Sarah Smarsh, reporter and essayist, presents “Heartland,” her eye-opening and eloquent memoir about working-class poverty in the American Midwest, in conversation with Boston-based Linda K. Wertheimer, author of “Faith Ed, Teaching About Religion In An Age Of Intolerance.” Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side.
September U35 Reading Series w/Mass Poetry
U35 is Mass Poetry’s bi-monthly reading series for poets under 35, held once each January, March, May, July, September, and November. The series seeks to promote and bolster Massachusetts poets under 35 while giving them a venue to share their work and connect with other poets under 35. If you are a poet under the age of 35, sign up to read!
September’s U35 will be held at Trident Booksellers & Cafe, and will feature Noah Augustine, Thomas Mixon, and Melissa “Meezy” Saunders.
More information at www.masspoetry.org/u35.
The Third Hotel Book Launch at Harvard Bookstore
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer LAURA VAN DEN BERG for a discussion of her latest book, The Third Hotel: A Novel. She will be joined in conversation by Harvard English lecturer and award-winning writer PAUL YOON.
U35 Poetry Reading Series
U35 is Mass Poetry’s bi-monthly reading series for poets under 35, held once each January, March, May, July, September, and November. The series seeks to promote and bolster Massachusetts poets under 35 while giving them a venue to share their work and connect with other young poets. This July come hear Sam DeFlitch, Rodney Dominique, and Jaime Zuckerman perform their work at Remnant Brewing. Sign up at masspoetry.org/u35 to read your own work!
Dire Literary Series: with PAUL BECKMAN, TONY MCMILLEN and Izikhotane
The Dire Literary Series is back with PAUL BECKMAN and TONY MCMILLEN, and the musical troupe, Izikhotane,
PAUL BECKMAN lives in a small shoreline town in Connecticut with his wife Sandra. Their blended family of five children has to date produced ten grandchildren. In 1999, Paul received his MFA from Bennington College while working full time in the real estate business from which he now retired. His recently had a collection of Flash and Micro Fiction published in print and online “Maybe I Ought to Sit In a Dark Room For a While” and continues to write and have his work published both in print and online. His first published collection was Come! Meet My Family and other stories. He is a member of PEN USA.
TONY MCMILLEN is the author of the novels Nefarious Twit and An Augmented Fourth. He is also the artist behind both books’ interiror artwork and has created the cover artwork for a few other novels he hasn’t written.
Story Club Boston
Story Club Boston is a monthly storytelling/reading event featuring guest storytellers and an open mic portion where members of the audience can tell their own first-person, true, 5-minute story. Unlike most storytelling events, Story Club Boston permits stories told from memory AND from the page. Writers are also welcome and highly encouraged to participate in our show. This month’s theme: Young and Old: Stories about being young, old, both and everything in between. Whatever the theme means to you. Suggested donation: $5
Latina Poetry Reading in Celebration of Women’s History Month
Featuring Carmen Bardeguez-Brown, Elisabet Velasquez with Victoria Alicea DelValle.
Part of the 2018 First ever Latinx Poetry Reading and Workshop Series at Harvard University.
Carmen Bardeguez-Brown work was showcased in the documentary, Latino Poets in the United States. She has been invited to read at The Nuyorican Poets Café, The Fez, Mad Alex Foundation, The Soho Arts Festival, Long wood Gallery, The Kitchen, La Casa Azul, New Year’s Alternative Poetry Marathon at Dixon Place, The Boricua College Poetry Series, Caribbean Theater, Word Festival 2013 and many other venues in the tri-state area. She is the author of two poetry books: Straight from the Drums: Al Ritmo del Tambor could be and Dreaming Rhythms Despertando Silencios. Her third book of poetry: Meditation on Love, Dance and Loss will be published late this year.
Elisabet Velasquez is a Puerto Rican writer, mother, from Bushwick, Brooklyn. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications including NBC, Huffington Post, Muzzle, Latina and Vibe Magazine. She is a VONA alum a 2017 Poets House Fellow and the author of the chapbook PTSD.
Opening for the event on Thursday is Boston native, Victoria Alicea DelValle! DelValle is a 17- year old Puerto Rican poet, artist, and B-girl born and raised in South End’s Villa Victoria. She has participated in Louder Than A Bomb, a huge youth poetry slam festival, for the past three years placing third place with her team the first year and second just last year. She received MassLEAP’s Phyllis Wheatley Award, for challenging injustice with work that reflects on the social and political history of the place she is from. She has been a part of the Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción’s Slam Team and currently slams with The Institute of Contemporary Art’s Performing Arts Crew.
The Inagural Latinx Poetry Reading and workshop series in the Spring of 2018 was organized by Melissa Castillo-Garsow to promote a diversity of voices at Harvard, celebrate Latinx voices in poetry, and foster poetic connections with the greater Boston area. This event is sponsored by the Provostial Fund for Arts and Humanities, Observatorio Cervantes, the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration and Rights; the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) and the Committee on Degrees in History and Literature.
Novelist Laura van den Berg at Suffolk University
Laura van den Berg reads from her fiction at Suffolk University’s Poetry Center. Laura van den Berg is the author of two collections of stories, The Isle of Youth (FSG, 2013) and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009), and the novel Find Me (FSG, 2015). Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish her new novel, The Third Hotel, in August 2018, which has made the lists of most anticipated new books of 2018 at Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and Hello Giggles. Her debut collection was selected for the Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” program, and she has twice been shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. The Isle of Youth was named a “Best Book of 2013” by over a dozen outlets, including NPR, The Boston Globe, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Find Me was selected as a “Best Book of 2015” by NPR, Time Out New York, and BuzzFeed, and longlisted for the 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize. This event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by Suffolk University’s English Department.
Arlington Author Salon
The Arlington Author Salon is a free reading series with a twist: each author’s presentation includes something special to tickle the senses. Music, paintings, photographs, tasty treats, fabrics, even smells! Let yourself be transported with an immersive, literary experience.
January’s event features authors DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD, LESLIE LAWRENCE, and ALEXANDRIA MARZANO-LESNEVICH.
Acclaimed Author JEFFERSON MORLEY on “The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton”
Boston University hosts JEFFERSON MORLEY, author of The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton.
JEFFERSON MORLEY is a journalist and editor who has worked in Washington journalism for over thirty years, fifteen of which were spent as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. The author of Our Man in Mexico, a biography of the CIA’s Mexico City station chief Winston Scott, Morley has written about intelligence, military, and political subjects for Salon, The Atlantic, and The Intercept, among other publications. He is the editor of the blog JFK Facts.
About The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton:
“The Ghost is the compulsively readable, often bizarre true-life story of American spymaster James Jesus Angleton. Capturing the extent of Angleton’s eccentricity, duplicity and alcohol-fueled paranoia would have challenged the writing skills of a Le Carre or Ludlum, and Jeff Morley has done it with flair.” – Philip Shenon, author of A Cruel and Shocking Act
“Americans are finally coming to know the Cold War spymasters and other hidden figures who lived their lives in secrecy while shaping our national destiny. The Ghost reveals a fascinating chapter of this hidden history. It is a chilling look at the global power that is wielded in Washington by people who are never known–until a book comes out to spill their secrets.” – Stephen Kinzer, author of The Brothers
Mr. Morley will sign copies of his book following the talk. Books will be available for purchase.