book Festival is no stranger to trying new things.
When we launched in 2009, we launched big. 12,000 attendees, 90 authors and presenters, and more than 40 local businesses and organizations scattered throughout Copley Square, The Boston Public Library, Old South Church, and Trinity Church that day.
And that was only the beginning—in the ten-plus years since, we’ve launched the One City One Story initiative as well as prestigious keynote sessions for kids, young adults, and a variety of nonfiction topics. Over the years we’ve added a Friday night kickoff keynote, BBF Unbound, local literary tours, Poems and Pints, Shelf Help school visits, and a wholelot more. It was too much to contain in one day, so we expanded the BBF to two days, in two different neighborhoods and across Boston.
The Boston Book Festival is also no stranger to unexpected occurrences.
Like 2015’s biting temperatures and blowing winds that challenged even the most intrepid literary New England folks. Or in 2018 when a fire alarm forced the evacuation of Emmanuel Church just as an event was about to start—which continued on the sidewalk outside. Or when we watched Hurricane Sandy creep up the coast in 2012, only to hit Boston the day after. Or like when a global pandemic hit, and a weekend of literary fun turned into a month of virtual events and connection across October 2020.
When you run an event that engages thousands of readers, authors, local organizations, and venues across the city, you need to think big, but stay nimble.
And as much as we wanted to think big for 2021, we’re staying nimble.
For 2021, the Boston Book Festival will take place over the week of October 16-23 as a mostly virtual series of events.
We wanted to see you all in Copley Square and Nubian Square next month! We wanted to catch up with you in line for the author signings (or the grilled cheese sandwiches). We wanted to sit next to you, shoulder to shoulder, and hear from an author who’s made us think or laugh or cry. We wanted to chat with you at the street fair. We wanted to rush past you with a quick hello on our way to the next event, totebag full of books bouncing on our shoulder.
There’s no need to write anymore about how the Delta variant has shifted everyone’s fall plans, and there’s no need to write anymore about the uncertain gray area we’re all in right now with this pandemic.
But what is certain is that the Boston Book Festival “celebrates the power of words to stimulate, agitate, unite, delight, and inspire,” and we can still do that. We can still connect with one another over the ideas we find in books, over a word or phrase that challenges us to look at the world around us differently, or a verse that we hold close and want to share. We can still be united by words and our shared love of sitting in a cozy chair and opening the cover to enter a new world. We can still be inspired by a poet’s turn of phrase, or a fiction writer’s imagery, or a historian’s insights—and we can still do it virtually.
In fact, in times like these, we have to find ways of connection. Why not, still, through words, ideas, and the printed page?
We’ll be releasing more details soon about our presenter lineup, our virtual sessions, and other things you’ll need to know as we continue to engage around words, ideas, readers, and writers, all while keeping everyone safe. (The best way to stay informed? Sign up for our newsletter.) Also, look for new ways to engage with the BBF and to connect with your fellow readers in Boston and beyond.
It’s the thirteenth year of the Boston Book Festival, and we’re lucky to continue to have such a literary community here in Boston.
The full lineup and schedule for BBF 2021 will be announced in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please mark your calendars for October 16–23, and make plans to join our community of readers online!
A grant from the Boston Book Festival aims to expand this elementary school’s library collection.
Books can be bought and donated by accessing Josiah Quincy’s wish list here, or you can also visit the BBF’s donate page to donate directly!
Chinatown’s Josiah Quincy Elementary School community was hit hard by the pandemic, but school librarian Heidi Boulogne is hoping to rebuild through books.
“Over the past year our students have endured trauma, loss of social connection, fear associated with the pandemic, in addition to the social unrest we currently face. Our community needs to heal, and the healing needs to start with our children. Our students love books. They love coming to the library and would appreciate having new books to borrow!”
“Our community needs to heal, and the healing needs to start with our children.”
Josiah Quincy Elementary is the winner of this year’s Shelf Help Partnership for elementary students and will be treated to a very special author visit organized by Wondermore, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing authors to children in underserved communities. In addition, the school will receive new books, curated by Boulogne, to fill the shelves with titles that meet the school’s population.
“As a multicultural school we are currently trying to increase our culturally diverse texts for our Black and LatinX students, and find books celebrating Asian heritage. Students are happy to see books with characters that look like them and that celebrate their culture. It is also important for our students to see realities and experiences different from their own,” says Boulogne, an attorney-turned-school librarian.
“Students are happy to see books with characters that look like them and that celebrate their culture. It is also important for our students to see realities and experiences different from their own.”
Fondly referred to as JQES, this school serves over 850 students grades pre-K through 5th grade, with over 70% of the school’s families are functioning at or below the poverty level. “Our school does not have an annual budget for library books or author visits and so we rely on grants and fundraising to support the library,” says Boulogne. She has selected dozens of titles that reflect the kids that visit her space each day, from Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali’s The Proudest Blue to Andrea Wang and Jason Chin’s Watercress.
Books can be bought and donated by accessing Josiah Quincy’s wish list here, or you can also visit the BBF’s donate page to donate directly! Upon checking out, select “Make this a gift” and designate “Shelf Help” as the gift recipient in the appropriate box.
When Trenton Bordok, who is starting his third year as a librarian at Chelsea High School, heard the news that his library was the winner of this year’s BBF Shelf Help Award, he was so excited he stood on his chair, raised his arms in victory and exclaimed, “Yes!”
“My students here were surprised by my reaction when I read your email,” he says, adding, “This is fantastic news for our school community.”
Chelsea High School’s library was selected from a competitive pool of applicants for this year’s Shelf Help Award in the high school category. Shelf Help winners are treated to a special author visit organized by Wondermore, a local non-profit dedicated to bringing authors into underserved communities. The grant also raises funds from BBF festival-goers and the public to expand the library’s book offerings with books selected by Bordok to reflect the school community.
Chelsea’s student population is nearly 90% Hispanic, most of which are immigrants, says Bordok. It’s a community he enjoys working in. “My colleagues here are so motivated to do well for these kids, not just in the classroom but as good citizens. They care about them and want them to do well.” He says the students love reading graphic novels and manga. He is hoping the visit by a well-known author — the first of its kind at Chelsea — will help him toward his goal of building a culture of reading at the school.
“My colleagues here are so motivated to do well for these kids, not just in the classroom but as good citizens. They care about them and want them to do well.”
The library, he says, is usually bustling, with students there getting work done and socializing. “It’s a place for time off,” he says. Bordok hopes to build on that momentum to get students interested in the books that surround them there. Another motivator for applying for the Shelf Help grant was to stock Chelsea’s library with more books that will interest his diverse population of students. His list includes titles such as I was their American dream: A graphic memoir by Malaka Gharib and African American Inventors: Overcoming challenges to change by Sophie Washburne. (Donate here to help Chelsea add these titles to its library collection.)
