Friday, August 21st at 7:00 PM

Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet welcome author Shruti Swamy for a virtual discussion of her debut short story collection, A House Is a Body. She will be joined in conversation by Megha Majumdar, author of the widely acclaimed novel, A Burning. For more details and to register, click here.

About A House Is a Body

Dreams collide with reality, modernity with antiquity, and myth with identity in the twelve arresting stories of A House Is a Body. In “Earthly Pleasures,” a young painter …

Thursday, August 20th at 7:00 PM

Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet welcome author Daniel Hornsby for a virtual discussion of his debut novel, Via Negativa. He will be joined in conversation by acclaimed author Andrew Martin, author of the story collection Cool for America

I'm amazed by writers who stop reading in their genre while writing their own books. The majority of them seem to be worried about becoming overly influenced by the voice, themes and even plot of the book they're reading.

Personally, I can't imagine not reading fiction for the many years it takes me to complete a novel. And in terms of being influenced: I'm actively looking for inspiration and ideas. I want to be influenced.

By Katrin Schumann

For those of you reading this who haven't yet published your first book, I'm sure you've dreamed about your book launch. You'll have thought about whether to go big or small, have it at a bookstore, in an event space, bar or library, and who you hope might turn up (maybe even local media!). 

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about launches - both the launch event itself and the "book tour" that happens afterwards. They're a bit like the three martini lunch which used to be common practice and underwritten by your employer, but not so much anymore. …

By Katrin Schumann

I sat down to write this post and have now written four openings and ditched them all.

What do writers need to hear in times like this? How can I be helpful to others when that which binds us--our obsessive love of words, books, writing--is overshadowed so universally by our fear of the unknown? 

Do I tell you how to make lemons out of lemondade?* Do I reveal that I'm writing page after page despite the uncertainty and boredom