Boston Book Festival is excited to have Mass Poetry presenting at Lit Crawl 2021! The organization supports the poets of Massachusetts by both providing resources to poets and educating the public. You can learn more about Mass Poetry’s “Poems To Go” session here and by reading our Q&A with Erica Charis-Molling, Mass Poetry’s education director.
BBF: Could you tell us a little about your presenters for “Poems To Go”?
Erica: Cassandra de Alba is a poet living in Massachusetts. Her chapbooks are habitats (Horse Less Press, 2016), Ugly/Sad (Glass Poetry Press, 2020) and Cryptids (Ginger Bug Press, 2020). Her work has appeared in The Shallow Ends, Big Lucks, and Wax Nine, among other publications. She is a poetry reader for Underblong and an instructor at the Redbud Writing Project.
Julia Story is the author of Post Moxie (Sarabande Books) and the chapbooks The Trapdoor (dancing girl press) and Julie the Astonishing (Sixth Finch Books). She is a 2016 recipient of a Pushcart Prize and her recent work can be read in Sixth Finch, Tinderbox, and Tupelo Quarterly. She is a Midwesterner who now lives in Massachusetts.
Together they form two-thirds of the Traveling Poetry Emporium. [The Traveling Poetry Emporium types original poems on the spot at museums, festivals, and parties on any subject the guests have in mind.] What do you hope attendees and viewers at Lit Crawl Boston 2021 will take away from your “Poems To Go” session?
Erica: A personalized, one-of-a-kind poem written on a topic of their choice! I hope they’ll also come away with a sense of the living, breathing, every-day-ness of poetry—that it’s not just something tucked away in some dusty book on the top shelf, but rather something you might encounter anywhere and can intersect your life at any moment if you’re open to it.
Could you suggest chapbooks for our BBF readers by Boston poets?
Erica: Our Traveling Poetry Emporium poets have several books and chapbooks that I would recommend! In particular, Cassandra de Alba’s Ugly/Sad and Julia Story’s The Trapdoor would be great chapbooks to check out. Folks wanting further reading recommendations are welcome to check out our series here. Lastly, what is it about Massachusetts that makes the state such fertile ground for poetry?
Erica: Man, this question is a doozy! I think Massachusetts is a place with a lot of poetic history, which in many ways has primed the soil. I also think it’s a place with a whole web of supports and opportunities for new and experienced poets—through institutions like the Mass Cultural Council [also a funder for Lit Crawl Boston], local cultural councils and governments (many of whom have expanded or started poet programs across the state), academic institutions, really vibrant grass-roots open mic communities, and literary nonprofits like Mass Poetry. There’s been a well-documented rise in poetry readership in the United States and all of that helps Massachusetts capitalize on that climbing desire for poetry. (There may also be something in the water. I haven’t tested it recently to be sure.)
We hope Lit Crawl Boston 2021 attendees appreciate the wealth of poetry in the state of Massachusetts, and take the opportunity to acquire new poems at Lit Crawl Boston 2021! More information on dates, time slots, and presenters can be found here. We can’t wait to see you June 10!
This year, the Boston Book Festival’s annual Lit Crawl will mark an exciting return to in-person events for the Boston literary community. We had the opportunity to sit down with author Kim Adrian. Kim will be hosting her session, “The Art of (Writing About) Reading,” as a way to introduce audiences to the art of the bibliomemoir. Register here for this session on June 10 at Lit Crawl 2021!
BBF: What can audiences unfamiliar with bibliomemoir look forward to from your session at Lit Crawl?
Kim: The audience will hear from four practitioners of the genre—four writers with four different approaches to combining literary analysis with memoir. One of the readers, Adam Colman (New Uses for Failure) has described bibliomemoir as “a genre that eats other genres.” This is usually the thing that people get most excited about when they learn about this type of writing. For example, Kim McLarin’s bibliomemoir about James Baldwin’s novel Another Country combines a critical examination of the work with personal reflections on how Baldwin (and many other Black American writers) helped turn her into the woman and the writer she is today. At the same time, there’s a hefty strand of cultural criticism running throughout the whole thing, so the text feels very densely woven: personal, political-cultural, and literary all at once. Bibliomemoir encourages multifaceted or multivalent writing like this because you’ve always got at least two things going on: the writer writing reflectively on a personal experience (reading a book), and, at the same time, the writer examining why that book is (or perhaps is not) successful. For those comfortable working in this way it’s very tempting to add a third and perhaps even a fourth element into the mix.
BBF: How does “removing the glaze of pretension” influence the process of interpreting works of literature, either in general or in your specific experience?
Kim: With the phrase “removing the glaze of pretension” I mean getting out of the kind of faux-objective critical mode of passing judgement, speaking from on high, from a position of authority, which is the attitude most people associate with literary criticism, art criticism, criticism in general. That attitude implies that a work of art exists as an objective thing in the world, and that, as an objective thing, it requires a special kind of sensibility, a specially trained intellect, to be correctly perceived and interpreted. But a work of art does not exist in a vacuum. It is not a stable, immutable entity. In fact, there are as many ways to experience, for example, a great novel as there are readers of that novel, which is another way of saying that the novel itself changes for each reader. This is the premise on which bibliomemoir is based. The genre embraces the messiness of literature, the dynamism involved in the act of reading. That said, a good bibliomemoir will always take the act of criticism very seriously. But by its very nature bibliomemoir rejects the idea of critic-as-authortative-taste-maker, or critic-as-judge, and embraces, instead, criticism as a kind of creative, generative activity.
BBF: How do you think Boston, as a community or location, can contribute to the tradition of bibliomemoir? What aspects of the city do you think enrich literary criticism?
Kim: Bibliomemoir seems to be a growing genre right now. Much like microhistory, bibliomemoir upends a specific, traditional cultural structure—in this case the kind of authoritative perspective (rooted in entrenched power structures) that conventional criticism upholds. In this sense, it is an inherently political genre—a liberal or democratic genre. Boston is a left-leaning city that just so happens to be packed with great readers. If bibliomemor, as a genre, has a shot at finding a solid foothold with a hungry audience, Boston readers could well be the ones to make that happen.
BBF: How has the past year influenced your work, if at all?
Kim: It’s been a freaky year for me, of course. I’m no exception to that rule. COVID affected the launch of my bibliomemoir, Dear Knausgaard, pushing off the launch date by several months and putting events online. But it also nudged me into a new direction in my writing. For one thing, it got me thinking about magical thinking, simply because there was so much of that going on, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Thinking about magical thinking got me thinking about imagination in general, so that I now find myself doing a lot of research on that topic. Beyond that, the further growth of the Black Lives Matter movement has affected everything—the whole way I see history, power, beauty, truth, language, perspective, my country, and my own existence within my own white skin, in ways I’m still trying to process and will continue to process, I’m sure, for years to come. Ditto the recent and ongoing challenges to our democracy (which have circled me back around to the concept of magical thinking and imagination). Long story short, I’m still very much trying to process the past year. My hope is to be able to write about some of the strangeness and change that we’ve been going through in my current project—which happens to be another bibliomemoir, this time about the life and work of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann.
We’re looking forward to hearing more from Kim and all of our other Lit Crawl presenters on June 10 in Cambridge! “The Art of (Writing About) Reading” will take place at 7:00 PM at Dial Restaurant in Cambridge. For more information about Lit Crawl and to register, see the BBF website.
Storytelling has proven to be a great device for the immigrant experience. Off Kendrick is a theater group in which South Asian immigrants share their realities as minority groups in the United States. In between humorous adventures and retellings of harsh circumstances, Off Kendrick emphasizes the importance of storytelling for the immigrant experience. To elaborate more on this event, we have asked Chandreyee Lahiri, one of the presenters, some questions to learn more about what to expect from Off Kendrick’s presentation titled “Voices” and register now for this event on June 10!
BBF: As there will probably be an invitation for the audience to participate in your presentation, how important do you think it is for immigrants to exchange stories between each other?
Chandreyee: Our show “Voices” is intended for a broad audience of non-immigrants so we can start to break through the social barriers that divide us and stride towards inclusiveness. People tend to fear the unknown and succumb to reductive stereotypes. For non-immigrants to walk in the shoes of immigrants, if only for the duration of their stories, may bridge this chasm. But there is also great value of sharing stories WITHIN the immigrant community. When you arrive in a foreign country, leaving behind your support systems, grappling with new traditions and customs—social and emotional isolation is as common as it is harmful. Finding a community of like people through storytelling can make a big difference to this process of settling in. For immigrants who have “assimilated” over time, sharing stories about their journey of adjustment and struggle can also enrich both the teller and the community. For example, one of the stories in the Lit Crawl event is about a father’s confusing encounter with their Indian-American child’s mis-interpretation of his career, the career required so much effort and sacrifice. Many immigrants related to this story and hopefully, some felt less alone after hearing it.
BBF: Are there any specific audience receptions that you remember fondly from previous performances?
Chandreyee: The 2018 “Voices” mainstage show was staged in Waltham and among the sold-out audience (on both nights) was the Mayor. For the mainstage shows, our Director allows a few stories to be in a native language and we provide live captions for the audience to follow along. Mayor McCarthy told me that she turned away from it on purpose at times to savor the full experience of Bengali, a new and foreign language to her. She was delighted that by referring to the captions just occasionally, she got the gist of the story but also thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the mannerisms, cadences, and sounds of the teller performing in his own tongue. I was thrilled at this huge step she took, preemptively, to immerse herself into this world. This was a heartening and unexpected example of community.
BBF: Do you think theater is the best expression platform for the immigrant experience?
Chandreyee: The group that produces “Voices”—the mainstage show as well as the Story Slam series—isin fact a theater group, though Storytelling is not true theater. But yes, having a platform like a live, staged event is very effective in communicating immigrant experiences because of the personal connection it offers. To see the teller’s face, experience their body language, and be in front of a stage primes the audience to truly listen and connect. The Pandemic showed us that virtual shows can also work. Our Mainstage show is usually held in Greater Boston at a theater every other year but the 2020 show, scheduled to occur at the Cambridge Center for Arts, had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. We switched to an online event via Zoom and YouTube to a wonderful reception. We missed the energy and connection of a live event and can’t wait to return to a stage but it showed us that we can reach and touch people’s hearts and minds in many ways.
