Glitterati descend on Copley Square for annual Boston Book Fest
Copley Square will be aglitter with literati this Saturday as the Boston
Book Festival descends upon it with a galactic variety of literary offerings and events, as it’s been doing for over two decades now. This year, everything’s inperson; there’s no virtual option, so close up your laptops and trot into the city. (Audio will be available online after the festival.)
Some facts before we get into the festival highlights: Events unfold across Copley Square, with readings and talks taking place at the Boston Public Library, Old South Church, Church of the Covenant, Trinity Church, the GoetheInstitut, Boston Architectural College, and Room & Board. More than 200 authors will be reading and talking in over 70 sessions throughout the day. Authors will be signing books after their events; you can buy copies at the festival — Harvard Bookstore, Porter Square Books, Papercuts JP, Brookline Booksmith, Trident, Belmont Books, and Wellesley Books will be on hand — or bring your own. Things get rolling at 10:30 a.m. and run through about 8 p.m.
Mythmaking is a central theme this year. Emily Wilson’s new and widely praised translation of “The Iliad” came out earlier this month, and she’ll talk with National Book Award-winning novelist Ha Jin and novelist Susanna Moore on “Deconstruction of Myth,” looking at violence, politics, and gender (1:30 p.m., Church of the Covenant). Storyteller and performer Cynthia Manick leads a workshop on “Discovering an Origin Story or Creation Myth,” exploring how we tell our own stories to ourselves (2 p.m., Goethe-Institut). Allison Adair, whose poetry collection “The Clearing” won the Max Ritvo Prize, will lead a workshop on “Radical Metaphors,” aimed at helping participants “shake loose fresh associations” (3:30 p.m., Goethe-Institut). Do all our stories start with desire? Katy Kelleher, Margot Kahn, Kelly McMasters, and burlesque performer and writer Fancy Feast look at how desire drives us in “Desire: The Promise and Price of Wanting” (3:45 p.m., Boston Architectural College).
From mythmaking to world-saving (or at least, world-wondering-what-wecan-do), the nonfiction offerings grapple with some pressing questions. The delicate, endangered state of the environment gets attention from environmental and nature writers Terry Tempest Williams, Sy Montgomery, Matt Patterson, Allen Crawford, and Vickie Croke in “Wildlife: To Honor, Respect, and Preserve” (6:30 p.m., Room & Board). In “Reproductive Rights,
Where Personal Is Political” (11:30 a.m., Old South Church), Joyce Linehan, Felicia Kornbluh, and Hannah Matthews make a case for reducing stigma around abortion.
Relatedly, in “How To Save Democracy” (2:45 p.m., Old South Church), Danielle Allen and Daniel Ziblatt will discuss the precarious state of our democracy, with Allen arguing for “powersharing liberalism” and Ziblatt showing the limits of our Constitution, moderated by All Things Considered host Arun Rath.
One can’t consider where we’re headed, in this country and globally, without considering technology. Jonathan Taplin, Coco Krumme, and Brian Merchant will explore “How to Think about Big Tech” (2:45 p.m., Old South Church) with moderator Meghna Chakrabarti, host of WBUR’s “On
Point.” The nonfiction keynote features historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of Substack’s most popular newsletter, “Letters from an American,” and best-selling new book “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.” The other keynote speakers will be “Foul Heart Hunstman” author Chloe Gong (young adult) and “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods” author Rick Riordan (kids).
And part of the story of America is the wide variety of voices — languages, histories, cultures — it holds in its expanse. Former Boston poet laureate Danielle Legros Georges, poet and essayist Eddy Toussaint, and artist, poet, and storyteller Charlot Lucien will try to answer the question “Where does Haitian literature currently stand in the United States?” in their conversation “Haitian Literature in the US: The Intersection of Migration and Translation” (12:30 p.m., Boston Public Library). Tamiko Beyer and Jane Wong lead a workshop called “Toward Abolition: Poetry as Spellcasting,” making a case for poems as part of an activating ritual “that help us attend more deeply to ourselves, our communities, and our planet” (12:30 p.m., Goethe-Institut).
What goes unsaid often ends up being as important, or more so, than what is said. “Family Complexities and (Un)Conventions” (2:30 p.m., Old
South Church) features Jane Roper, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, and Jimin Han. Pulitzer winner Paul Harding, and novelists Elizabeth Graver, Rishi Reddi, and Suzanne Berne will discuss how history, personal and interpersonal, local or global, informs character in fiction in “A Second Heart: Novelists on the Pull of the Past” (11:15 a.m., Boston Architectural College). In “Two Lives WellLived” (11:45 a.m., Boston Public Library), Tiziana Dearing will talk with Drew Gilpin Faust and Rose Styron about how events of the 20th century frame our current reality.
Literary events close out with “Poems & Pints” (6:30 p.m., Room &
Board) showcasing a group of warm, funny, talented poets including Jill McDonough, Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah, Danielle Jones, and J.D. Debris.
Besides the broad constellation of readings and talks, the day also includes the Copley Square Street Fair, with over 30 vendors and exhibitors of local publishers, literary organizations, and various literary resources, including the Boston Review, Ploughshares, MIT Press Bookstore, Prison Book Program, 826 Boston, She Writes Press, Mass Poetry, and Massachusetts Center for the Book, among many others.
For more information and a complete schedule, visit bostonbookfest.org.