Lit Boston: What's Happening in January?

In the January 2020 edition of "Best of Boston," we bring you our top Boston lit events this month, curated from the Boston Literary District's event calendar, an essential source of literary happenings.

 

New Voices in Fiction: Miranda Popkey presents Topics of Conversation: A Novel in conversation with Elizabeth Ames
Tuesday, January 7th, 7:00pm
Harvard Book Store
Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet welcome local writer Miranda Popkey for a discussion of her debut novel Topics of Conversation. She will be joined in conversation by author Elizabeth Ames.

 

Howard Axelrod in conversation with James Parker
Tuesday, January 7th, 7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith Used Book Cellar
Brookline Booksmith welcomes author and Grub Instructor Howard Axelrod for a discussion of his latest book The Stars in Our Pockets. He will be joined in conversation by James Parker, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Turned On.

 

Kiley Reid presents Such a Fun Age in conversation with Sasha Sagan
Wednesday, January 8th, 7:00pm
Porter Square Books
Porter Square Books welcomes author Kiley Reid for a discussion of her debut novel Such a Fun Age. She will be joined in conversation by author Sasha Sagan.

 

Laurie Faria Stolarz presents Jane Anonymous
Thursday, January 9th, 7:00pm
Trident Booksellers & Cafe
Bestselling author Laurie Faria Stolarz returns with Jane Anonymous, a gripping tale of a seventeen-year-old girl’s kidnapping and her struggle to fit back into her life after she escapes.

 

Write Down the Street: Pieces of Me: Writing About Ethnicity
Friday, January 10th, 12:00-1:30pm
Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library
Where are you from? No. Where are you really from? Whether you have ever been on the receiving side of this question— or whether you have asked it of someone else— we need to talk (and write!) about ethnicity. Participants will leave with the first draft of a poem or personal essay, and will get the opportunity to share their work in progress and receive on-the-spot feedback from the instructor and peers.

 

Young Adult Writers Program: FREE Saturday Sessions
Saturday, January 11th, 12:00pm - 4:00pm
GrubStreet HQ
GrubStreet throws its doors open during one Saturday each month, offering FREE creative writing workshops for Boston-area high schoolers. Explore how we silence ourselves and the importance of releasing the stories, voices, and language that we hold on to in Translating Screams into Writing. Creating narratives out of things that already exist in Writing from Found Objects: Finding Inspiration Around You! Steal the spotlight away from the protagonists and explore the craft of creating believable, three-dimensional antagonists in Exploring Your Sinister Side: Writing Villains. All students must register in advance.

 

We Used to Be Friends Book Launch and The Last Five Years Viewing Party
Saturday, January 11th, 6:00pm
Trident Booksellers & Cafe
A Q&A between Margaret Willison and author Amy Spalding and her book, We Used to Be Friends (definitely) and musical theatre (probably), followed by a screening of The Last Five Years.

 

Free Brown Bag Lunch Writing Series
Wednesday, January 15th, 12:30pm-1:15pm
GrubStreet HQ
Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Bring your lunch and come on over to GrubStreet on Wednesday, January 15th from 12:30pm-1:15pm. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises.

 

Transnational Series presents: E.J. Koh’s The Magical Language of Others
Thursday, January 16th, 7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith Used Book Cellar
Brookline Booksmith welcomes author E.J. Koh for a discussion of her memoir The Magical Language of Others. She will be joined in conversation by author Jennifer Tseng.

 

Happy Hour Writing Session
Friday, January 17th, 5:30pm-6:30pm
GrubStreet HQ
Maximize that Friday feeling and kick off your writing weekend. Leave work behind on Friday, January 17th, from 5:30pm-6:30pm and come on over to Grub HQ. In 60 jam-packed minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some great writing exercises. Free drinks and snacks provided.

 

Kerri Greenidge presents Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter
Monday, January 20th, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Boston Athenaeum (Registration is Required)
Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter (Liveright 2019) is the first biography of Boston Guardian editor and post-bellum / pre-Harlem activist, William Monroe Trotter, in over forty five years. Black Radical explores the history of racial thought and African American political radicalism in New England at the turn of the century. Kerri Greenidge is currently co-director of the African American Trail Project through Tufts’ Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD). She also serves as interim director of the American Studies Program through Tufts’ Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora.

 

New Voices in Fiction: Meng Jin presents Little Gods: A Novel
Friday, January 24th, 7:00pm
Harvard Book Store
Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet welcome Meng Jin—Kundiman Fellow and Harvard alumna—for a discussion of her debut novel Little Gods. A story of migrations literal and emotional, spanning time, space and class, Little Gods is a sharp yet expansive exploration of the aftermath of unfulfilled dreams, an immigrant story in negative that grapples with our tenuous connections to memory, history, and self.

 

Transnational Series presents: Javad Djavahery presenting My Part of Her in conversation with Emma Ramadan
Saturday, January 25th, 7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith Used Book Cellar
Brookline Booksmith welcomes author Javad Djavahery for a discussion of his English-language debut My Part of Her. He will be joined in conversation by Emma Ramadan.

 

A Writer’s Guide To Surviving Your First Book Deal
Tuesday, January 28th, 6:30pm
WBUR CitySpace ($5 - $20)
Courtney Maum, author of Before and After the Book Deal, moderates a panel with fiction writer Michelle Hoover, non-fiction writer Ben Mezrich and literary agent Esmond Harmsworth about everything you need to know about publishing. If you're an aspiring writer come learn how to navigate the publishing world.

 

Carl presents Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition
Tuesday, January 28th, 7:00pm
Trident Booksellers & Cafe
Becoming a Man is the striking memoir of P. Carl’s journey to become the man he always knew himself to be. Carl blends the remarkable story of his own personal journey with incisive cultural commentary, writing brilliantly about gender, power, and inequality in America.

 

Ezra Klein presents Why We’re Polarized
Friday, January 31st, 7:30pm
Back Bay Events Center ($25 - $35)
Harvard Book Store welcomes celebrated writer, podcaster, and producer Ezra Klein—Vox co-founder and editor-at-large—for a discussion of his highly anticipated book Why We're Polarized.

• ← Spring 2020 Term Starting Soon!
• Thank You For a Wonderful, Grubby 2019 →