Summer Reading Series with MIRA T. LEE and OLIVE SENIOR

Lesley University’s summer reading series will bring a variety of acclaimed authors to campus June 22 to 27 at Marran Theater, 34 Mellen St., Cambridge. All readings are free and open to the public.

MIRA T. LEE (pictured) and OLIVE SENIOR will headline the annual series as visiting writers. A selection of writers from the Lesley MFA faculty will also read from their work in nonfiction, poetry, fiction and writing for young people.

Lee, a Cambridge resident and recipient of an Artist’s Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, will read from her debut novel, “Everything Here is Beautiful.” The novel was selected an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association and named as a top pick by The Wall Street Journal, O Magazine and Poets & Writers, among others. Lee’s short fiction has also appeared in journals such as the Southern Review and Harvard Review. She will read from her novel on Wednesday, June 27 at 7 p.m.

The Jamaican-born Senior is the author of 17 books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s literature. For her nonfiction work, “Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal,” Senior won the Lewis Book Prize of the Caribbean Studies Association and was shortlisted for the Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book Awards.

Although she now resides in Toronto, Canada, Senior’s work never strays far from her Jamaican roots, and she is currently working on a web-based version of her popular “Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage.” On Saturday, June 23 at 6:30 p.m., Senior will read from “Dying to Better Themselves.”

“Each MFA residency offers a wide range of MFA faculty readings, as well as featuring visiting writers who have received national or international recognition for their work,” notes Steven Haven, director of Lesley’s MFA in Creative Writing program.

During the June 2018 residency, seven MFA faculty, representing five literary genres, will offer presentations of their work. As always, these evening readings are free and open to the public. Faculty and visiting writer books are available for sale after each reading.

The full schedule is as follows:

Friday, June 22, 5 p.m.
• David Elliott, writing for young people
• Hester Kaplan, fiction

Saturday, June 23, 6:30 p.m.
• Olive Senior, nonfiction

Sunday, June 24, 7 p.m.
• Susan Goodman, writing for young people
• Joan Houlihan, poetry

Monday, June 25, 7 p.m.
• Tony Eprile fiction
• Kevin Prufer, poetry

Wednesday, June 27, 7 p.m.
• Mira T. Lee, fiction
• Pam Petro, nonfiction

YZ CHIN discusses THOUGH I GET HOME with MIRA T LEE

The Boston Public Library’s Newsfeed Cafe hosts YZ CHIN in conversation with MIRA T LEE about Though I Get Home.

About the Book:

In these interconnected stories, characters navigate fate via deft sleights of hand: a grandfather gambles on the monsoon rains, a consort finds herself a new assignment, and a religious man struggles to keep his demons at bay. Central to the book is Isabella Sin, a small-town girl—and frustrated writer—transformed into a prisoner of conscience in Malaysia’s most notorious detention camp.

Author bio:

YZ Chin is the author of fiction collection Though I Get Home (Feminist Press, 2018), premier winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. Born and raised in Taiping, Malaysia, she now lives in New York. She works by day as a software engineer, and writes by night.

In conversation with Mira T. Lee: 

Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here is Beautiful, was selected as an Indies Introduce title (Top 10 Debut for 2018) and Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, and named a Top Winter/2018 Pick by more than 30 news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, O Magazine, Poets & Writers, New York magazine, Chicago Review of Books, Seattle Times, Buzzfeed, Marie Claire, Real Simple, and Electric Lit, among others. Her short fiction has appeared in journals such as the Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, the Missouri Review, Triquarterly, Harvard Review, and American Short Fiction, and has twice received special mention for the Pushcart Prize. She has been the recipient of an Artist’s Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Missouri Review‘s Peden Prize.

MIRA T LEE reads from “Everything Here is Beautiful” at Porter Square Books

Mira T. Lee will discuss her book, Everything Here is Beautiful, in conversation with Jane Martin, president of NAMI Cambridge/Middlesex.

Two sisters–Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She moves her new family from the States to Ecuador and back again, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.

Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again–but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans–but what does it take to break them?

Told in alternating points of view, Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, the story of a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone–and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all.

Mira T. Lee’s work has been published in numerous quarterlies and reviews, including The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review, and Triquarterly. She was awarded an Artist’s Fellowship by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2012, and has twice received special mention for the Pushcart Prize. She is a graduate of Stanford University, and currently lives with her husband and two young sons in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is her debut novel.