The leaves turn in a bookish Massachusetts autumn.
On Saturday, October 15, 2011, Copley Square in Boston turns from ordinary Square-ness into a temporary monument to the thing we call “book.” The Boston Book Festival is a free, day-long schedule of events, readings, workshops, and other bookish happenings. Among the presentations for adults and kids are these with past awardees from our Artist Fellowships Program: Jessica Bozek (Poetry Finalist ’10) joins poets Stephen Burt and Sandra Beasley for the reading/discussion Poetry: Personae, Self-Portrait As…. Henriette Laziridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) moderates Fiction: Time Is… with Jennifer Egan, Peter Mountford, and Lawrence Douglas, and hosts the Flash Fiction Open Mic. Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’11) hosts Page and Stage: Teen Spoken Word. Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) and Laura Harrington (Playwriting Fellow ’05) read in Local Talent: Readings in the Forum.
Another neato mosquito thing about the Boston Book Festival is the One City One Story campaign, which encourages the city to join together in reading one short story, which you can find at various literary hotspots throughout town. This year’s story is “The Whore’s Child” by Richard Russo.
Then, on Thursday, October 20, 3-5 PM, the Massachusetts Book Awards takes place at the Massachusetts State House. The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Center for the Book celebrates books written by Massachusetts writers or about Massachusetts themes. The event, which will be held at the Grand Staircase, will highlight the winners in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young Adult/Children’s. Find the 2011 shortlists.
Image: Toni Pepe (Photography Finalist ’11), INSTALLMENT TWO (2010), Archival Inkjet, 30×40 in. Toni’s work is included in the New England Photography Biennial 2011 at Danforth Museum in Framinghamsolo show, and her solo show The Gesture of Tradition is upcoming at the University of Notre Dame Art Gallery in Indiana. Also, Toni has organized the Think Art: Memory conference (October 14-15, 2011) at Boston University, bringing together scholars and artists to explore the manipulation of memory and how the individual and society remember.
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