Many books were sent home with kids during the pandemic and most were never brought back.
“New books are always incredible,” says Bordok. Getting new books into his library has never been so essential. Many books were sent home with kids during the pandemic and most were never brought back. The Shelf Help Grant will provide an opportunity to replenish the shelves and ensure that the titles in Chelsea’s library reflect the kids who visit there every day.
Bordok says the whole school community is excited about winning Shelf Help and he sees it as a great opportunity. “I’m looking forward to bringing the library and what we have to offer to the school’s attention.”
Books can be bought and donated directly from Chelsea High School’s wish list here or by visiting BBF’s donate page. Upon checking out, select “Make this a gift” and designate “Shelf Help” as the gift recipient in the appropriate box.
We know this is going to be a special year as BBF returns to in-person programming after a yearlong hiatus, and we wanted to share with you all the reasons you’ll want to be a part of it. As a business or organization, you’ll have the opportunity to promote your business in front of BBF’s smart and thoughtful audience — and actually talk to visitors as they browse your booth and many others. Our lively street market on Copley Square is always a highlight for festival-goers, and we’re excited to be bringing the festival energy outdoors in Roxbury with a new exhibitor area. Read on for five exciting highlights and apply to exhibit today (applications due Friday, July 9).
1) You get to meet our audience live and in-person! BBF is founded on the idea of celebrating all things literary together as a community, and we have definitely missed this component over the last year. As a business or organization, being a part of our buzzing outdoor street fair in Copley Square or Nubian Square, Roxbury, offers a unique opportunity to introduce yourself to potential new customers or clients, hand out materials, sell books from your press, or sign up people interested in your organization or products.
2) Copley Square will be buzzing with outdoor programming stages for the first time. We’re mixing things up this year and bringing even more energy and excitement outdoors, which we think will bring even more visitors to the exhibitor area. We’ll have programming right on Copley Square for the first time and will be hosting more sessions that engage people in the city. All of these outdoor activities will bring more people to the exhibitor area, even if we have programmed a smaller festival this year.
3) We’re launching a brand-new exhibitor area in Nubian Square, Roxbury, with live music and food trucks. We are just so excited about this new addition in Roxbury! We’ve been wanting to do more activities outdoors in Nubian Square, and this year, we’ll have an outdoor programming tent for kids at the DeWitt Center, indoor and outdoor activities at the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library, and a happening exhibitor area at the Blair Lot in the heart of Nubian. The Blair Lot, which is an empty lot that has been transformed into a hip outdoor venue space, will also have music and food trucks and be the festival hub.
4) We’re expanding to a weeklong festival with programming and exhibitor areas on two Saturdays. The Boston Book Festival has been expanding over the last few years as its grown into Roxbury, and now, BBF will be a weeklong festival! Events will start on Saturday, October 16, in Copley Square and end on Saturday, October 23, in Nubian Square, with events throughout the city and online in the intervening days. We’re excited to be hosting the festival on two Saturdays to allow for even more visitors to join us, particularly in Roxbury.
5) We have bundle discounts to exhibit at both Copley and Roxbury (and get a free Virtual Marketplace listing!). Who doesn’t love a good discount? Check out our Exhibitor page to find out more about how to bundle Copley and Roxbury and get a discount AND a free Virtual Marketplace listing.
This is definitely going to be an historic year for the Boston Book Festival, and we hope you will join us for this return to programming and to celebrating the power of the written word together. Visit bostonbookfest.org/exhibit and apply by July 9!
If you attended Lit Crawl Boston last week, you might have met one of our three fabulous 2021 interns without even realizing it. If not, here’s your chance to get to know three of the smart, capable folks hard at work behind the scenes here at BBF HQ. Edward, Cristina, and Molly (L–R above) are excited to help bring BBF 2021 from vision to reality—and we couldn’t do it without all that they do!
Intro:
Cristina, born and raised in Puerto Rico, is currently pursuing her master’s degree in publishing and writing at Emerson College. She is this year’s Author and Publisher Liaison.
Edward is currently a fiction student in the MFA creative writing program at Emerson College. He is this year’s Partnerships and Outreach intern.
Molly McCaul, born and raised in Massachusetts, is an English with Creative Writing Major at Wellesley College. She is this year’s One City One Story Project Manager.
What is your favorite book and genre?
Cristina: This is always a tough question for me! If I had to pick one, it would definitely be 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It tells the multigenerational story of a family in the fictional town of Macondo. It is a story crawling with symbolism and metaphors making it an unpredictable and unique read. With this said, one of my favorite genres is magical realism. I’m also a big fan of mystery books.
Edward: Definitely a question that changes every day, but I’m in the mood to reread Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. It’s a future of flying cars, infinite travel, and political schemes involving every level of society! Science fiction is a great medium for writing about the present and future as creatively as possible.
Molly: Back in January I read Nell Scovell’s memoir, Just the Funny Parts, about her career behind the scenes in television. As someone interested in screenwriting, it was a wonderful resource for inspiration and information on the industry. In terms of fiction, though, I recently read The Color Purple by Alice Walker; it’s incredibly well-written and moving.
What is your favorite book turned movie?
Cristina: I am very fond of the Persepolis adaptation. The black-and-white animation was incredible. It is also super engaging with a story that has a lot to unravel.
Edward: Frank Herbert’s Dune has a special place in my heart, and the upcoming new movies better be good or I’ll never shut up about the book always being better.
Molly: It might be childish, but the film adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox definitely comes to mind. The book inspired a love of reading for me, and the adaptation was inadvertently the first Wes Anderson film I saw. I think both of them really show the artistic qualities of their respective mediums.
What BBF panel or event are you most excited about?
Cristina: I am very excited for the festival itself. I have seen firsthand all the authors that are participating and discovered new books that I can’t wait for audiences to come across and read as well.
Edward: I’m excited for Lit Crawl Boston! It’ll be my first time out in Boston, doing something with plenty of people. After a year of Zoom, it’s a welcomed change.
Molly: I’m excited about One City One Story! Apart from being this year’s 1C1S Project Manager, it’s a fantastic program and I think this year, between what we have in store and the general return to in-person events, is going to be especially fun.
What is your go-to book recommendation?
Cristina: I always recommend All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr to anyone. I find that it is a must-read for any historical fiction lover as well. It’s a beautiful story about two characters that cross paths during WWII that will definitely leave a lasting impact on anyone.
Edward:Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. It’s short, impactful, and the best of what modern science fiction has to offer! A diverse cast with aliens, space travel, and a determined heroine.
Molly: I had a friend recommend The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller to me recently, and it was an incredible read. It retells the Iliad from Patroclus’s point of view, and recently gained traction through TikTok. Highly recommend!
