Event Description
PSB: Boston Edition and GrubStreet are excited to welcome Tim Weed to celebrate the release of his novel, The Afterlife Project. Poet Charles Coe will join Weed in conversation. This event will take place on Thursday, June 5 at 7pm at PSB: Boston Edition (50 Liberty Drive, Boston, MA 02210).
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ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
Separated by ten thousand years, a team of scientists and their test subject must work together to save the human species--before it's too late . . .
With humanity facing imminent extinction, Centauri Project scientists use technology originally designed for interstellar travel to send a test subject ten millennia into Earth's future. Marooned in an uninhabited wilderness, microbiologist Nicholas Hindman searches for evidence of remnant populations. He has a protocol to follow and is determined to do so to the bitter end--though he knows he's probably searching in vain, stranded on an empty planet silently orbiting the sun.
Meanwhile, back in 2068 AD, a devastating hyperpandemic has quelled all talk of interstellar travel and thrown the future of humanity into grave doubt. Four surviving members of the Centauri team board a vintage solar-powered sailing yacht for a harrowing journey in search of a second test subject. Their destination is a small volcanic island north of Sicily rumored to harbor that rarest of creatures: a woman capable of getting pregnant, thereby ensuring this generation of Homo sapiens isn't the last. But first they must make it halfway across the post-apocalyptic globe, risking heatwaves, oceanic megastorms, murderous gangs, deranged cult leaders, a volcanic eruption, and the dangerous microbes that continue to circulate through the planet's atmosphere.
A finalist for the Prism Prize for Climate Literature, The Afterlife Project encompasses a desperate quest for the key to the future of humanity, an impossible love story, and a search for meaning across the inconceivable vastness of geological time.
PRAISE FOR THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
"Smart, achingly beautiful, and (yes) important: a gripping novel of climate cataclysm with a cast of characters I cared about deeply." —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
"A super-smart, super-fun page-turner about a scientist trying to survive alone on Earth in the deep future--and the love of his life trying to travel through time to find him. I can't think of a single page that didn't make me pause to admire a sentence, an image, or a particularly fascinating idea. I loved this book." —Angie Kim, New York Times-bestselling author of Happiness Falls
"The Afterlife Project isn't just a story about the end of the world as we know it--it's an exploration of beauty, and love, and hope in the darkness. If you were a fan of Cloud Atlas, you won't want to miss this one." —Janelle Brown, New York Times-bestselling author of What Kind of Paradise
"A brave and brilliant imagining of Earth in the years just after a megapandemic has killed almost everyone, and ten thousand years hence, when a test subject emerges from suspension to explore a wilderness echoing with solitude. . . . Riveting and wrenching and suffused with beauty--the haunting and intimate beauty of the natural world rendered by a master." —Peter Heller, bestselling author of The Dog Stars
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tim Weed is the author of three books of fiction. His work has won or been shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Writer’s Digest Annual Fiction Awards, the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Fish International Short Story Award, the New Rivers Many Voices Project, and many others. The co-founder of the Cuba Writers Program, Tim teaches at Grub Street and is on the core faculty of the Newport MFA at Salve Regina University. His new novel, The Afterlife Project, has been a finalist for the Prism Prize in Climate Literature and Uncharted magazine’s Novel Excerpt Award.
Charles Coe is the author of four books of poetry: All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents, Picnic on the Moon, Memento Mori, and Purgatory Road, all published by Leapfrog Press. Charles Coe: New and Selected Works will be published by Leapfrog in the summer of 2024. He is also author of 2014’s Spin Cycles, a novella published by Gemma Media that tells the story of a homeless man surviving on the streets of Boston.
Charles was a 2017 artist-in-residence for the city of Boston, where he created an oral history project focused on residents of Mission Hill. He has been chosen as a “Literary Light” by the Associates of the Boston Public Library. He is an adjunct professor of English at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and at Bay Path University, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where he teaches in both MFA writing programs. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Boston Chapter of the National Writers Union, a labor union that serves freelance writers.
This class will take place in-person at our Center for Creative Writing in Boston's Seaport neighborhood.
Covid-19 Update:
GrubStreet's space will be mask-optional when Boston's Covid-19 Community Level is low or medium. When the Covid-19 Community Level is high, our space will require masks. Please check GrubStreet's Covid-19 page for the latest info on masking and Community Levels before visiting in person.
Space Accessibility:
Our space is ADA accessible with automatic door openers, ADA-compliant restrooms, desk and table spacing, braille signage, and elevator. Our classrooms can be equipped with ALS for hard of hearing individuals. We cannot guarantee a scent-free environment. For more accessibility requests, please contact our Operations team at [email protected] or (617) 695-0075.