Lit Crawl 2022 Schedule and Registration

Here‘s how to attend Lit Crawl 2022:

1) All Lit Crawl 2022 events are free and open to the public.

2) Admission to all events is available on a first come, first served basis.

3) You’ll see Eventbrite links in the schedule below. Signing up for an Eventbrite ticket is not a guarantee of entry, but to help us get a sense of potential head counts. Arrive early to ensure your space!

4) We ask that Lit Crawlers support our venues by buying food, drinks, or otherwise spending a little money.

5) Book Sales for Lit Crawl are provided by our wonderful partner All She Wrote, who are set up for this event in the Starlight Square. Buy a book and support the Lit Crawl authors! 

6) You can also support Lit Crawl and the Boston Book Festival with a donation.

PHASE 1: 6:00PM

“Who Is Fabio?” Romance Novel Jeopardy
Starlight Sq. (Mainstage)
84 Bishop Allen Dr.
You’ll need to know more about romance novels than Fabio and Bridgerton to claim victory at Romance Novel Jeopardy. This interactive game, hosted by Andrea Martucci (host of Shelf Love, a romance novel podcast), will test audience contestants’ knowledge of the breadth and depth of the popular romance fiction genre. Lucky winners take home glory and books from Copper Dog Books.

A World of Stories
Cambridge Library – Central Square (Downstairs)
45 Pearl St.
Celebrate Greater Boston’s vibrant international community with live storytelling. Four immigrants featured on the national media program filmed at GBH studios Stories from the Stage will unpack personal stories of migration and belonging. This event is hosted by Stellar Story Company and includes a talk-back with the storytellers.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-a-world-of-stories-tickets-340473464297

Ulysses at 100!
Cambridge Library – Central Square (Outdoors)
45 Pearl St.
Join in a joyful celebration of the 100th birthday of James Joyce’s groundbreaking novel, Ulysses, published in Paris in 1922. The Here Comes Everybody Players’ make the famously difficult read accessible by performing excerpts that focus on the richness of Joyce’s language and the humor and humanity of his characters. The celebration will be punctuated with Irish music and opportunities for audience participation!
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-ulysses-at-100-tickets-340475901587

Mindfulness through Cartooning Workshop
IDEO
80 Prospect St.
This workshop takes a closer look at how comics can influence your creativity. Cartoonist and educator Cara Bean will guide you through the fundamentals of doodling, shape play, and character design in a workshop that is perfect for all ages and skill levels. This event is hosted by the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE); masks are required.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-mindfulness-through-cartooning-workshop-tickets-340476272697

Flash Fiction Workshop
Area Four
500 Technology Sq.
Flash fiction (aka micro-fiction, nano-fiction and short-short fiction), is fun to write, fun to read, and easy to produce. If you can write a text message, you can write flash fiction! In this hands-on workshop led by Jane De León Griffin, organizer of the annual flash contest “Boston in 100 Words,” we’ll read and analyze flash stories written by canonical and amateur writers alike to better understand what defines the genre and how to make short-short stories sing. Participants will have the opportunity to write and share their own flash stories!
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-flash-fiction-workshop-tickets-340476673897

Ekphrastic Writing
Graffiti Alley
Richard B. “Rico” Modica Wy
Central Square’s Graffiti Alley displays an ever-changing gallery of portraits and messages from local artists. In this generative writing workshop, participants will choose an image and be given prompts and questions in order to converse with that image. Writers will then edit and arrange their lines into a working draft of an ekphrastic poem to share with the community. Hosted by poets Heather Nelson and Toni Bee.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-ekphrastic-writing-tickets-340481588597

Children’s Books Boston Trivia
Mamaleh’s/State Park
1 Kendall Sq.
Q: How long has it been since the last Children’s Books Boston Trivia Night? A: Too long! CBB is back! Bring your knowledge of kid lit—from whose classic picture book inspired the famous waterfowl statues in the Public Garden to who has the most Pura Belpré Awards to how The Horn Book gets the ALA award speeches printed so fast (we’re not telling!). Bring your own team of four to six people or join a team upon arrival. Prizes and surprises await!
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-childrens-books-boston-trivia-tickets-340482451177

PHASE II: 7:00PM

Mistaken Identities: An Illuminating Evening
Starlight Sq. (Mainstage)
84 Bishop Allen Dr.
What does it mean to not fit in—when who you are doesn’t align with where you live or the name you’re called? Join authors (and former Grub Street students) Neema Avashia, Ani Gjika, Theresa Okokon, Sara Petersen, along with MC Dorian Fox as they share their funny/true/sad stories of performing and also defying what others expect. Presented by Tell-All Boston.