As Lit Crawl 2021 draws nearer, literary and media enthusiasts across the Boston area are surely getting excited for any of this year’s sessions. One session, “Brave New Whirl” hosted by the Charitable Organization of Very Enthusiastic Nerds (COVEN), offers a particularly exciting opportunity for pop-culture experts, with a literary trivia wheel and prizes for attendees. In anticipation, we spoke to Marisa, a member of COVEN, about Lit Crawl, what it means to be a “nerd,” and more. Remember to register for Lit Crawl 2021 here!
BBF: What can audiences unfamiliar with COVEN expect or look forward to from your Lit Crawl session and Literary Trivia Wheel?
Marisa: As our name suggests, from us you can always expect enthusiasm! Enthusiasm for books, enthusiasm for Lit Crawl, and enthusiasm for testing the knowledge of fellow book lovers through an obsessively detailed activity—in this case, a custom, handmade prize wheel! You’ll stop by, answer a trivia question, and then (if you answer correctly) spin the wheel to determine your prize, which could range from a literary-themed button to your choice of a book. And while you’re there, we’ll also give you a chance to vote on what our next trivia event will be.
BBF: How do you define “nerd?” Clearly it’s a positive, but what do you think really embodies the spirit of the title?
Marisa: Great question. We consider ourselves nerds because of our heightened affinity for specific topics, which tends to always result in deep dives verging on obsession. Whether it’s evangelizing the perfection of Schitt’s Creek to anyone who will listen, meeting weekly over Zoom in the middle of a pandemic to watch Doctor Who together (because a couple of us had not seen it and that can not be allowed to stand), or attending every Lit Crawl and literary trivia together, we are constantly channeling our aforementioned enthusiasm into some form of pop culture/art.
BBF: What has been your favorite part of working with and fundraising for the Boston community? Do any specific events stand out in your memory?
Marisa: It’s been incredible just to see how many people come out and support the organizations we’ve raised money for. We only charge $5 at the door, but we’ve always raised significantly more than $5 per person thanks to the generosity of the people who show up at our events. We had only been doing this for about a year before the pandemic hit, but the first event we ever did is definitely a highlight. We hosted Schitt’s Creek trivia to raise money for Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. We just thought it would be a fun way to raise money for them leading up to their annual walk, and we were at peak Schitt’s Creek obsession at the time. We had no idea how many people would actually show up. But in the end we filled the restaurant with 50 attendees, many of whom dressed in costume, and we raised $1,200. The energy at that event and the elation we felt afterward was magical and motivated us to do more.
BBF: How has the past year shaped your approach to events, outreach, and/or community building, both virtually and as we return to in-person?
Marisa: We have managed to pivot to virtual events during the pandemic and have held four of them so far. A silver lining is that we have been able to reach people outside of the Boston area for these events. The downside is that Zoom fatigue is real, for us and our audience. But as we’ve continued to witness the horrific results of systemic racism over the past year, we’ve felt more motivated than ever to make a difference. We’re trying to put our enthusiasm toward raising money and awareness for the people and organizations who most need allies right now. And now we have both in-person and virtual approaches in our arsenal!
COVEN’s Lit Crawl drop-in activity, “Brave New Whirl,” will take place on June 10 at Cambridge’s Starlight Square, from 7-9pm. For more information and to register, visit the Lit Crawl schedule.
The Boston Book Festival team was excited to sit down with Alexis Ivy, one of many presenters on this year’s exciting Lit Crawl lineup. Alexis’s session, entitled “Conversations with Art: Ekphrastic Writing in Graffiti Alley,” will be an opportunity for audiences to converse with their immediate surroundings through ekphrasis, a writing style focused on descriptions of art. Below, see some of Alexis’s thoughts on the creative process and how Boston as a community influences work across mediums. And snag one of just a few spots left for this free workshop on June 10th by signing up here.
BBF: What can audiences look forward to from your session at Lit Crawl?
Alexis Ivy: Writers will have the chance to be playful with language and selfhood.
BBF: How is writing poetry specifically inspired by art different from other writing endeavors?
AI: Ekphrastic poetry lets writers go to places they hadn’t thought of. Whether a translation or inspiration, art allows a writer to work in the form of persona. The exercise of ekphrasis brings unfamiliar and surprising language to the page by its ever-changing perspectives of looking at a piece of art. Art adds a creative complication to the writing making your words wondrously more dynamic and unique.
BBF: How has the past year influenced or informed your writing style or your artistic focus?
AI: I have learned I need to be away from home in order to focus on my manuscript. Since life has been all homelife, home has taken on a different definition for me as a writer. It has stopped being a refuge for me as a writer. My focus hasn’t changed as much as my artistic space.
BBF: Being Boston-born, what is your favorite aspect of the Boston-area community?
AI: Writers celebrate the literary history of our streets. The art of words is a wonderful call to action. Whether it’s poetry on the T, sidewalk poetry, public readings, library branch workshops—this city’s collaboration of writers make sure everyone’s words are seen, spoken, heard.
Your BBF 2021 Guide to Young Adult Sessions
Hello readers! It’s Jessica from Team BBF, here to guide you through our schedule for the 2021 Boston Book Festival.
As you’ve probably experienced from past Boston Book Festivals, the sheer number of sessions is like a literary feast set out for hungry readers (the last in-person Festival we hosted had over 150 sessions!). But you’ve also probably felt that panic of “What do I choose?” when you open up that two-page multi-colored spread of sessions in the program guide. (I know I have!)
Because that schedule can be a bit daunting, even in a virtual year, we’re here to help you find the sessions you want to attend so you can see a favorite author, learn something new, think about the world around you in different ways, or discover some new reads for your TBR pile. And because the majority of our sessions will be virtual this year, you don’t need to worry about sprinting down Boylston Street or Washington Street to get to the next session (being sure to grab a grilled cheese on the way). Let’s get started!
Young Adult Sessions for 2021
YA literature has grown into a category that’s not just entertaining for teens and adults alike, but that has served as the vehicle for authors to explore deeper topics of identity, belonging, relationships, societal injustices, and more. This year we’re highlighting some of those topics in our YA sessions, which range from new takes on old tales (Classics Remixed), how to act in a time of unrest (Revolution and Resistance Then and Now), a memoir of growing up Black and queer (Memoir Keynote), and new takes on nature writing (This Session’s for the Birds). We also have a session featuring the intergenerational work of a family of writers (Lifelong Learning Keynote). Teens will also have the chance to connect with other teens and learn about the arts and activist history of Nubian Square as well.
Here’s your guide to our YA sessions.
Lifelong Learning Keynote
Tamara Payne, with hosts Jurianny Guerrero and Kellie Carter Jackson
Saturday, October 16 at 5:00pm | Virtual
This session is for readers interested in…: The life of Malcolm X, but also how biography is researched and written.