BBF: Humorous events as well as hardships are definitely present in your work. Do you consider this balance to be essential in your performances?
Chandreyee: Absolutely. Every curated “Voices” show attempts to present the many facets of immigrant experience, from comic misadventures through poignant struggles. Hidden in the diverse stories are nuggets of truth that can speak volumes, and appealing to a range of emotions helps reach a wide audience. In our “Story Slams,” which are impromptu contests judged by the audience, tellers sign up with 5 minute true stories and we draw names from a hat at random. Since we don’t know what stories will be told, we have less opportunity to ensure that all tones of stories are covered, but interestingly, it works out. The story that won the March “Voices” story slam was pretty funny and the two stories that were in close running were powerful and emotional.
Be sure to mark your calendar for June 10 and check out “Voices”! You can find out more about Off Kendrick here.
Boston Book Festival’s annual Lit Crawl is shaping up to be an exciting night of literary discussion. GrownUp StoryTime (GUST), one of this year’s presenters, is an organization that pairs local writers with local performers to bring the story of Boston’s residents to life. BBF had the chance to catch up with Colleen Moore, a producer for GUST Boston, to talk about Lit Crawl and the vibrancy of the community. Register now for this session on June 10th!
BBF: What can Lit Crawl attendees unfamiliar with GUST look forward to from your session?
Colleen: I’ve been producing this show for years and every time I’m surprised by how the stories connect the readers, writers, and community in unpredictable ways. Readers often seek out the writer of a story they are performing, anxious to connect with them personally because they felt so connected to the story. That connected feeling extends to the audience and feeling connected is something many of us are craving with a new hunger this year.
BBF: What is the process of preparing for GUST events like? How do you find and pair up the literature and performers?
Colleen: I spent a lot of time the first few years hustling to find writers and readers, stretching my network, and my co-producers’ networks, to get a diverse mix of stories and performers. It’s gotten a little easier as GUST has grown and word of mouth has helped bring new artists to the community. As for the actual line-up, I read each story out loud and try to imagine the right voice for it, then I go through the reader list to find the perfect match. Sometimes I scour the internet looking for the perfect performer in my social media circles. I like to think I can find a connection point for each pair of writers and readers but sometimes it’s just serendipity and there’s no way I could predict how the reader would relate to the story; for me those are the most magical pairings.
BBF: How does the very local nature of GUST performances impact the events? Do you find that GUST Boston performances take on or reflect regional traits?
Colleen: We are very lucky to live in a part of the US that is not only culturally diverse but also celebrates that diversity. The local nature of the event is almost an oxymoron because it reflects the broad range of cultures that exist here. For example, one writer fought for 13 years in the Ethio-Eritrean war and another is a full time nurse working in HIV care, and they’ve given their stories to performers who identify as students, immigrants, comedians, LGBTQ, etc. I hope that the stories create a common thread and showcase that “local” may mean close in proximity but it can still be diverse in experience.
BBF: As we move back into in-person events and the arts return, how has the past year changed or reinforced GUST’s approaches to performing and storytelling, if at all?
Colleen: A good story brings the emotions of the writer and performer into the audience’s consciousness.What better way to influence how we approach conflict in ourselves and with others than to feel another’s experience? My hope is that through diverse voices, GUST can bring feeling back to some of the conflicts we are working through. This year intensified the need to listen and feel experiences outside of our own. Diversity was always a driver in the curation process but this year has solidified just how important it is. I have to thank Corianna Moffatt as she was the original producer who worked so hard to ensure GUST represented the diversity around us; my hope is to improve and strength that resolve with every show.
We’re so excited to have GrownUp StoryTime Boston join us at Lit Crawl in June! Register here today!
This hectic pandemic year might have stoked our fears about any number of things, but authors Sandra A. Miller and Erica Ferencik want us to face those fears, now more than ever! Before their session at this year’s Lit Crawl Boston 2021, both authors remind us that treasures can be found when we look for them and work through our fears. Both Sandra and Erica will be presenting “Face Your Fears and Find Your Treasure” at Lit Crawl Boston. We sat down with Sandra and Erica to learn more about what Lit Crawlers can expect at their June 10 session (Register here now!).
BBF:Your session is titled “Face your Fears and Find Your Treasure.” What were your biggest fears writing your books?
Erica: Frankly, I wake up every morning slightly terrified: will I be able to create a good chapter, paragraph, hell, even a good sentence today? It all feels like some kind of miracle when it does happen. Then there are the more general, three-o’clock-in-the-morning type jitters I’m guessing many writers have: will anyone buy my books? Read them? Like them? All I know is, I cannot simultaneously write and be afraid at the same time, which is a really good thing. I have to just take a deep breath and trust the process, trust that something good will happen every day I take a seat in my studio.
Sandra: My book, Trove, is a memoir, and writing it was one of the most daunting experiences of my life. When I set out to tell the story of searching for treasure, I could not have imagined the dark places it would lead me. In order to accurately capture scenes of childhood abuse and dysfunction in writing, I had to re-traumatize myself over and over until the fear I felt was as gut-wrenching as when I first went through it. I spent much of my twenties living and traveling around the world—often alone—but nothing in my life has scared me as much as growing up with angry, volatile parents. Writing Trove brought all of that back.
BBF: Have either of you two faced any fears during the pandemic? And did it lead to finding treasure on the other side?
Erica:Facing the devastating realities of this pandemic is something we all had to do, and continue to do. I’m pretty isolated as a writer anyway, but my usual ways of breaking free from that had been eliminated. That said, the shutdown provided some relief from manic overscheduling, a bad habit of mine. Also, I had to face the reality of the ending of a couple of friendships that for whatever reason, didn’t survive the stress. So, treasure-wise, I learned: be more selective as to what you commit to. Take better care of all your relationships. And most of all, the world won’t end if you go on that trip or take the time to do something that brings you delight or your soul some sustenance and rejuvenation. Don’t postpone joy.
Sandra:Like Erica, I occasionally found myself ambushed by feelings of isolation. I started to retreat into myself and began to feel disconnected from my husband and two adult children who I was sharing a house with 24/7. Instead of the lovely ebb and flow of family life, nothing felt normal, because—well—nothing was. And for a while, I feared that our family would never feel normal again. Fortunately, my husband is a psychologist and was able to help me get to the other side, which is connection and love. There’s no better treasure than that.
BBF:Erica, can you tell us the most fearful part of spending a month in the Amazon rainforest as part of the research for your novel Into the Jungle?!
Multiply any anxiety you might have about walking through the woods of New England by a thousand, and you have a trek through the jungle. You are walking food for countless predators—everything is either hunting, or hiding, or both.But it was the nighttime canoe trips through the floating forest— chocolate-colored water up to the waists of trees—that were the most terrifying for me. Above us, poisonous snakes lounged in huge tangled tree limbs; below us, the thick brown water hid its own perils: among them, piranha and electric eels that pack enough electricity to stun a horse. One night, one of these eels, disturbed by our boat, leapt from the water. Eight feet long, thick as a truck tire, it contorted itself in the air before splashing down in the brown soup. It was the only time I saw a glimmer of alarm in my native Peruvian guide’s face. But as the weeks went by, I became at peace with my fears about this place. You have to live a different way, at a heightened state of awareness of your surroundings. When I asked a young Peruvian woman if she was ever afraid, she shuddered and said: No, but I hear you have terrible ice storms in America. How does anyone survive this?
BBF:Sandra, what is the favorite treasure you’ve found as a treasure hunter?
I have found thousands of treasures, so it’s hard to identify a favorite, but here’s a favorite story of finding treasure. It was my birthday, and I was in D.C. visiting my two best girlfriends whom I’ve known since our first year at our Catholic high school. I was waiting impatiently to hear if a publisher was going to take Trove, and I was on edge all weekend thinking about it. It was time to say goodbye and my friends were walking me to the Metro which I would take to the airport. When I looked down, I saw a little metal cross on the ground, then another, and another. I literally followed a path of 32 crosses to the Metro station, gathering them as I walked. My friends were laughing at me, but I saw it as a sign—many signs. The publisher took the book.
Lit Crawl Boston 2021 promises treasures for all Bostonian booklovers. Register now for this event!
From perilous quests and magical creatures to parallel universes and dystopias, speculative fiction and fantasy stories provide readers with a playground of endless possibilities. Broad Universe is dedicated to promoting women as well as other underrepresented identities in these genres. For Lit Crawl 2021, they are excited to present the “Rapid Fire Reading!” Preceding this presentation, writers E. C. Ambrose and Anne E. G. Nydam have answered some questions to indulge our imaginations for this exciting and unpredictable event. Register now for this event!
BBF: What unique perspectives do you think underrepresented voices have brought to the genre of science fiction?
E.C.: For a genre that claims to be about ideas and speculations, testing the limits of human possibility, SF has also, for far too long, been dominated by familiar ideas presented by familiar voices. By supporting and uplifting underrepresented voices, we reveal new layers of lived experience that can inform our visions of the future, as well as broadening perspectives on the issues of today that might be explored in fiction for the future. Speculative fiction has the ability to shake up the world and influence generations of thinkers. Exposing those dreamers to an expansive array of experiences, ideas, and perspectives can mean expanding our world.
Anne: Speculative fiction is all about imagining possibilities, and underrepresented people may perhaps have greater incentives to imagine new possibilities. Certainly in a field that’s all about opening minds and hearts by imagining new ways of being, we all benefit by hearing from as many different and diverse voices as possible.
BBF: What science fiction themes or tropes seem to particularly resonate with women and nonbinary science fiction readers and writers?