Banned Books Speak-Out
Cambridge Library – Central Square (Outdoors)
45 Pearl St.
More books are being banned today than ever before—which means more voices are being silenced, more literature is being taken off the shelves in schools and libraries, and new voices are not being added to those shelves in the first place. Stand against censorship at the Banned Books Speak-Out, where you’ll hear live readings of recently challenged books—the stories under threat in the US today. Presented by Candlewick Press and the Cambridge Public Library.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-banned-books-speak-out-tickets-340482762107

An Elf Walks Into a Bar. . . .
Pandemonium
4 Pleasant St.
Dungeons & Dragons is the venerable role-playing game involving wizards, elves, dwarves, Doritos, and Mountain Dew. But did you know it’s also an amazing storytelling tool? Join writer, nerd, and Dungeon Master Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, in a live D&D experience, where you, the audience, will help to create a character and then tell an improvisational story of fantasy adventure. Twenty-sided dice are provided! Proof of COVID vaccine is required to attend any event at Pandemonium Books & Games. Pictures of vaccine proof are happily accepted.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-an-elf-walks-into-a-bar-tickets-340483323787

Lit Crawl Around Town
Area Four
500 Technology Sq.
Mass Poetry invites you to explore Central Square in an on-the-go writing workshop hosted by poets Shari Caplan and Jessica Furtado. Let’s slow down and notice the things we normally rush past: we’ll make a map of sounds and smells, write odes for our favorite spots, invent stories about the people passing by. Aren’t up for making the walk around town? We’ll have prompts for those who’d rather sit and write, too. Come through.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-lit-crawl-around-town-tickets-340484306727

Voices
Area Four
500 Technology Sq.
Produced by the Bengali theater group Off Kendrik, Voices is a live storytelling show that brings true stories from South Asian immigrants (and their descendants) to the community. Join acclaimed tellers Schweta Bhatt, Afroz Khan, Chetan Tiwari, and MC/writer Chandreyee Lahiri as they share stories of emotional scars, cultural isolation, and verbal blunders that thin the border between the South Asian Diaspora and American life. Time permitting, we will open the mic for audience members to share, so bring your tales!
Register on Eventbrite: 

Romance Mad Libs
Mamaleh’s/State Park
1 Kendall Sq.
Join debut romance author Katalina Gamarra (Ben and Beatriz) and romance reviewer Amanda Diehl of Smart Bitches Trashy Books as they play a special romance-themed and lively game of Mad Libs. They’ll be constructing swoon-worthy romance novel plot descriptions by filling in the blanks with audience suggestions. Attendees may receive a free romance novel advance readers copy so they can embark on their own blind date with a book.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-romance-mad-libs-tickets-340511227247

PHASE III: 8:00pm

Our Bodies, Ourselves: Visions for Reproductive Justice
Starlight Sq. (Mainstage)
84 Bishop Allen Dr.
This lively conversation, moderated by Our Bodies Ourselves co-founder and board chair Judy Norsigian, will feature local activists working on birthing justice, menstrual equity, and access to abortion services in the wake of attacks on abortion access across the country. Come learn about Boston’s exciting Neighborhood Birth Center project and how we are advancing midwifery care in the state, menstrual activism (including progress with the state legislation that would secure access to free menstrual products to all menstruating individuals in schools, shelters, and prisons), and what we can do here in Massachusetts to support the thousands of women so cruelly treated by legislators in other states now working to ban abortion under ALL circumstances.

Name that Dog!
Cambridge Library – Central Square (Downstairs)
45 Pearl St.
From Cujo to Clifford, Snoopy to Shiloh, White Fang to Winn-Dixie, come test your knowledge of literary dogs! Hosted by E.B. Bartels, author of the forthcoming Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter, this fun, interactive event will have you testing your trivia about famous bookish dogs. E.B. will be joined by Jenna Blum, author of Woodrow on the Beach, and maybe even some local canine celebrities, too. Yes, actual dogs—don’t miss this!
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-name-that-dog-tickets-340562570817

Thoreau at Lit Crawl
Cambridge Library –  Central Square (Outdoors)
45 Pearl St.
Inspired by a certain notable New Englander, Ben Shattuck packed a loaf of bread and a notebook and took a walk along the Cape Cod shoreline. Then he hiked up Mount Katahdin and Mount Wachusett. Ben’s new book is Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau,  and for this year’s Lit Crawl Boston, he’ll be in conversation with Thoreau himself (portrayed by Brent Ranalli of thoreaulivinghistory.org). Come imagine a conversation across time.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-thoreau-at-lit-crawl-tickets-340577746207

Ready, Set, Write! 
Pandemonium
4 Pleasant St.
Make the panelists do your bidding in this audience-participation gameshow where you provide the prompts and our panel of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror authors must compete for your applause by writing five-minute flash fiction before your very eyes! Sponsored by Readercon. Proof of COVID vaccine is required to attend any event at Pandemonium Books & Games. Pictures of vaccine proof are happily accepted.
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-ready-set-write-tickets-340578097257

IAWA Live!
Artifact Cider
438 Mass Ave.
Join Boston’s Italian American Writers Association Reading Series hosts Julia Lisella and Jennifer Martelli, along with some of our IAWA night open mic regulars, for stories and poems as we celebrate coming together again in person!
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-iawa-live-tickets-340578488427

Jewish Literary Trivia
Mamaleh’s/State Park
1 Kendall Sq.
Join us for a speed round of Jewish Literary Trivia, hosted by bestselling authors Rachel Kadish (The Weight of Ink) and Tova Mirvis (The Book of Separation). Come kibbitz, have a nosh, and join the mishegas!
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-crawl-boston-jewish-literary-trivia-tickets-340578949807