What you’ll find in this session: A conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Tamara Payne, who, after her father passed away, stepped in to finish his exhaustive biography of Malcolm X, already decades in the works. She’ll be in conversation with Wellesley College professor Kellie Carter Jackson and Fenway High School senior Jurianny Guerrero.
What you’ll take away from it: The depths of research it takes to compile a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, as well as one family’s ongoing work to do just that.
Session is sponsored by the Eric and Jane Nord Family Fund.
REGISTER
YA: Classics Remixed
C.B. Lee and Bethany C. Morrow, with host Laura Berestecki
Monday, October 18 at 5:30pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for readers interested in…: Discovering more YA authors who are reinterpreting classics through new cultural lenses and fresh takes.
What you’ll find in this session: How authors C.B. Lee and Bethany C. Morrow remixed their source material—one a queer retelling of Treasure Island, the other a retelling of Little Women centered on formerly enslaved Black people—to bring more culturally relevant and diverse takes on classic literature. They’ll be in conversation with BPL’s YA librarian Laura Berestecki.
What you’ll take away from it: Reimagining classics, myths, and fairy tales is hot (BookTok hot) these days, and you can hear how authors are crafting and rethinking these old stories for new audiences.
Session is sponsored by Simmons University.
REGISTER
YA: This Session’s for the Birds
Derrick Z. Jackson, Stephen Kress, and Rosemary Mosco, with host Jeremy Spool
Wednesday, October 20 at 4:00pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for readers interested in…: Learning more about the natural world, and getting to know some feathery friends a bit better.
What you’ll find in this session: Pigeons and puffins will be the focus, as Rosemary Mosco gives us a rundown of the quirks and fun facts about pigeons, while ornithologist Stephen W. Kress and photographer Derrick Z. Jackson will tell the story of repopulating puffins in Maine. They’ll be in conversation with Jeremy Spool of the Massachusetts Young Birders Club.
What you’ll take away from it: Find out some fun facts about familiar and not so familiar birds, as well as hear from nature writers on their craft.
REGISTER
YA: Revolution and Resistance Then and Now
Kekla Magoon, Jamia Wilson, Crystal M. Fleming, and De Nichols, with host Carissa Romain
Thursday, October 21 at 4:00pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for readers interested in…: Learning about the history of activism, and finding out how to engage in the present moment.
What you’ll find in this session: Four authors—National Book Award finalist Kekla Magoon, Jamia Wilson, Crystal M. Fleming, and De Nichols—will discuss protest and activist movements, from a history of the Black Panthers and the feminist movement, to how young people can take action to speak up and fight injustice today. They’ll be in conversation with Carissa Romain.
What you’ll take away from it: More context around our present moment of protest, and actions to take to combat injustice today.
Sessions is sponsored by Candlewick Press.
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BPL Roxbury Branch Reopening: BBF Unbound BEAT Tour
METCO
Saturday, October 23 at 1:00pm | In Person
This session is for readers interested in…: Discovering more about Nubian Square’s activist and arts history from METCO students on an in-person tour.
What you’ll find in this session: Attendees will be introduced to Nubian Square’s history and its many organizers and civil rights workers as they participate in the Boston Education Activism Tour (BEAT) tour, led by high school students in the METCO program.
What you’ll take away from it: New insights into our local history, and inspiration on taking action to make the world a better place today.
YA: Memoir Keynote
George M. Johnson, with host Nicholl Montgomery
Saturday, October 23 at 2:30pm | Virtual
This session is for readers interested in…: Hearing from the author of All Boys Aren’t Blue on their newest memoir.
What you’ll find in this session: George M. Johnson’s new memoir We Are Not Broken tells the story of their growing up as a queer Black boy, their relationship with their three siblings, and the fiercely loving grandmother that raised them. Johnson will be in conversation with children’s literature professor Nicholl Montgomery.
What you’ll take away from it: Inspiration in hearing the story of a queer Black author’s childhood, and the foundational love and support found there.
Session is sponsored by Simmons University.
REGISTER
I hope this guide has helped you get a glimpse into the vast array of writers and what they’re working on who will join us for the 2021 Boston Book Festival. Head to the main schedule to browse all sessions and for registration links, and we’ll see you there!
Your BBF 2021 Guide to Sessions for Writers
Hello writers! It’s Jessica from Team BBF, here to guide you through our schedule for the 2021 Boston Book Festival.
As you’ve probably experienced from past Boston Book Festivals, the sheer number of sessions is like a literary feast set out for hungry readers (the last in-person Festival we hosted had over 150 sessions!). But you’ve also probably felt that panic of “What do I choose?” when you open up that two-page multi-colored spread of sessions in the program guide. (I know I have!)
Because that schedule can be a bit daunting, even in a virtual year, we’re here to help you find the sessions you want to attend so you can see a favorite author, learn something new, think about the world around you in different ways, or discover some new reads for your TBR pile. And because the majority of our sessions will be virtual this year, you don’t need to worry about sprinting down Boylston Street or Washington Street to get to the next session (being sure to grab a grilled cheese on the way). Let’s get started!
Sessions for Writers for 2021
The Boston Book Festival doesn’t just cater to readers and fans of authors and books, but wants to train and inspire the writers creating those books, too. Each year we host a series of sessions for writers to help better understand the craft or the business of writing. This year, writers can examine the role of climate change in fiction (BBF Unbound: A Warming World and Your WIP: Facing Up to the Climate Emergency in Your Fiction), prepare to apply to MFA programs (Under the Hood: A Look at What’s in a Low-Residency MFA Program), learn the path to self-publishing (Self-Publishing Your Children’s Book), discuss craft and audience with other Black writers (Who We Are Writing For: Black Authors Discuss Craft and Audience), or simply hear other writers read their flash fiction (Boston in 100 Words Awards Ceremony).
Here’s your guide to our sessions for writers.
Boston in 100 Words Awards Ceremony
Saturday, October 16 at 6:00pm | In Person/Virtual
This session is for writers interested in…: Hearing flash fiction writers read their work in person at Trident (or virtually).
What you’ll find in this session: Boston in 100 Words will be announcing the winners of their second annual flash contest that highlights everyday writers crafting stories about the neighborhoods they live in. Hear about the local and global initiative, and meet the winners.
What you’ll take away from it: A night out (or in) hearing inspired, well-crafted, insightful short stories about the city we love.
Session is hosted by Boston in 100 Words.
Under the Hood: A Look at What’s in a Low-Residency MFA Program
Danielle Legros Georges, Heather Hughes, and Janet Pocorobba
Sunday, October 17 at 2:00pm | Virtual
This session is for writers interested in…: Pursuing an MFA and who want to know more about what to look for in a program.
What you’ll find in this session: Lesley University program director Danielle Legros Georges, associate director Janet Pocorobba, and MFA alum Heather Hughes will answer all your questions about what attending a low-resident MFA program is like, the work required, what to look for in a program, and more.