E.C.: Women and non-binary authors are exploring all kinds of topics, but one area I think is especially fruitful is concepts of leadership. So many of our expectations about the world and its fiction developed under the influence of very top-down, male-led power structures, and one key aspect of welcoming more voices is to question and explore what that influence means and what other models of leadership might be available.
Anne: Spec fic is a genre uniquely able to offer us new visions of what could be, instead of being bound by stereotypes and assumptions about “the way things are.” That means neither authors nor the characters they represent need to be bound by conventional ideas of what women can do and be, or how women can or should be treated by others. It’s a powerful place for us to reinvent or reclaim what it means to be female or non-binary.
BBF: There are so many powerful female characters in the science fiction world—do you have a favorite one?
E.C.: Essun, the protagonist of N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, is a powerful figure in more ways than one. I won’t give the secrets away for those who haven’t read the books, but let’s just say that Jemisin’s approach allows for extraordinary depth of character development. It’s great to see a middle-aged woman who is willing and able to take on the world. If I can slide in a bonus character, one of my favorite nonbinary characters is Kepler, in Claire North’s Touch. Kepler is one of a group of individuals who can slide into and temporarily possess the bodies of others. North uses this concept to unravel ideas around identity and human connection.
Anne: I can’t pick a favorite, but I think it’s worth noting how many strong girls appeared in the very earliest fantasy stories for children: Princess Irene, Alice, Dorothy. I think it’s no coincidence that nineteenth-century writers wrote fantasy when they wanted to show smart, courageous, self-willed girl.
BBF: Rapid readings are filled with surprises and unpredictability—what can audiences look forward to the most? Do you think these are essential factors when writing the science fiction genre?
E.C.: This particular reading includes four women writing from very different places in speculative fiction. The readings will include some ideas listeners may not have heard before, and also deliver insight into more familiar areas from a direction the listener may not have considered. Speculative fiction holds up a funhouse mirror to humanity and the present day, using its distortions to create revelation. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for!
Anne: People definitely love speculative fiction because of the surprises: entirely new worlds full of magic and possibility. At our readings you might get dragons, or spaceships, or magic spells, or aliens, or umbrellaphants… Or all of the above, or perhaps none of the above, because we write a wonderful diversity of styles within speculative fiction, and each author will bring something different to the mix. You can be sure you won’t get bored!
Don’t miss this fun occasion on June 10 at Lit Crawl 2021! Find more information on Broad Universe here and register for their “Rapid-Fire Reading” Lit Crawl session here!
The Mystery Writers of America is an organization that has been contributing to the mystery genre for over eighty years. During their presentation titled “Mystery Making,” spectators are welcomed to put on their sleuth hats and come into close contact with their investigative side. Building up to this exciting yet mysterious event, we have asked Sarah Smith, Leslie Wheeler, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Kate Flora, and Clea Simon some questions to get you started. From personal opinions to sneak peeks, we invite you to fish for any clues.
BBF: I know mystery novels come in lots of different flavors—from hard-boiled to cozy. What range of sub-genres can readers expect to encounter at Lit Crawl?
Sarah: From me, you’ll be seeing a historical mystery: a woman in 1912 who suddenly doesn’t know whether she’s black or white. She has to solve a longstanding family secret—and decide what she’ll do about it.
Leslie: My first series, the Miranda Lewis mysteries, falls into the traditional/cozy category, while my Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries can be classified as either romantic suspense or domestic thrillers. And my short stories range from humorous to quite dark.
Carolyn: My book is a traditional mystery with paranormal elements and a dash of African American history thrown into the mix. The protagonist in my book Death at a Seance is an African American psychic who must survive in a segregated Indiana town run by the KKK at the height of the Roaring ‘20s.
Clea: I’ll be wearing two genre hats at Lit Crawl. My most recent mystery, A Cat on the Case, is decidedly “cozy”—a very gentle puzzle-style mystery. But my next, Hold Me Down (coming in October from Polis Books), is psychological suspense, featuring a woman with a past that makes her a very unreliable narrator.
BBF: I see that Edgar Allan Poe is very present in your image. Are there any other classic mystery authors in particular that have inspired your organization?
Sarah: Poe terrified me when I was a kid, and I love Dorothy Sayers and Sherlock Holmes; but right now is a classic period for the mystery, with diverse writers like Alyssa Cole and Deepa Anappara bringing a whole new depth to the form.
Leslie: I grew up on Nancy Drew, then graduated to Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Wilkie Collins, the Bronte sisters, Charlotte and Emily (for gothic mysteries), and Jane Austen, whom P. D. James is considered a great mystery writer, though no one gets killed in her books.
Carolyn: As a kid I grew up on Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. I still love these English classics but am now thrilled to find great mysteries from a more diverse cohort of authors. Eleanor Taylor Bland, Barbara Neely, and Valerie Wilson Wesley were huge influences.
Kate: Dorothy Sayers…strong female characters.
Clea: As much as I love Poe, my heart belongs to Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Devoured their works growing up, and I find myself still thinking of plot points I learned from them. This was after I outgrew my infatuation with Encyclopedia Brown, of course.
BBF: Some people say “there’s no such thing as a perfect crime.” Should audiences come with this mindset to Lit Crawl?
Sarah: No perfect crimes, but perfect entertainment!
Leslie: I believe it occurs, though it takes a very clever criminal to pull this off.
Carolyn: There is definitely no perfect crime, at least not in my books. The villain is always caught and brought to justice in the end.
Kate: Perfect crime? Maybe…but modern forensics and the ubiquity of cameras make it difficult. Best bet? Stranger on stranger in a location with lots of tourists or transients.
Clea: What I would tell people looking for a perfect crime is simple: everything leaves a trace.
BBF: From misleading clues to eccentric detectives, are there any beloved tropes that you are most fond of and we might expect in the event?
Sarah: I love the long-kept family secret.
Leslie: The hero’s journey, in which a character embarks on a quest, encounters many obstacles, but manages to prevail, and in the process, learns things about herself that enables her to grow and change.
Carolyn: Look for a red herring or two along the way. We like to keep you guessing.
Kate: Hiding in plain sight/deliberate misdirection. The boy who cried wolf scenario, so the person isn’t believed when there is real danger. Casting suspicion on everyone à la Death on the Nile.
Clea: I love the red herring—the suspect who feasibly could have committed the crime if they were just pushed a little further…but didn’t!
BBF: Here’s a fun one. If you were forced to live as a mystery character for the rest of your lives, which one would it be?
Sarah: Harriet Vane for the intelligence, the friendships, the feminism, the man who appreciates her as a human being—but Phryne Fisher for the clothes.
Leslie: Harriet Vane, from the Dorothy L. Sayers novel Gaudy Night, because she’s highly intelligent, strong-willed, a feminist, a successful mystery author, and has a beau who appreciates her for who she is.
Carolyn: Sherlock Holmes. His life was never boring!
Kate: Could I be both Whimsey and Harriet Vane? It would be nice to have Bunter to look after things.
Clea: Hmmm…. Could I join Inspector Brunetti’s family and live in Venice and eat all that wonderful food Donna Leon is always writing about?
You can find out more about the Mystery Writers of America here. And then put on your deerstalker and register for their “Mystery Making” session on June 10 to continue your investigations at Lit Crawl 2021!
The Boston Book Festival is excited to welcome the Italian American Writers Association to our 2021 Lit Crawl event! Being a community dedicated to progressing and promoting the work of Italian American writers, they hope to spread awareness on the beauty of the Italian American experience with a poetry reading. Leading up to this event, we have decided to ask our participants, Julia Lisella and Jennifer Martelli, some questions regarding what to expect during their presentation. And don’t forget to grab you tickets now to their session at the Dial Restaurant in Central Square, Cambridge!
BBF: What can audiences look forward to and take away from your Lit Crawl presentation?
Julia and Jennifer: Audiences will hear some good contemporary poetry and learn some fun facts about Italian Americans in the arts and culture. They will be introduced to a vibrant Italian American writing community in the Boston area.
BBF: You’ve chosen a round-robin poetry reading as your artistic platform and presentation piece. What do you think makes this an especially appropriate platform for expressing the themes of your own poetry?
Julia and Jennifer: We were originally going to do a straight reading, as a way to present our aesthetic as Italian American writers and curators: one of us would read for 10 minutes, followed by the next. We felt this was somewhat static, so the idea of a “round robin” came up. This would create movement in the reading—like a dance! It also creates surprise for both of us: how will one reader respond to the poem they hear? This is how we try to pair readers when we solicit features, and it also is its own “open mic,” which is always fun. This format underscores the collaboration we hope we’ve fostered with the IAWA reading series.
BBF: Your session is titled “Two Italian Gals Walk Into a Bookstore: Creating a Community for IA Writers in Boston.” What kind of readers and writers are you hoping to attract to your community with this event?
Julia and Jennifer: We’d like to make lovers of poetry and literature aware of this growing community of published writers, educators, and editors. Anyone interested in poetry should attend, whether they’re Italian or not. We run an open mic and we often get asked if you have to be Italian to participate in it, or read Italian themes, but we welcome anyone who would like to join us. Our features are writers of Italian descent and we are trying to increase awareness of Italian Americans in the literary world.
BBF: As you have a sister organization in New York, how has that city as well as Boston influenced your works?
Julia and Jennifer: There’s a lot of cross-over of influences in our own poetry. One of us is from New York; we both write about New York. But our work as organizers of the series has really been to grow the Boston community of writers. Since we’ve been on Zoom we’ve joined as one reading series. The Italian diaspora is complex: we’ve welcomed participants from across the US, from Canada, and from Europe.
Tell-All Boston is a live memoir reading series we are pleased to have as part of Lit Crawl Boston 2021! Their session, “Silence, Madness, Secrets, and Apologies: A Night with Tell-All,” will feature four local authors (Sebastian Stuart, Michelle Bowdler, Molly Howes, E. Dolores Johnson) plus an MC, Alicia Googins on Lit Crawl’s main stage at Starlight Square. Group facilitator and co-founder Kristen Paulson-Nguyen offered some insights and introductions to the group. We’re sure you will find something to pique your interest as we near June 10!
Tell-All Boston’s Lineup
Tell-All Boston has lined up a few presenters for Lit Crawl Boston 2021. Kristen told us Sebastian Stuart is working on a psychological thriller set in Cambridge called Family Hold Back. Michelle Bowdler’s Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto will be released in paperback on October 12. “I am really looking forward to doing in-person book signings,” said Michelle, “something I couldn’t do last July when my book was released.” She’s excited to be doing a public event with Anita Hill in late August for the Brandeis Feminist Ethics Project. Molly Howes, author of A Good Apology: Four Steps to Make Things Right, has been leading workshops based on her book. She’s spoken with all kinds of groups across the country, from teachers to clergy and congregations. Lastly, E. Dolores Johnson’s 2020 memoir on her parents’ interracial marriage, Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love, is already in its second printing. Dolores is thrilled that Lit Crawl occurs so close to June 12, which is Loving Day, the day anti-race mixing laws were overturned, and June 19 or Juneteenth, when the last slaves were told they were free. “These historic American dates are the ideal time to talk about the themes of race and identity I’ve written about,” she says.
Tell-All’s History
For readers unfamiliar with Tell-All Boston, here is a brief history lesson. Kristen told us, “With the leadership of GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator Instructor Alysia Abbott [who also happens to be on the Lit Crawl Boston committee!], several 2017 alumni met with Abbott in Central Square, Cambridge to talk about creating a nonfiction reading series. They brainstormed, and in 2018, with the support of GrubStreet, Tell-All Boston, the city’s only live on-stage literary reading series dedicated to the craft of memoir and personal essay, was born.
“Bestselling authors, award-winning writers, and emerging stars share the stage, mesmerizing with first-person stories that make meaning from lived experience,” she said. They are proud to have produced their latest — the eighth — Tell-All virtually on March 4, 2021 and feel incredibly honored to bring their show in person to Lit Crawl.
What Can Audiences Expect?
Tell-All Boston’s presenters hope attendees take away many experiences from their session. “I hope they will be delighted and inspired by the strength, diversity, and excitement of the Boston literary scene,” said Sebastian.
“I hope that the trials and challenges of life,” said Dolores, “whether they be a crime, systemic racism, mental illness, or a travesty that should be atoned for, give us the opportunity to grow into our stronger selves.”
“I hope they enjoy the event and come away feeling moved. And I hope they get a sense of the vibrant nonfiction writers coming out of GrubStreet. It’s an incredible community,” said Michelle. Molly echoed a similar vision. “I hope they hear good stories and learn about GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator and nonfiction writers.”
Alicia Googins, the session’s MC and a writer and Memoir Incubator 2017 alum, as well as an actress, hopes attendees understand the Boston writing landscape. “I hope they get a sense of the close-knit, supportive, hard-working, and fun Boston creative nonfiction writing scene, a desire to write, and feel inspired to tell their own stories and share their unique voices to broaden and strengthen community and connection.”
Get Ready to Read
Lastly, like all writers, Tell-All’s presenters all had memoirs and personal essays to recommend to Lit Crawl Boston 2021 attendees. Kristen is excited to read Sebastian’s book, out July 15. She also loved “Walden” by Alicia Googins, an essay that appeared in the spring 2020 issue of Solstice Magazine.
Sebastian lovedMe, Elton John’s memoir, and Jesmyn Ward’sThe Men We Reaped: A Memoir. “The sense of place was so intense, I could smell the thick Mississippi air,” he said. He also loved fashion legend André Leon Talley’s gossipy but ultimately moving The Chiffon Trenchesand found Alysia Abbott’s Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father deeply moving.
Thank you to Tell-All Boston for participating in our questions and answers leading to Lit Crawl Boston 2021! More information on the presenters can be found on our website. And you can get your free tickets to Tell-All’s session by registering in advance here.
It’s been a while since we’ve hosted a live event, and we wager it’s been a while since you’ve attended one! You probably have a lot of questions about how Lit Crawl will work on June 10; we’ve done our best to anticipate some of them here, but if you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email to info@bostonbookfest.org. Can’t wait to “crawl” with you on June 10!
What’s new about Lit Crawl this year?
Well, first of all, the location is brand new! We’ve moved across the Charles River to Cambridge and are hosting Lit Crawl in a variety of locations in Central Square. Our map of venues will be available online soon. Other changes are in response to safe gathering guidelines and include hosting all Lit Crawl events outdoors and requiring registration or ticketing for most Lit Crawl events. Lit Crawl might not be quite the free-wheeling experience it’s been in the past, but it will still offer all the same fun and whimsy you expect from this event.
How is Lit Crawl organized?
Lit Crawl is organized into three “Phases” at 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00pm with your choice of four or five different activities happening during each phase. With the exception of drop-in activities, you will need to register for each activity you want to attend.
How does registration work, and why is it required this year?
With the exception of a handful of activities tagged as “drop in” on our schedule, advance registration is required for all Lit Crawl Boston events this year. This requirement is largely to help us stay within the gathering guidelines set by the state and by the city of Cambridge, but also so that we can manage attendee expectations and so that we can more readily assist with contact tracing if needed. All events taking place at Starlight Square and Popportunity are free to attend but still require registration (with the exception of those drop-in activities). All events taking place at restaurant venues (Area Four, Artifact Cider Project, The Dial, and Naco Taco) require a $15 ticket per person per session but come with complimentary snacks and maybe some fun surprises! Links to register are included in each session description on our website. Registration for Starlight Square mainstage events will take place on Eventbrite (links on schedule); all other pre-registration will take place directly within our website and schedule.
Do I need to print out my ticket(s) before arriving?
Presenting the proof of purchase/registration on your phone should be fine! For all events not happening on the Starlight Square mainstage, your name will be on a list kept by one of our volunteers.
Why are you charging for some sessions this year?
As you know, the past 14 months have been exceptionally challenging for restaurant owners and workers. We want to do our part to support our Central Square restaurant neighbors, so $12 of each $15 ticket will go directly to the restaurants in exchange for letting us use their valuable patio spaces for our Lit Crawl programs. The remainder of the ticket price goes to cover our expenses related to ticketing and credit card processing. We hope you’ll join us in supporting our host restaurants by buying drinks, tipping your servers, and making the most of your night out!
Will you maintain a waiting list for sold-out sessions?
The box office at Starlight Square may maintain a waiting list for any sold-out mainstage sessions and will notify people earlier in the day if a spot has opened up. In order to manage crowds, we discourage people from coming to Starlight Square in the hopes of snagging a seat to a sold-out show—though you are of course welcome to participate in any of the free activities available on a drop-in basis. We will not be maintaining waiting lists for the restaurant-hosted events.
Is there a rain date?
Yes, since our event is outdoors, we are holding Wednesday, June 16 as a rain date for events at Starlight Square. Rescheduling of restaurant events will be at the discretion of the host venue; ticket-holders for any events that cannot be rescheduled will be refunded. We will make decisions regarding weather-related cancellations in consultation with our host venues and will post any updates or postponements on our website and social media by noon on June 10.
Will books be available for sale?
Yes! We are partnering with Somerville’s All She Wrote Books to provide book sales and signings after many events. This year has been challenging for booksellers, too, so we hope you will patronize All She Wrote and support local authors and a brand-new local bookseller!
Are masks required to attend Lit Crawl Boston?
We ask Lit Crawl Boston attendees to follow the protocol at each host venue and the directions of our volunteers. In most cases, that means attendees will be asked to wear a mask except when seated and eating or drinking.
What other precautions are you taking to ensure attendee safety at this event?
We have added many extra measures this year to create a fun and safe event for all. At all venues, we will adhere to capacity limits as well as the current state and city guidelines to ensure proper social distancing and the safety of our performers and guests. Extra masks and hand sanitizer will be available at all venues. We’ll also have volunteers stationed throughout Central Square and at each Lit Crawl site to ensure guests and performers are adhering to guidelines for the event.
If we receive notification of a positive case of COVID by a Lit Crawl ticket holder or a guest at one of our venues (a non–Lit Crawl restaurant guest, for example), we will pass Lit Crawl ticket holder emails on to the Massachusetts Contract Tracing Collaborative for contact tracing purposes. Individual names related to positive cases will not be released publicly.
What’s the best way to get to Lit Crawl Boston?
Cambridge’s Central Square is well served by public transportation, including the MBTA’s Red Line and several bus routes. There’s also bike parking available at Starlight Square and near several other venues. There is no car parking at Starlight Square; parking is available in several nearby garages and parking lots (see Starlight website for details) as well as in metered street spaces. Unless you are a Cambridge resident, please don’t park in residential permit spaces on the street.
Will food and drink be available at the venues?
Yes, food and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages will be available for purchase from Comfort Kitchen at Starlight Square and at all the restaurant venues. Tickets to restaurant-hosted Lit Crawl sessions include complimentary snacks, which vary from venue to venue.
Will any of Lit Crawl be live-streamed if I don’t feel comfortable coming in person?
Yes, events taking place on Starlight’s mainstage will be live-streamed to Starlight’s website and can be watched at home free of charge.
At Lit Crawl, A Poem Made Just for You
Boston Book Festival is excited to have Mass Poetry presenting at Lit Crawl 2021! The organization supports the poets of Massachusetts by both providing resources to poets and educating the public. You can learn more about Mass Poetry’s “Poems To Go” session here and by reading our Q&A with Erica Charis-Molling, Mass Poetry’s education director.
BBF: Could you tell us a little about your presenters for “Poems To Go”?
Erica: Cassandra de Alba is a poet living in Massachusetts. Her chapbooks are habitats (Horse Less Press, 2016), Ugly/Sad (Glass Poetry Press, 2020) and Cryptids (Ginger Bug Press, 2020). Her work has appeared in The Shallow Ends, Big Lucks, and Wax Nine, among other publications. She is a poetry reader for Underblong and an instructor at the Redbud Writing Project.