What you’ll take away from it: Knowledge and insight to make the right decision for the future of your writing career.
Session is sponsored by Lesley University.
REGISTER
BBF Unbound: A Warming World and Your WIP: Facing Up to the Climate Emergency in Your Fiction
Julie Carrick Dalton and Erica Ferencik
Monday, October 18 at 12:30pm | In Person
This session is for writers interested in…: Investigating climate change in their fiction—or who know they’ll have to someday soon—in an outdoors session at the waterfront.
What you’ll find in this session: Held on the Seaport’s waterfront, authors Julie Carrick Dalton and Erica Ferencik will lead a discussion of how climate change is represented in fiction, how fiction writers should approach climate change in their writing, and writing prompts for further story creation.
What you’ll take away from it: Further your awareness of craft by learning how to tackle new themes, and how to use them in future work.
Session is presented in partnership with GrubStreet and ICA Boston.
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Who We Are Writing For: Black Authors Discuss Craft and Audience
Tatiana Johnson-Boria and Simeon Marsalis, with host James Bennett II
Thursday, October 21 at 5:30pm | Virtual
This session is for writers interested in…: Discussions around how to craft stories and narratives for certain audiences.
What you’ll find in this session: Authors Tatiana Johnson-Boria and Simeon Marsalis will have a craft talk on how Black writers can approach their work and their audiences. They’ll be in conversation with GBH News Arts & Culture reporter James Bennett II.
What you’ll take away from it: A better understanding of the Black literary community.
Session is presented by GBH.
REGISTER
Self-Publishing Your Children’s Book
Delanda Coleman, Valerie Foxx, and Candelaria Silva, with host Cagen Luse
Friday, October 22 at 3:00pm | Virtual (prerecorded)
This session is for writers interested in…: Learning the ins and outs of how to self-publish a children’s book.
What you’ll find in this session: Three self-published children’s authors—Delanda Coleman, Valerie Foxx, and Candelaria Silva—will share their journey from story idea to story writing to how to successful take the self-publishing journey. They’ll be in conversation with co-founder of Comics in Color Cagen Luse, whose son Coleman will join to tell about how he’s self-publishing his own comic book.
What you’ll take away from it: Both the knowledge and the confidence on how to self-publish the children’s book that you’ve always wanted to write and send out into the world.
REGISTER
I hope this guide has helped you get a glimpse into the vast array of writers and what they’re working on who will join us for the 2021 Boston Book Festival. Head to the main schedule to browse all sessions and for registration links, and we’ll see you there!
2021 Boston Book Festival Headliners: Finding Meaning and Connection through Words and Images
How does a writer respond to events as heavy and impacting as those of these past two years? A global pandemic and the disruption of health, business, and societal connections as we knew them, as well as grassroots movements fighting for the end of systemic racism, a political race with the future of our nation at stake, all against the backdrop of an impending climate crisis.
Everyone lived it. But writers and artists also have the added task of making sense of the world around them, creating meaning from chaos, and finding the humanity, connection, and truth at the core of our shared existence.
That’s what our 2021 Boston Book Festival headliners are seeking to do in their work: make meaning of recent events, or look at history through the lens of new ideas, insights, or identities, or interrogate big themes through fiction, satire, or genre, or simply find the human connection between all of us.
Here are some of the common themes found in our headliners’ work, and how they are fulfilling the Boston Book Festival’s mission by using “the power of words to stimulate, agitate, unite, delight, and inspire.”
Analyzing the Societal Impact of COVID
The Boston Book Festival kick-off keynote session will feature Nicholas A. Christakis, whose book Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live not only details the COVID-19 pandemic, but seeks to understand its impact on human society. A sociologist and physician whose research focuses on both the social and biological ways people form connections, Christakis asks what it means to live during a pandemic—something few of us have done across history.
Joining Christakis will be Sandro Galea, whose new book The Contagion Next Time looks at how to combat new epidemics, and how it will involve a commitment to—and perhaps a reimagining of—public health that starts with addressing systemic poverty in order to create a more equitable, just, and healthy society.
The Past Informs the Present
The theme of using history to inform our current time continues with headliners who seek to address the racial unrest in our country and examine how its roots in the past continue to branch into the present.
Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed’s book On Juneteenth details the events leading up June 19, 1865, the date that marks the end of legalized slavery in America, a history that informed the long-awaited creation of Juneteenth as a national holiday this past year. The long shadow of the Civil War is also the topic of Clint Smith’s How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award), which examines the sites where monuments and landmarks keep slavery alive, and the stories they tell—or don’t tell. Kekla Magoon looks to history to inform the present moment as well in Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People (longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for young people’s literature), a history of the Black Panther Party and Black community activism, tracing a line to the Black Lives Matter movement today. The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning biography The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, completed by Tamara Payne after the death of her journalist father Les Payne, seeks to put Malcolm X within the context of history: his upbringing, his family’s beliefs, and the systemic racism that still continues. Former Poet Laureate of the U.S. Tracy K. Smith also explores the impact of history in her new collection Such Color: New and Selected Poems, asking questions of America’s history of racism and pushing back against the shadows of the past.
Family, Community, and Connection
Our headliners are also looking to the past to inform their present, but on a much more micro scale, investigating family history—whether their own or someone else’s—and the community around them to make sense of their personal history, identity, and connection.
George M. Johnson’s new memoir We Are Not Broken seeks to tell their own story of Black boyhood, growing up with three brothers and the grandmother that raised them, and to use that story to demonstrate the connections of family and how they inform the adults we become. In All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award), Tiya Miles also seeks to uncover family connections—literally—as she researches a mother and daughter parted in the slave trade in 1852, and the objects that linked them and their descents. Author Tricia Elam Walker and artist Ekua Holmes looked to the past—their childhood in Roxbury—to create the picture book Dream Street, about the everyday people that live in a community and the importance of the connections between them.
Action Today for a Better Future
Our headliners also look at the events and culture around us and anticipate the future—and ask how we should respond.
In his collection of graphic essays Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest, Nate Powell interrogates the idea of what it means to be a parent in our current age of protest and unrest and in what ways he should prepare his children for future activism. Anita Diamant investigates the state of people who menstruate worldwide in Period. End of Sentence. A New Chapter in the Fight for Menstrual Justice and uses stories, anecdotes, and historical fact to encourage normalization of the conversation and ongoing action against menstrual injustice. In Imagine It!: A Handbook for a Happier Planet, Laurie David provides an actionable guidebook for those wanting to reduce their footprint and adopt more sustainable living habits to help combat the increasing threat of climate change.
Race in the (Fictional) Workplace
Unlike historians or reporters, fiction writers have the freedom to use crafted characters and literary tools like metaphor, satire, and analogy to explore timely truths—and two of our fiction headliners are doing just that.