Julia Story is the author of Post Moxie (Sarabande Books) and the chapbooks The Trapdoor (dancing girl press) and Julie the Astonishing (Sixth Finch Books). She is a 2016 recipient of a Pushcart Prize and her recent work can be read in Sixth Finch, Tinderbox, and Tupelo Quarterly. She is a Midwesterner who now lives in Massachusetts.
Together they form two-thirds of the Traveling Poetry Emporium. [The Traveling Poetry Emporium types original poems on the spot at museums, festivals, and parties on any subject the guests have in mind.]
What do you hope attendees and viewers at Lit Crawl Boston 2021 will take away from your “Poems To Go” session?
Erica: A personalized, one-of-a-kind poem written on a topic of their choice! I hope they’ll also come away with a sense of the living, breathing, every-day-ness of poetry—that it’s not just something tucked away in some dusty book on the top shelf, but rather something you might encounter anywhere and can intersect your life at any moment if you’re open to it.
Could you suggest chapbooks for our BBF readers by Boston poets?
Erica: Our Traveling Poetry Emporium poets have several books and chapbooks that I would recommend! In particular, Cassandra de Alba’s Ugly/Sad and Julia Story’s The Trapdoor would be great chapbooks to check out. Folks wanting further reading recommendations are welcome to check out our series here.
Lastly, what is it about Massachusetts that makes the state such fertile ground for poetry?
Erica: Man, this question is a doozy! I think Massachusetts is a place with a lot of poetic history, which in many ways has primed the soil. I also think it’s a place with a whole web of supports and opportunities for new and experienced poets—through institutions like the Mass Cultural Council [also a funder for Lit Crawl Boston], local cultural councils and governments (many of whom have expanded or started poet programs across the state), academic institutions, really vibrant grass-roots open mic communities, and literary nonprofits like Mass Poetry. There’s been a well-documented rise in poetry readership in the United States and all of that helps Massachusetts capitalize on that climbing desire for poetry. (There may also be something in the water. I haven’t tested it recently to be sure.)
We hope Lit Crawl Boston 2021 attendees appreciate the wealth of poetry in the state of Massachusetts, and take the opportunity to acquire new poems at Lit Crawl Boston 2021! More information on dates, time slots, and presenters can be found here. We can’t wait to see you June 10!
Bibliomemoir: Putting Books in Conversation with Author Kim Adrian
This year, the Boston Book Festival’s annual Lit Crawl will mark an exciting return to in-person events for the Boston literary community. We had the opportunity to sit down with author Kim Adrian. Kim will be hosting her session, “The Art of (Writing About) Reading,” as a way to introduce audiences to the art of the bibliomemoir. Register here for this session on June 10 at Lit Crawl 2021!
BBF: What can audiences unfamiliar with bibliomemoir look forward to from your session at Lit Crawl?
Kim: The audience will hear from four practitioners of the genre—four writers with four different approaches to combining literary analysis with memoir. One of the readers, Adam Colman (New Uses for Failure) has described bibliomemoir as “a genre that eats other genres.” This is usually the thing that people get most excited about when they learn about this type of writing. For example, Kim McLarin’s bibliomemoir about James Baldwin’s novel Another Country combines a critical examination of the work with personal reflections on how Baldwin (and many other Black American writers) helped turn her into the woman and the writer she is today. At the same time, there’s a hefty strand of cultural criticism running throughout the whole thing, so the text feels very densely woven: personal, political-cultural, and literary all at once. Bibliomemoir encourages multifaceted or multivalent writing like this because you’ve always got at least two things going on: the writer writing reflectively on a personal experience (reading a book), and, at the same time, the writer examining why that book is (or perhaps is not) successful. For those comfortable working in this way it’s very tempting to add a third and perhaps even a fourth element into the mix.
BBF: How does “removing the glaze of pretension” influence the process of interpreting works of literature, either in general or in your specific experience?
Kim: With the phrase “removing the glaze of pretension” I mean getting out of the kind of faux-objective critical mode of passing judgement, speaking from on high, from a position of authority, which is the attitude most people associate with literary criticism, art criticism, criticism in general. That attitude implies that a work of art exists as an objective thing in the world, and that, as an objective thing, it requires a special kind of sensibility, a specially trained intellect, to be correctly perceived and interpreted. But a work of art does not exist in a vacuum. It is not a stable, immutable entity. In fact, there are as many ways to experience, for example, a great novel as there are readers of that novel, which is another way of saying that the novel itself changes for each reader. This is the premise on which bibliomemoir is based. The genre embraces the messiness of literature, the dynamism involved in the act of reading. That said, a good bibliomemoir will always take the act of criticism very seriously. But by its very nature bibliomemoir rejects the idea of critic-as-authortative-taste-maker, or critic-as-judge, and embraces, instead, criticism as a kind of creative, generative activity.
BBF: How do you think Boston, as a community or location, can contribute to the tradition of bibliomemoir? What aspects of the city do you think enrich literary criticism?
Kim: Bibliomemoir seems to be a growing genre right now. Much like microhistory, bibliomemoir upends a specific, traditional cultural structure—in this case the kind of authoritative perspective (rooted in entrenched power structures) that conventional criticism upholds. In this sense, it is an inherently political genre—a liberal or democratic genre. Boston is a left-leaning city that just so happens to be packed with great readers. If bibliomemor, as a genre, has a shot at finding a solid foothold with a hungry audience, Boston readers could well be the ones to make that happen.
BBF: How has the past year influenced your work, if at all?
Kim: It’s been a freaky year for me, of course. I’m no exception to that rule. COVID affected the launch of my bibliomemoir, Dear Knausgaard, pushing off the launch date by several months and putting events online. But it also nudged me into a new direction in my writing. For one thing, it got me thinking about magical thinking, simply because there was so much of that going on, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Thinking about magical thinking got me thinking about imagination in general, so that I now find myself doing a lot of research on that topic. Beyond that, the further growth of the Black Lives Matter movement has affected everything—the whole way I see history, power, beauty, truth, language, perspective, my country, and my own existence within my own white skin, in ways I’m still trying to process and will continue to process, I’m sure, for years to come. Ditto the recent and ongoing challenges to our democracy (which have circled me back around to the concept of magical thinking and imagination). Long story short, I’m still very much trying to process the past year. My hope is to be able to write about some of the strangeness and change that we’ve been going through in my current project—which happens to be another bibliomemoir, this time about the life and work of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann.
We’re looking forward to hearing more from Kim and all of our other Lit Crawl presenters on June 10 in Cambridge! “The Art of (Writing About) Reading” will take place at 7:00 PM at Dial Restaurant in Cambridge. For more information about Lit Crawl and to register, see the BBF website.
Rehearsing with Chandreyee Lahiri for Lit Crawl 2021
Storytelling has proven to be a great device for the immigrant experience. Off Kendrick is a theater group in which South Asian immigrants share their realities as minority groups in the United States. In between humorous adventures and retellings of harsh circumstances, Off Kendrick emphasizes the importance of storytelling for the immigrant experience. To elaborate more on this event, we have asked Chandreyee Lahiri, one of the presenters, some questions to learn more about what to expect from Off Kendrick’s presentation titled “Voices” and register now for this event on June 10!
BBF: As there will probably be an invitation for the audience to participate in your presentation, how important do you think it is for immigrants to exchange stories between each other?
Chandreyee: Our show “Voices” is intended for a broad audience of non-immigrants so we can start to break through the social barriers that divide us and stride towards inclusiveness. People tend to fear the unknown and succumb to reductive stereotypes. For non-immigrants to walk in the shoes of immigrants, if only for the duration of their stories, may bridge this chasm. But there is also great value of sharing stories WITHIN the immigrant community. When you arrive in a foreign country, leaving behind your support systems, grappling with new traditions and customs—social and emotional isolation is as common as it is harmful. Finding a community of like people through storytelling can make a big difference to this process of settling in. For immigrants who have “assimilated” over time, sharing stories about their journey of adjustment and struggle can also enrich both the teller and the community. For example, one of the stories in the Lit Crawl event is about a father’s confusing encounter with their Indian-American child’s mis-interpretation of his career, the career required so much effort and sacrifice. Many immigrants related to this story and hopefully, some felt less alone after hearing it.
BBF: Are there any specific audience receptions that you remember fondly from previous performances?
Chandreyee: The 2018 “Voices” mainstage show was staged in Waltham and among the sold-out audience (on both nights) was the Mayor. For the mainstage shows, our Director allows a few stories to be in a native language and we provide live captions for the audience to follow along. Mayor McCarthy told me that she turned away from it on purpose at times to savor the full experience of Bengali, a new and foreign language to her. She was delighted that by referring to the captions just occasionally, she got the gist of the story but also thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the mannerisms, cadences, and sounds of the teller performing in his own tongue. I was thrilled at this huge step she took, preemptively, to immerse herself into this world. This was a heartening and unexpected example of community.
BBF: Do you think theater is the best expression platform for the immigrant experience?
Chandreyee: The group that produces “Voices”—the mainstage show as well as the Story Slam series—is in fact a theater group, though Storytelling is not true theater. But yes, having a platform like a live, staged event is very effective in communicating immigrant experiences because of the personal connection it offers. To see the teller’s face, experience their body language, and be in front of a stage primes the audience to truly listen and connect. The Pandemic showed us that virtual shows can also work. Our Mainstage show is usually held in Greater Boston at a theater every other year but the 2020 show, scheduled to occur at the Cambridge Center for Arts, had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. We switched to an online event via Zoom and YouTube to a wonderful reception. We missed the energy and connection of a live event and can’t wait to return to a stage but it showed us that we can reach and touch people’s hearts and minds in many ways.
BBF: Humorous events as well as hardships are definitely present in your work. Do you consider this balance to be essential in your performances?
Chandreyee: Absolutely. Every curated “Voices” show attempts to present the many facets of immigrant experience, from comic misadventures through poignant struggles. Hidden in the diverse stories are nuggets of truth that can speak volumes, and appealing to a range of emotions helps reach a wide audience. In our “Story Slams,” which are impromptu contests judged by the audience, tellers sign up with 5 minute true stories and we draw names from a hat at random. Since we don’t know what stories will be told, we have less opportunity to ensure that all tones of stories are covered, but interestingly, it works out. The story that won the March “Voices” story slam was pretty funny and the two stories that were in close running were powerful and emotional.
Be sure to mark your calendar for June 10 and check out “Voices”! You can find out more about Off Kendrick here.
Q&A: Get to Know GrownUp StoryTime Boston
Boston Book Festival’s annual Lit Crawl is shaping up to be an exciting night of literary discussion. GrownUp StoryTime (GUST), one of this year’s presenters, is an organization that pairs local writers with local performers to bring the story of Boston’s residents to life. BBF had the chance to catch up with Colleen Moore, a producer for GUST Boston, to talk about Lit Crawl and the vibrancy of the community. Register now for this session on June 10th!
BBF: What can Lit Crawl attendees unfamiliar with GUST look forward to from your session?
Colleen: I’ve been producing this show for years and every time I’m surprised by how the stories connect the readers, writers, and community in unpredictable ways. Readers often seek out the writer of a story they are performing, anxious to connect with them personally because they felt so connected to the story. That connected feeling extends to the audience and feeling connected is something many of us are craving with a new hunger this year.
BBF: What is the process of preparing for GUST events like? How do you find and pair up the literature and performers?
Colleen: I spent a lot of time the first few years hustling to find writers and readers, stretching my network, and my co-producers’ networks, to get a diverse mix of stories and performers. It’s gotten a little easier as GUST has grown and word of mouth has helped bring new artists to the community. As for the actual line-up, I read each story out loud and try to imagine the right voice for it, then I go through the reader list to find the perfect match. Sometimes I scour the internet looking for the perfect performer in my social media circles. I like to think I can find a connection point for each pair of writers and readers but sometimes it’s just serendipity and there’s no way I could predict how the reader would relate to the story; for me those are the most magical pairings.
BBF: How does the very local nature of GUST performances impact the events? Do you find that GUST Boston performances take on or reflect regional traits?
Colleen: We are very lucky to live in a part of the US that is not only culturally diverse but also celebrates that diversity. The local nature of the event is almost an oxymoron because it reflects the broad range of cultures that exist here. For example, one writer fought for 13 years in the Ethio-Eritrean war and another is a full time nurse working in HIV care, and they’ve given their stories to performers who identify as students, immigrants, comedians, LGBTQ, etc. I hope that the stories create a common thread and showcase that “local” may mean close in proximity but it can still be diverse in experience.
BBF: As we move back into in-person events and the arts return, how has the past year changed or reinforced GUST’s approaches to performing and storytelling, if at all?
Colleen: A good story brings the emotions of the writer and performer into the audience’s consciousness.What better way to influence how we approach conflict in ourselves and with others than to feel another’s experience? My hope is that through diverse voices, GUST can bring feeling back to some of the conflicts we are working through. This year intensified the need to listen and feel experiences outside of our own. Diversity was always a driver in the curation process but this year has solidified just how important it is. I have to thank Corianna Moffatt as she was the original producer who worked so hard to ensure GUST represented the diversity around us; my hope is to improve and strength that resolve with every show.
We’re so excited to have GrownUp StoryTime Boston join us at Lit Crawl in June! Register here today!
Face Your Fears at Lit Crawl 2021
This hectic pandemic year might have stoked our fears about any number of things, but authors Sandra A. Miller and Erica Ferencik want us to face those fears, now more than ever! Before their session at this year’s Lit Crawl Boston 2021, both authors remind us that treasures can be found when we look for them and work through our fears. Both Sandra and Erica will be presenting “Face Your Fears and Find Your Treasure” at Lit Crawl Boston. We sat down with Sandra and Erica to learn more about what Lit Crawlers can expect at their June 10 session (Register here now!).
BBF: Your session is titled “Face your Fears and Find Your Treasure.” What were your biggest fears writing your books?
Erica: Frankly, I wake up every morning slightly terrified: will I be able to create a good chapter, paragraph, hell, even a good sentence today? It all feels like some kind of miracle when it does happen. Then there are the more general, three-o’clock-in-the-morning type jitters I’m guessing many writers have: will anyone buy my books? Read them? Like them? All I know is, I cannot simultaneously write and be afraid at the same time, which is a really good thing. I have to just take a deep breath and trust the process, trust that something good will happen every day I take a seat in my studio.
Sandra: My book, Trove, is a memoir, and writing it was one of the most daunting experiences of my life. When I set out to tell the story of searching for treasure, I could not have imagined the dark places it would lead me. In order to accurately capture scenes of childhood abuse and dysfunction in writing, I had to re-traumatize myself over and over until the fear I felt was as gut-wrenching as when I first went through it. I spent much of my twenties living and traveling around the world—often alone—but nothing in my life has scared me as much as growing up with angry, volatile parents. Writing Trove brought all of that back.
BBF: Have either of you two faced any fears during the pandemic? And did it lead to finding treasure on the other side?
Erica: Facing the devastating realities of this pandemic is something we all had to do, and continue to do. I’m pretty isolated as a writer anyway, but my usual ways of breaking free from that had been eliminated. That said, the shutdown provided some relief from manic overscheduling, a bad habit of mine. Also, I had to face the reality of the ending of a couple of friendships that for whatever reason, didn’t survive the stress. So, treasure-wise, I learned: be more selective as to what you commit to. Take better care of all your relationships. And most of all, the world won’t end if you go on that trip or take the time to do something that brings you delight or your soul some sustenance and rejuvenation. Don’t postpone joy.
Sandra: Like Erica, I occasionally found myself ambushed by feelings of isolation. I started to retreat into myself and began to feel disconnected from my husband and two adult children who I was sharing a house with 24/7. Instead of the lovely ebb and flow of family life, nothing felt normal, because—well—nothing was. And for a while, I feared that our family would never feel normal again. Fortunately, my husband is a psychologist and was able to help me get to the other side, which is connection and love. There’s no better treasure than that.
BBF: Erica, can you tell us the most fearful part of spending a month in the Amazon rainforest as part of the research for your novel Into the Jungle?!
Multiply any anxiety you might have about walking through the woods of New England by a thousand, and you have a trek through the jungle. You are walking food for countless predators—everything is either hunting, or hiding, or both. But it was the nighttime canoe trips through the floating forest— chocolate-colored water up to the waists of trees—that were the most terrifying for me. Above us, poisonous snakes lounged in huge tangled tree limbs; below us, the thick brown water hid its own perils: among them, piranha and electric eels that pack enough electricity to stun a horse. One night, one of these eels, disturbed by our boat, leapt from the water. Eight feet long, thick as a truck tire, it contorted itself in the air before splashing down in the brown soup. It was the only time I saw a glimmer of alarm in my native Peruvian guide’s face. But as the weeks went by, I became at peace with my fears about this place. You have to live a different way, at a heightened state of awareness of your surroundings. When I asked a young Peruvian woman if she was ever afraid, she shuddered and said: No, but I hear you have terrible ice storms in America. How does anyone survive this?
BBF: Sandra, what is the favorite treasure you’ve found as a treasure hunter?
I have found thousands of treasures, so it’s hard to identify a favorite, but here’s a favorite story of finding treasure. It was my birthday, and I was in D.C. visiting my two best girlfriends whom I’ve known since our first year at our Catholic high school. I was waiting impatiently to hear if a publisher was going to take Trove, and I was on edge all weekend thinking about it. It was time to say goodbye and my friends were walking me to the Metro which I would take to the airport. When I looked down, I saw a little metal cross on the ground, then another, and another. I literally followed a path of 32 crosses to the Metro station, gathering them as I walked. My friends were laughing at me, but I saw it as a sign—many signs. The publisher took the book.
Lit Crawl Boston 2021 promises treasures for all Bostonian booklovers. Register now for this event!
Imagining Reality with Broad Universe at Lit Crawl 2021
From perilous quests and magical creatures to parallel universes and dystopias, speculative fiction and fantasy stories provide readers with a playground of endless possibilities. Broad Universe is dedicated to promoting women as well as other underrepresented identities in these genres. For Lit Crawl 2021, they are excited to present the “Rapid Fire Reading!” Preceding this presentation, writers E. C. Ambrose and Anne E. G. Nydam have answered some questions to indulge our imaginations for this exciting and unpredictable event. Register now for this event!
BBF: What unique perspectives do you think underrepresented voices have brought to the genre of science fiction?
E.C.: For a genre that claims to be about ideas and speculations, testing the limits of human possibility, SF has also, for far too long, been dominated by familiar ideas presented by familiar voices. By supporting and uplifting underrepresented voices, we reveal new layers of lived experience that can inform our visions of the future, as well as broadening perspectives on the issues of today that might be explored in fiction for the future. Speculative fiction has the ability to shake up the world and influence generations of thinkers. Exposing those dreamers to an expansive array of experiences, ideas, and perspectives can mean expanding our world.
Anne: Speculative fiction is all about imagining possibilities, and underrepresented people may perhaps have greater incentives to imagine new possibilities. Certainly in a field that’s all about opening minds and hearts by imagining new ways of being, we all benefit by hearing from as many different and diverse voices as possible.
BBF: What science fiction themes or tropes seem to particularly resonate with women and nonbinary science fiction readers and writers?
E.C.: Women and non-binary authors are exploring all kinds of topics, but one area I think is especially fruitful is concepts of leadership. So many of our expectations about the world and its fiction developed under the influence of very top-down, male-led power structures, and one key aspect of welcoming more voices is to question and explore what that influence means and what other models of leadership might be available.
Anne: Spec fic is a genre uniquely able to offer us new visions of what could be, instead of being bound by stereotypes and assumptions about “the way things are.” That means neither authors nor the characters they represent need to be bound by conventional ideas of what women can do and be, or how women can or should be treated by others. It’s a powerful place for us to reinvent or reclaim what it means to be female or non-binary.