The novel Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour takes a satirical look at workplace culture in America through a main character who is a mysterious company’s only Black salesman, and his witty commentary on the inherent racism of startup culture. Zakiya Dalila Harris’s novel The Other Black Girl follows the only Black editorial assistant at a prestigious white publishing house—and her reaction to the second Black employee that arrives—and provides a commentary on the lack of Black representation in publishing through the guise of a thriller.
Leveraging Genre Fiction to Imagine and Subvert
Authors have long used genre to explore questions of race, justice, equality, identity, and other topics that mainstream or literary fiction doesn’t give the latitude to explore. Two of our headliners are using genre as their medium through which to explore the world around us.
Alyssa Cole’s romance novel How to Find a Princess is rife with the elements of a good rom-com—a secret past, a fake marriage, a high-seas journey—yet those tropes are the vehicle for a queer retelling of the story of Anastasia as well as the inclusion of neurodivergent characters. In the speculative fiction novel The Freedom Race, Lucinda Roy imagines what an America that has reinstituted slavery after a second Civil War would look like and how emancipation can come by competing against others in a race to freedom.
Join the BBF Headliners October 16-23
So how does a writer respond to the world around them, and create art not just from the events and unrest of the current moment, but from the connections between them and others, and from their own understanding of themselves and their identity? Find out at the Boston Book Festival, held virtually on October 16-23. Look for our headliner session list to be released soon.
Lucky 13: The Boston Book Festival’s Plans for 2021
The Boston Book Festival is no stranger to trying new things.
When we launched in 2009, we launched big. 12,000 attendees, 90 authors and presenters, and more than 40 local businesses and organizations scattered throughout Copley Square, The Boston Public Library, Old South Church, and Trinity Church that day.
And that was only the beginning—in the ten-plus years since, we’ve launched the One City One Story initiative as well as prestigious keynote sessions for kids, young adults, and a variety of nonfiction topics. Over the years we’ve added a Friday night kickoff keynote, BBF Unbound, local literary tours, Poems and Pints, Shelf Help school visits, and a wholelot more. It was too much to contain in one day, so we expanded the BBF to two days, in two different neighborhoods and across Boston.
The Boston Book Festival is also no stranger to unexpected occurrences.
Like 2015’s biting temperatures and blowing winds that challenged even the most intrepid literary New England folks. Or in 2018 when a fire alarm forced the evacuation of Emmanuel Church just as an event was about to start—which continued on the sidewalk outside. Or when we watched Hurricane Sandy creep up the coast in 2012, only to hit Boston the day after. Or like when a global pandemic hit, and a weekend of literary fun turned into a month of virtual events and connection across October 2020.
When you run an event that engages thousands of readers, authors, local organizations, and venues across the city, you need to think big, but stay nimble.
And as much as we wanted to think big for 2021, we’re staying nimble.
For 2021, the Boston Book Festival will take place over the week of October 16-23 as a mostly virtual series of events.
We wanted to see you all in Copley Square and Nubian Square next month! We wanted to catch up with you in line for the author signings (or the grilled cheese sandwiches). We wanted to sit next to you, shoulder to shoulder, and hear from an author who’s made us think or laugh or cry. We wanted to chat with you at the street fair. We wanted to rush past you with a quick hello on our way to the next event, totebag full of books bouncing on our shoulder.
There’s no need to write anymore about how the Delta variant has shifted everyone’s fall plans, and there’s no need to write anymore about the uncertain gray area we’re all in right now with this pandemic.
But what is certain is that the Boston Book Festival “celebrates the power of words to stimulate, agitate, unite, delight, and inspire,” and we can still do that. We can still connect with one another over the ideas we find in books, over a word or phrase that challenges us to look at the world around us differently, or a verse that we hold close and want to share. We can still be united by words and our shared love of sitting in a cozy chair and opening the cover to enter a new world. We can still be inspired by a poet’s turn of phrase, or a fiction writer’s imagery, or a historian’s insights—and we can still do it virtually.
In fact, in times like these, we have to find ways of connection. Why not, still, through words, ideas, and the printed page?
We’ll be releasing more details soon about our presenter lineup, our virtual sessions, and other things you’ll need to know as we continue to engage around words, ideas, readers, and writers, all while keeping everyone safe. (The best way to stay informed? Sign up for our newsletter.) Also, look for new ways to engage with the BBF and to connect with your fellow readers in Boston and beyond.
It’s the thirteenth year of the Boston Book Festival, and we’re lucky to continue to have such a literary community here in Boston.
The full lineup and schedule for BBF 2021 will be announced in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please mark your calendars for October 16–23, and make plans to join our community of readers online!
“Our Community Needs to Heal”: A Chinatown elementary school librarian’s quest to rebuild through books
A grant from the Boston Book Festival aims to expand this elementary school’s library collection.
Books can be bought and donated by accessing Josiah Quincy’s wish list here, or you can also visit the BBF’s donate page to donate directly!
Chinatown’s Josiah Quincy Elementary School community was hit hard by the pandemic, but school librarian Heidi Boulogne is hoping to rebuild through books.
“Over the past year our students have endured trauma, loss of social connection, fear associated with the pandemic, in addition to the social unrest we currently face. Our community needs to heal, and the healing needs to start with our children. Our students love books. They love coming to the library and would appreciate having new books to borrow!”
Josiah Quincy Elementary is the winner of this year’s Shelf Help Partnership for elementary students and will be treated to a very special author visit organized by Wondermore, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing authors to children in underserved communities. In addition, the school will receive new books, curated by Boulogne, to fill the shelves with titles that meet the school’s population.
“As a multicultural school we are currently trying to increase our culturally diverse texts for our Black and LatinX students, and find books celebrating Asian heritage. Students are happy to see books with characters that look like them and that celebrate their culture. It is also important for our students to see realities and experiences different from their own,” says Boulogne, an attorney-turned-school librarian.
Fondly referred to as JQES, this school serves over 850 students grades pre-K through 5th grade, with over 70% of the school’s families are functioning at or below the poverty level. “Our school does not have an annual budget for library books or author visits and so we rely on grants and fundraising to support the library,” says Boulogne. She has selected dozens of titles that reflect the kids that visit her space each day, from Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali’s The Proudest Blue to Andrea Wang and Jason Chin’s Watercress.
Books can be bought and donated by accessing Josiah Quincy’s wish list here, or you can also visit the BBF’s donate page to donate directly! Upon checking out, select “Make this a gift” and designate “Shelf Help” as the gift recipient in the appropriate box.
Chelsea High’s librarian hopes to build a “culture of reading” with BBF Shelf Help Grant
A grant from the Boston Book Festival aims to expand the school’s book collection. And you can help.