BBF: There are so many powerful female characters in the science fiction world—do you have a favorite one?
E.C.: Essun, the protagonist of N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, is a powerful figure in more ways than one. I won’t give the secrets away for those who haven’t read the books, but let’s just say that Jemisin’s approach allows for extraordinary depth of character development. It’s great to see a middle-aged woman who is willing and able to take on the world. If I can slide in a bonus character, one of my favorite nonbinary characters is Kepler, in Claire North’s Touch. Kepler is one of a group of individuals who can slide into and temporarily possess the bodies of others. North uses this concept to unravel ideas around identity and human connection.
Anne: I can’t pick a favorite, but I think it’s worth noting how many strong girls appeared in the very earliest fantasy stories for children: Princess Irene, Alice, Dorothy. I think it’s no coincidence that nineteenth-century writers wrote fantasy when they wanted to show smart, courageous, self-willed girl.
BBF: Rapid readings are filled with surprises and unpredictability—what can audiences look forward to the most? Do you think these are essential factors when writing the science fiction genre?
E.C.: This particular reading includes four women writing from very different places in speculative fiction. The readings will include some ideas listeners may not have heard before, and also deliver insight into more familiar areas from a direction the listener may not have considered. Speculative fiction holds up a funhouse mirror to humanity and the present day, using its distortions to create revelation. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for!
Anne: People definitely love speculative fiction because of the surprises: entirely new worlds full of magic and possibility. At our readings you might get dragons, or spaceships, or magic spells, or aliens, or umbrellaphants… Or all of the above, or perhaps none of the above, because we write a wonderful diversity of styles within speculative fiction, and each author will bring something different to the mix. You can be sure you won’t get bored!
Don’t miss this fun occasion on June 10 at Lit Crawl 2021! Find more information on Broad Universe here and register for their “Rapid-Fire Reading” Lit Crawl session here!
Cracking the Code for Lit Crawl 2021
The Mystery Writers of America is an organization that has been contributing to the mystery genre for over eighty years. During their presentation titled “Mystery Making,” spectators are welcomed to put on their sleuth hats and come into close contact with their investigative side. Building up to this exciting yet mysterious event, we have asked Sarah Smith, Leslie Wheeler, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Kate Flora, and Clea Simon some questions to get you started. From personal opinions to sneak peeks, we invite you to fish for any clues.
BBF: I know mystery novels come in lots of different flavors—from hard-boiled to cozy. What range of sub-genres can readers expect to encounter at Lit Crawl?
Sarah: From me, you’ll be seeing a historical mystery: a woman in 1912 who suddenly doesn’t know whether she’s black or white. She has to solve a longstanding family secret—and decide what she’ll do about it.
Leslie: My first series, the Miranda Lewis mysteries, falls into the traditional/cozy category, while my Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries can be classified as either romantic suspense or domestic thrillers. And my short stories range from humorous to quite dark.
Carolyn: My book is a traditional mystery with paranormal elements and a dash of African American history thrown into the mix. The protagonist in my book Death at a Seance is an African American psychic who must survive in a segregated Indiana town run by the KKK at the height of the Roaring ‘20s.
Kate: Gritty police procedural, strong female amateur PI, and romantic suspense.
Clea: I’ll be wearing two genre hats at Lit Crawl. My most recent mystery, A Cat on the Case, is decidedly “cozy”—a very gentle puzzle-style mystery. But my next, Hold Me Down (coming in October from Polis Books), is psychological suspense, featuring a woman with a past that makes her a very unreliable narrator.
BBF: I see that Edgar Allan Poe is very present in your image. Are there any other classic mystery authors in particular that have inspired your organization?
Sarah: Poe terrified me when I was a kid, and I love Dorothy Sayers and Sherlock Holmes; but right now is a classic period for the mystery, with diverse writers like Alyssa Cole and Deepa Anappara bringing a whole new depth to the form.
Leslie: I grew up on Nancy Drew, then graduated to Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Wilkie Collins, the Bronte sisters, Charlotte and Emily (for gothic mysteries), and Jane Austen, whom P. D. James is considered a great mystery writer, though no one gets killed in her books.
Carolyn: As a kid I grew up on Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. I still love these English classics but am now thrilled to find great mysteries from a more diverse cohort of authors. Eleanor Taylor Bland, Barbara Neely, and Valerie Wilson Wesley were huge influences.
Kate: Dorothy Sayers…strong female characters.
Clea: As much as I love Poe, my heart belongs to Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Devoured their works growing up, and I find myself still thinking of plot points I learned from them. This was after I outgrew my infatuation with Encyclopedia Brown, of course.
BBF: Some people say “there’s no such thing as a perfect crime.” Should audiences come with this mindset to Lit Crawl?
Sarah: No perfect crimes, but perfect entertainment!
Leslie: I believe it occurs, though it takes a very clever criminal to pull this off.
Carolyn: There is definitely no perfect crime, at least not in my books. The villain is always caught and brought to justice in the end.
Kate: Perfect crime? Maybe…but modern forensics and the ubiquity of cameras make it difficult. Best bet? Stranger on stranger in a location with lots of tourists or transients.
Clea: What I would tell people looking for a perfect crime is simple: everything leaves a trace.
BBF: From misleading clues to eccentric detectives, are there any beloved tropes that you are most fond of and we might expect in the event?
Sarah: I love the long-kept family secret.
Leslie: The hero’s journey, in which a character embarks on a quest, encounters many obstacles, but manages to prevail, and in the process, learns things about herself that enables her to grow and change.
Carolyn: Look for a red herring or two along the way. We like to keep you guessing.
Kate: Hiding in plain sight/deliberate misdirection. The boy who cried wolf scenario, so the person isn’t believed when there is real danger. Casting suspicion on everyone à la Death on the Nile.
Clea: I love the red herring—the suspect who feasibly could have committed the crime if they were just pushed a little further…but didn’t!
BBF: Here’s a fun one. If you were forced to live as a mystery character for the rest of your lives, which one would it be?
Sarah: Harriet Vane for the intelligence, the friendships, the feminism, the man who appreciates her as a human being—but Phryne Fisher for the clothes.
Leslie: Harriet Vane, from the Dorothy L. Sayers novel Gaudy Night, because she’s highly intelligent, strong-willed, a feminist, a successful mystery author, and has a beau who appreciates her for who she is.
Carolyn: Sherlock Holmes. His life was never boring!
Kate: Could I be both Whimsey and Harriet Vane? It would be nice to have Bunter to look after things.
Clea: Hmmm…. Could I join Inspector Brunetti’s family and live in Venice and eat all that wonderful food Donna Leon is always writing about?
You can find out more about the Mystery Writers of America here. And then put on your deerstalker and register for their “Mystery Making” session on June 10 to continue your investigations at Lit Crawl 2021!
Q&A with Italian American Writers Association
The Boston Book Festival is excited to welcome the Italian American Writers Association to our 2021 Lit Crawl event! Being a community dedicated to progressing and promoting the work of Italian American writers, they hope to spread awareness on the beauty of the Italian American experience with a poetry reading. Leading up to this event, we have decided to ask our participants, Julia Lisella and Jennifer Martelli, some questions regarding what to expect during their presentation. And don’t forget to grab you tickets now to their session at the Dial Restaurant in Central Square, Cambridge!
BBF: What can audiences look forward to and take away from your Lit Crawl presentation?
Julia and Jennifer: Audiences will hear some good contemporary poetry and learn some fun facts about Italian Americans in the arts and culture. They will be introduced to a vibrant Italian American writing community in the Boston area.
BBF: You’ve chosen a round-robin poetry reading as your artistic platform and presentation piece. What do you think makes this an especially appropriate platform for expressing the themes of your own poetry?
Julia and Jennifer: We were originally going to do a straight reading, as a way to present our aesthetic as Italian American writers and curators: one of us would read for 10 minutes, followed by the next. We felt this was somewhat static, so the idea of a “round robin” came up. This would create movement in the reading—like a dance! It also creates surprise for both of us: how will one reader respond to the poem they hear? This is how we try to pair readers when we solicit features, and it also is its own “open mic,” which is always fun. This format underscores the collaboration we hope we’ve fostered with the IAWA reading series.
BBF: Your session is titled “Two Italian Gals Walk Into a Bookstore: Creating a Community for IA Writers in Boston.” What kind of readers and writers are you hoping to attract to your community with this event?
Julia and Jennifer: We’d like to make lovers of poetry and literature aware of this growing community of published writers, educators, and editors. Anyone interested in poetry should attend, whether they’re Italian or not. We run an open mic and we often get asked if you have to be Italian to participate in it, or read Italian themes, but we welcome anyone who would like to join us. Our features are writers of Italian descent and we are trying to increase awareness of Italian Americans in the literary world.
BBF: As you have a sister organization in New York, how has that city as well as Boston influenced your works?
Julia and Jennifer: There’s a lot of cross-over of influences in our own poetry. One of us is from New York; we both write about New York. But our work as organizers of the series has really been to grow the Boston community of writers. Since we’ve been on Zoom we’ve joined as one reading series. The Italian diaspora is complex: we’ve welcomed participants from across the US, from Canada, and from Europe.
Registrations for Lit Crawl 2021 are now open! Be sure to check out Julia and Jennifer with their poetry reading on June 10 at the Dial Restaurant’s rooftop in Cambridge. Tickets are $15 and must be purchased in advance. You can read more about the Italian American Writers Association here.
Tell-All Boston on the Starlight Stage: Silence, Madness, Secrets, and Apologies
Tell-All Boston is a live memoir reading series we are pleased to have as part of Lit Crawl Boston 2021! Their session, “Silence, Madness, Secrets, and Apologies: A Night with Tell-All,” will feature four local authors (Sebastian Stuart, Michelle Bowdler, Molly Howes, E. Dolores Johnson) plus an MC, Alicia Googins on Lit Crawl’s main stage at Starlight Square. Group facilitator and co-founder Kristen Paulson-Nguyen offered some insights and introductions to the group. We’re sure you will find something to pique your interest as we near June 10!
Tell-All Boston’s Lineup
Tell-All Boston has lined up a few presenters for Lit Crawl Boston 2021. Kristen told us Sebastian Stuart is working on a psychological thriller set in Cambridge called Family Hold Back. Michelle Bowdler’s Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto will be released in paperback on October 12. “I am really looking forward to doing in-person book signings,” said Michelle, “something I couldn’t do last July when my book was released.” She’s excited to be doing a public event with Anita Hill in late August for the Brandeis Feminist Ethics Project. Molly Howes, author of A Good Apology: Four Steps to Make Things Right, has been leading workshops based on her book. She’s spoken with all kinds of groups across the country, from teachers to clergy and congregations. Lastly, E. Dolores Johnson’s 2020 memoir on her parents’ interracial marriage, Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love, is already in its second printing. Dolores is thrilled that Lit Crawl occurs so close to June 12, which is Loving Day, the day anti-race mixing laws were overturned, and June 19 or Juneteenth, when the last slaves were told they were free. “These historic American dates are the ideal time to talk about the themes of race and identity I’ve written about,” she says.
Tell-All’s History
For readers unfamiliar with Tell-All Boston, here is a brief history lesson. Kristen told us, “With the leadership of GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator Instructor Alysia Abbott [who also happens to be on the Lit Crawl Boston committee!], several 2017 alumni met with Abbott in Central Square, Cambridge to talk about creating a nonfiction reading series. They brainstormed, and in 2018, with the support of GrubStreet, Tell-All Boston, the city’s only live on-stage literary reading series dedicated to the craft of memoir and personal essay, was born.
“Bestselling authors, award-winning writers, and emerging stars share the stage, mesmerizing with first-person stories that make meaning from lived experience,” she said. They are proud to have produced their latest — the eighth — Tell-All virtually on March 4, 2021 and feel incredibly honored to bring their show in person to Lit Crawl.
What Can Audiences Expect?
Tell-All Boston’s presenters hope attendees take away many experiences from their session. “I hope they will be delighted and inspired by the strength, diversity, and excitement of the Boston literary scene,” said Sebastian.
“I hope that the trials and challenges of life,” said Dolores, “whether they be a crime, systemic racism, mental illness, or a travesty that should be atoned for, give us the opportunity to grow into our stronger selves.”
“I hope they enjoy the event and come away feeling moved. And I hope they get a sense of the vibrant nonfiction writers coming out of GrubStreet. It’s an incredible community,” said Michelle. Molly echoed a similar vision. “I hope they hear good stories and learn about GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator and nonfiction writers.”
Alicia Googins, the session’s MC and a writer and Memoir Incubator 2017 alum, as well as an actress, hopes attendees understand the Boston writing landscape. “I hope they get a sense of the close-knit, supportive, hard-working, and fun Boston creative nonfiction writing scene, a desire to write, and feel inspired to tell their own stories and share their unique voices to broaden and strengthen community and connection.”
Get Ready to Read
Lastly, like all writers, Tell-All’s presenters all had memoirs and personal essays to recommend to Lit Crawl Boston 2021 attendees. Kristen is excited to read Sebastian’s book, out July 15. She also loved “Walden” by Alicia Googins, an essay that appeared in the spring 2020 issue of Solstice Magazine.
Sebastian loved Me, Elton John’s memoir, and Jesmyn Ward’s The Men We Reaped: A Memoir. “The sense of place was so intense, I could smell the thick Mississippi air,” he said. He also loved fashion legend André Leon Talley’s gossipy but ultimately moving The Chiffon Trenches and found Alysia Abbott’s Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father deeply moving.
Michelle recommends Abbott’s beautiful essay on the death of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and what his bookstore City Lights meant to Abbott and the city of San Francisco. She also suggests checking out Trần Vũ Thu-Hằng’s essay in Pangyrus about art and being a Vietnamese refugee, as well as 2018 Memoir Incubator alumna Rani Neutill’s poignant essay in The Lily. Molly is excited about 2014 alumna Judy Bolton-Fasman’s forthcoming memoir Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets (to be published September 5, 2021).
Dolores has several recommendations for narrative nonfiction, both classic and more recent: Becoming by Michelle Obama, The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. Finally, Dolores recommends Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs.
Thank you to Tell-All Boston for participating in our questions and answers leading to Lit Crawl Boston 2021! More information on the presenters can be found on our website. And you can get your free tickets to Tell-All’s session by registering in advance here.
Lit Crawl Boston 2021 FAQ
It’s been a while since we’ve hosted a live event, and we wager it’s been a while since you’ve attended one! You probably have a lot of questions about how Lit Crawl will work on June 10; we’ve done our best to anticipate some of them here, but if you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email to info@bostonbookfest.org. Can’t wait to “crawl” with you on June 10!
What’s new about Lit Crawl this year?
Well, first of all, the location is brand new! We’ve moved across the Charles River to Cambridge and are hosting Lit Crawl in a variety of locations in Central Square. Our map of venues will be available online soon. Other changes are in response to safe gathering guidelines and include hosting all Lit Crawl events outdoors and requiring registration or ticketing for most Lit Crawl events. Lit Crawl might not be quite the free-wheeling experience it’s been in the past, but it will still offer all the same fun and whimsy you expect from this event.
How is Lit Crawl organized?
Lit Crawl is organized into three “Phases” at 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00pm with your choice of four or five different activities happening during each phase. With the exception of drop-in activities, you will need to register for each activity you want to attend.
How does registration work, and why is it required this year?
With the exception of a handful of activities tagged as “drop in” on our schedule, advance registration is required for all Lit Crawl Boston events this year. This requirement is largely to help us stay within the gathering guidelines set by the state and by the city of Cambridge, but also so that we can manage attendee expectations and so that we can more readily assist with contact tracing if needed. All events taking place at Starlight Square and Popportunity are free to attend but still require registration (with the exception of those drop-in activities). All events taking place at restaurant venues (Area Four, Artifact Cider Project, The Dial, and Naco Taco) require a $15 ticket per person per session but come with complimentary snacks and maybe some fun surprises! Links to register are included in each session description on our website. Registration for Starlight Square mainstage events will take place on Eventbrite (links on schedule); all other pre-registration will take place directly within our website and schedule.
Do I need to print out my ticket(s) before arriving?
Presenting the proof of purchase/registration on your phone should be fine! For all events not happening on the Starlight Square mainstage, your name will be on a list kept by one of our volunteers.
Why are you charging for some sessions this year?
As you know, the past 14 months have been exceptionally challenging for restaurant owners and workers. We want to do our part to support our Central Square restaurant neighbors, so $12 of each $15 ticket will go directly to the restaurants in exchange for letting us use their valuable patio spaces for our Lit Crawl programs. The remainder of the ticket price goes to cover our expenses related to ticketing and credit card processing. We hope you’ll join us in supporting our host restaurants by buying drinks, tipping your servers, and making the most of your night out!
Will you maintain a waiting list for sold-out sessions?
The box office at Starlight Square may maintain a waiting list for any sold-out mainstage sessions and will notify people earlier in the day if a spot has opened up. In order to manage crowds, we discourage people from coming to Starlight Square in the hopes of snagging a seat to a sold-out show—though you are of course welcome to participate in any of the free activities available on a drop-in basis. We will not be maintaining waiting lists for the restaurant-hosted events.
Is there a rain date?
Yes, since our event is outdoors, we are holding Wednesday, June 16 as a rain date for events at Starlight Square. Rescheduling of restaurant events will be at the discretion of the host venue; ticket-holders for any events that cannot be rescheduled will be refunded. We will make decisions regarding weather-related cancellations in consultation with our host venues and will post any updates or postponements on our website and social media by noon on June 10.
Will books be available for sale?
Yes! We are partnering with Somerville’s All She Wrote Books to provide book sales and signings after many events. This year has been challenging for booksellers, too, so we hope you will patronize All She Wrote and support local authors and a brand-new local bookseller!
Are masks required to attend Lit Crawl Boston?
We ask Lit Crawl Boston attendees to follow the protocol at each host venue and the directions of our volunteers. In most cases, that means attendees will be asked to wear a mask except when seated and eating or drinking.
What other precautions are you taking to ensure attendee safety at this event?
We have added many extra measures this year to create a fun and safe event for all. At all venues, we will adhere to capacity limits as well as the current state and city guidelines to ensure proper social distancing and the safety of our performers and guests. Extra masks and hand sanitizer will be available at all venues. We’ll also have volunteers stationed throughout Central Square and at each Lit Crawl site to ensure guests and performers are adhering to guidelines for the event.
If we receive notification of a positive case of COVID by a Lit Crawl ticket holder or a guest at one of our venues (a non–Lit Crawl restaurant guest, for example), we will pass Lit Crawl ticket holder emails on to the Massachusetts Contract Tracing Collaborative for contact tracing purposes. Individual names related to positive cases will not be released publicly.
What’s the best way to get to Lit Crawl Boston?
Cambridge’s Central Square is well served by public transportation, including the MBTA’s Red Line and several bus routes. There’s also bike parking available at Starlight Square and near several other venues. There is no car parking at Starlight Square; parking is available in several nearby garages and parking lots (see Starlight website for details) as well as in metered street spaces. Unless you are a Cambridge resident, please don’t park in residential permit spaces on the street.
Will food and drink be available at the venues?
Yes, food and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages will be available for purchase from Comfort Kitchen at Starlight Square and at all the restaurant venues. Tickets to restaurant-hosted Lit Crawl sessions include complimentary snacks, which vary from venue to venue.
Will any of Lit Crawl be live-streamed if I don’t feel comfortable coming in person?
Yes, events taking place on Starlight’s mainstage will be live-streamed to Starlight’s website and can be watched at home free of charge.