Books can be bought and donated directly from the Chelsea’s High School’s wish list here or by visiting BBF’s donate page.
When Trenton Bordok, who is starting his third year as a librarian at Chelsea High School, heard the news that his library was the winner of this year’s BBF Shelf Help Award, he was so excited he stood on his chair, raised his arms in victory and exclaimed, “Yes!”
“My students here were surprised by my reaction when I read your email,” he says, adding, “This is fantastic news for our school community.”
Chelsea High School’s library was selected from a competitive pool of applicants for this year’s Shelf Help Award in the high school category. Shelf Help winners are treated to a special author visit organized by Wondermore, a local non-profit dedicated to bringing authors into underserved communities. The grant also raises funds from BBF festival-goers and the public to expand the library’s book offerings with books selected by Bordok to reflect the school community.
Chelsea’s student population is nearly 90% Hispanic, most of which are immigrants, says Bordok. It’s a community he enjoys working in. “My colleagues here are so motivated to do well for these kids, not just in the classroom but as good citizens. They care about them and want them to do well.” He says the students love reading graphic novels and manga. He is hoping the visit by a well-known author — the first of its kind at Chelsea — will help him toward his goal of building a culture of reading at the school.
The library, he says, is usually bustling, with students there getting work done and socializing. “It’s a place for time off,” he says. Bordok hopes to build on that momentum to get students interested in the books that surround them there. Another motivator for applying for the Shelf Help grant was to stock Chelsea’s library with more books that will interest his diverse population of students. His list includes titles such as I was their American dream: A graphic memoir by Malaka Gharib and African American Inventors: Overcoming challenges to change by Sophie Washburne. (Donate here to help Chelsea add these titles to its library collection.)
“New books are always incredible,” says Bordok. Getting new books into his library has never been so essential. Many books were sent home with kids during the pandemic and most were never brought back. The Shelf Help Grant will provide an opportunity to replenish the shelves and ensure that the titles in Chelsea’s library reflect the kids who visit there every day.
Bordok says the whole school community is excited about winning Shelf Help and he sees it as a great opportunity. “I’m looking forward to bringing the library and what we have to offer to the school’s attention.”
Books can be bought and donated directly from Chelsea High School’s wish list here or by visiting BBF’s donate page. Upon checking out, select “Make this a gift” and designate “Shelf Help” as the gift recipient in the appropriate box.
Five Reasons You Won’t Want to Miss Exhibiting at BBF 2021
We know this is going to be a special year as BBF returns to in-person programming after a yearlong hiatus, and we wanted to share with you all the reasons you’ll want to be a part of it. As a business or organization, you’ll have the opportunity to promote your business in front of BBF’s smart and thoughtful audience — and actually talk to visitors as they browse your booth and many others. Our lively street market on Copley Square is always a highlight for festival-goers, and we’re excited to be bringing the festival energy outdoors in Roxbury with a new exhibitor area. Read on for five exciting highlights and apply to exhibit today (applications due Friday, July 9).
1) You get to meet our audience live and in-person! BBF is founded on the idea of celebrating all things literary together as a community, and we have definitely missed this component over the last year. As a business or organization, being a part of our buzzing outdoor street fair in Copley Square or Nubian Square, Roxbury, offers a unique opportunity to introduce yourself to potential new customers or clients, hand out materials, sell books from your press, or sign up people interested in your organization or products.
2) Copley Square will be buzzing with outdoor programming stages for the first time. We’re mixing things up this year and bringing even more energy and excitement outdoors, which we think will bring even more visitors to the exhibitor area. We’ll have programming right on Copley Square for the first time and will be hosting more sessions that engage people in the city. All of these outdoor activities will bring more people to the exhibitor area, even if we have programmed a smaller festival this year.
3) We’re launching a brand-new exhibitor area in Nubian Square, Roxbury, with live music and food trucks. We are just so excited about this new addition in Roxbury! We’ve been wanting to do more activities outdoors in Nubian Square, and this year, we’ll have an outdoor programming tent for kids at the DeWitt Center, indoor and outdoor activities at the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library, and a happening exhibitor area at the Blair Lot in the heart of Nubian. The Blair Lot, which is an empty lot that has been transformed into a hip outdoor venue space, will also have music and food trucks and be the festival hub.
4) We’re expanding to a weeklong festival with programming and exhibitor areas on two Saturdays. The Boston Book Festival has been expanding over the last few years as its grown into Roxbury, and now, BBF will be a weeklong festival! Events will start on Saturday, October 16, in Copley Square and end on Saturday, October 23, in Nubian Square, with events throughout the city and online in the intervening days. We’re excited to be hosting the festival on two Saturdays to allow for even more visitors to join us, particularly in Roxbury.
5) We have bundle discounts to exhibit at both Copley and Roxbury (and get a free Virtual Marketplace listing!). Who doesn’t love a good discount? Check out our Exhibitor page to find out more about how to bundle Copley and Roxbury and get a discount AND a free Virtual Marketplace listing.
This is definitely going to be an historic year for the Boston Book Festival, and we hope you will join us for this return to programming and to celebrating the power of the written word together. Visit bostonbookfest.org/exhibit and apply by July 9!
BBF 2021: Meet the Interns
If you attended Lit Crawl Boston last week, you might have met one of our three fabulous 2021 interns without even realizing it. If not, here’s your chance to get to know three of the smart, capable folks hard at work behind the scenes here at BBF HQ. Edward, Cristina, and Molly (L–R above) are excited to help bring BBF 2021 from vision to reality—and we couldn’t do it without all that they do!
Intro:
Cristina, born and raised in Puerto Rico, is currently pursuing her master’s degree in publishing and writing at Emerson College. She is this year’s Author and Publisher Liaison.
Edward is currently a fiction student in the MFA creative writing program at Emerson College. He is this year’s Partnerships and Outreach intern.
Molly McCaul, born and raised in Massachusetts, is an English with Creative Writing Major at Wellesley College. She is this year’s One City One Story Project Manager.
What is your favorite book and genre?
Cristina: This is always a tough question for me! If I had to pick one, it would definitely be 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It tells the multigenerational story of a family in the fictional town of Macondo. It is a story crawling with symbolism and metaphors making it an unpredictable and unique read. With this said, one of my favorite genres is magical realism. I’m also a big fan of mystery books.
Edward: Definitely a question that changes every day, but I’m in the mood to reread Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. It’s a future of flying cars, infinite travel, and political schemes involving every level of society! Science fiction is a great medium for writing about the present and future as creatively as possible.
Molly: Back in January I read Nell Scovell’s memoir, Just the Funny Parts, about her career behind the scenes in television. As someone interested in screenwriting, it was a wonderful resource for inspiration and information on the industry. In terms of fiction, though, I recently read The Color Purple by Alice Walker; it’s incredibly well-written and moving.
What is your favorite book turned movie?
Cristina: I am very fond of the Persepolis adaptation. The black-and-white animation was incredible. It is also super engaging with a story that has a lot to unravel.
Edward: Frank Herbert’s Dune has a special place in my heart, and the upcoming new movies better be good or I’ll never shut up about the book always being better.
Molly: It might be childish, but the film adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox definitely comes to mind. The book inspired a love of reading for me, and the adaptation was inadvertently the first Wes Anderson film I saw. I think both of them really show the artistic qualities of their respective mediums.
What BBF panel or event are you most excited about?
Cristina: I am very excited for the festival itself. I have seen firsthand all the authors that are participating and discovered new books that I can’t wait for audiences to come across and read as well.
Edward: I’m excited for Lit Crawl Boston! It’ll be my first time out in Boston, doing something with plenty of people. After a year of Zoom, it’s a welcomed change.
Molly: I’m excited about One City One Story! Apart from being this year’s 1C1S Project Manager, it’s a fantastic program and I think this year, between what we have in store and the general return to in-person events, is going to be especially fun.
What is your go-to book recommendation?
Cristina: I always recommend All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr to anyone. I find that it is a must-read for any historical fiction lover as well. It’s a beautiful story about two characters that cross paths during WWII that will definitely leave a lasting impact on anyone.
Edward: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. It’s short, impactful, and the best of what modern science fiction has to offer! A diverse cast with aliens, space travel, and a determined heroine.
Molly: I had a friend recommend The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller to me recently, and it was an incredible read. It retells the Iliad from Patroclus’s point of view, and recently gained traction through TikTok. Highly recommend!
Brave New Whirl: Talking Literary Trivia with COVEN
As Lit Crawl 2021 draws nearer, literary and media enthusiasts across the Boston area are surely getting excited for any of this year’s sessions. One session, “Brave New Whirl” hosted by the Charitable Organization of Very Enthusiastic Nerds (COVEN), offers a particularly exciting opportunity for pop-culture experts, with a literary trivia wheel and prizes for attendees. In anticipation, we spoke to Marisa, a member of COVEN, about Lit Crawl, what it means to be a “nerd,” and more. Remember to register for Lit Crawl 2021 here!
BBF: What can audiences unfamiliar with COVEN expect or look forward to from your Lit Crawl session and Literary Trivia Wheel?
Marisa: As our name suggests, from us you can always expect enthusiasm! Enthusiasm for books, enthusiasm for Lit Crawl, and enthusiasm for testing the knowledge of fellow book lovers through an obsessively detailed activity—in this case, a custom, handmade prize wheel! You’ll stop by, answer a trivia question, and then (if you answer correctly) spin the wheel to determine your prize, which could range from a literary-themed button to your choice of a book. And while you’re there, we’ll also give you a chance to vote on what our next trivia event will be.
BBF: How do you define “nerd?” Clearly it’s a positive, but what do you think really embodies the spirit of the title?
Marisa: Great question. We consider ourselves nerds because of our heightened affinity for specific topics, which tends to always result in deep dives verging on obsession. Whether it’s evangelizing the perfection of Schitt’s Creek to anyone who will listen, meeting weekly over Zoom in the middle of a pandemic to watch Doctor Who together (because a couple of us had not seen it and that can not be allowed to stand), or attending every Lit Crawl and literary trivia together, we are constantly channeling our aforementioned enthusiasm into some form of pop culture/art.
BBF: What has been your favorite part of working with and fundraising for the Boston community? Do any specific events stand out in your memory?
Marisa: It’s been incredible just to see how many people come out and support the organizations we’ve raised money for. We only charge $5 at the door, but we’ve always raised significantly more than $5 per person thanks to the generosity of the people who show up at our events. We had only been doing this for about a year before the pandemic hit, but the first event we ever did is definitely a highlight. We hosted Schitt’s Creek trivia to raise money for Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. We just thought it would be a fun way to raise money for them leading up to their annual walk, and we were at peak Schitt’s Creek obsession at the time. We had no idea how many people would actually show up. But in the end we filled the restaurant with 50 attendees, many of whom dressed in costume, and we raised $1,200. The energy at that event and the elation we felt afterward was magical and motivated us to do more.
BBF: How has the past year shaped your approach to events, outreach, and/or community building, both virtually and as we return to in-person?
Marisa: We have managed to pivot to virtual events during the pandemic and have held four of them so far. A silver lining is that we have been able to reach people outside of the Boston area for these events. The downside is that Zoom fatigue is real, for us and our audience. But as we’ve continued to witness the horrific results of systemic racism over the past year, we’ve felt more motivated than ever to make a difference. We’re trying to put our enthusiasm toward raising money and awareness for the people and organizations who most need allies right now. And now we have both in-person and virtual approaches in our arsenal!
COVEN’s Lit Crawl drop-in activity, “Brave New Whirl,” will take place on June 10 at Cambridge’s Starlight Square, from 7-9pm. For more information and to register, visit the Lit Crawl schedule.
Q&A: Ekphrastic poetry in Graffiti Alley
The Boston Book Festival team was excited to sit down with Alexis Ivy, one of many presenters on this year’s exciting Lit Crawl lineup. Alexis’s session, entitled “Conversations with Art: Ekphrastic Writing in Graffiti Alley,” will be an opportunity for audiences to converse with their immediate surroundings through ekphrasis, a writing style focused on descriptions of art. Below, see some of Alexis’s thoughts on the creative process and how Boston as a community influences work across mediums. And snag one of just a few spots left for this free workshop on June 10th by signing up here.
BBF: What can audiences look forward to from your session at Lit Crawl?
Alexis Ivy: Writers will have the chance to be playful with language and selfhood.
BBF: How is writing poetry specifically inspired by art different from other writing endeavors?
AI: Ekphrastic poetry lets writers go to places they hadn’t thought of. Whether a translation or inspiration, art allows a writer to work in the form of persona. The exercise of ekphrasis brings unfamiliar and surprising language to the page by its ever-changing perspectives of looking at a piece of art. Art adds a creative complication to the writing making your words wondrously more dynamic and unique.
BBF: How has the past year influenced or informed your writing style or your artistic focus?
AI: I have learned I need to be away from home in order to focus on my manuscript. Since life has been all homelife, home has taken on a different definition for me as a writer. It has stopped being a refuge for me as a writer. My focus hasn’t changed as much as my artistic space.
BBF: Being Boston-born, what is your favorite aspect of the Boston-area community?
AI: Writers celebrate the literary history of our streets. The art of words is a wonderful call to action. Whether it’s poetry on the T, sidewalk poetry, public readings, library branch workshops—this city’s collaboration of writers make sure everyone’s words are seen, spoken, heard.
Sign up for this workshop at at Lit Crawl 2021!