October 24th, 2011
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."
—Goethe
Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you every Monday from the diary padlock manufacturers at Grub Street's world headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this email in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.
Come meet members of the Grub staff, chat with instructors and students, and learn about upcoming classes and events at Grub Street. Over the next few weeks (including tonight!) we'll be having informal open houses at Grub Street. If you're taking a class, it's a fun and relaxing way to start your workshop, but even if you're not enrolled in anything this term, you're welcome to come. Upcoming dates are: Monday 10/24, Tuesday 11/1, Wednesday 11/9, and Thursday 11/17, from 5:30 - 6:30pm each night.
For years now, active members have been coming to Grub Street's staff with incredible ideas for new member run events, networking opportunities, and writing groups. We didn't used to have the capacity to handle many of the requests, but now with the addition of our new staff member, Volunteer Coordinator Sean Van Deuren, we are poised to make our community even more active and engaged. We're currently seeking active, dynamo members who'd like to talk with us about what kinds of member-driven events they'd like to see happening at Grub Street. We'll be holding a Member Community Meeting this Thursday, October 27th, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. We'll be providing food and drinks. If you'd to come, or can't come but would like to talk to Sean about your ideas, please RSVP to sean@grubstreet.org.
Polish that patent leather and dust off your best suit because An Evening With Grub Street is tomorrow, October 25th at 7pm! The event features readings by Gregory Maguire, Anita Shreve and Tayari Jones, and all proceeds benefit Grub Street's programming and outreach. There are just a handful of tickets left, and you can purchase them online or pay at the door. See you there!
Grub Street seeks an IT advisor to volunteer his or her expertise to our intermittent technological needs. As we expand our website and internal systems, we’d love to call upon this volunteer for bird’s-eye advice, guidance, and strategizing for the future. Must have strong knowledge and experience in website development, servers, online and computer-based software, basic hardware systems, and networks. Must have an active interest in the rapidly emerging and changing technological options for businesses and non-profits. Email sonya@grubstreet.org if you’re interested in helping out, with a brief description of your background and skills.
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Eve, Chris, Rowan and Sean
P.S. We're excited to offer a bunch of free events coming up. See below for all the details and to reserve your spot.
In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do.
FUNDRAISER: Tuesday, October 25th, 7pm - 10pm, An Evening With Grub Street
Mingle, nosh, clink glasses, and enjoy fantastic readings by Anita Shreve, Gregory Maguire and Tayari Jones. All proceeds from the evening benefit Grub Street and fund our programming and outreach. RSVP online now.
$500/couple, complimentary for members of Grub Street's Director's Circle. Mohr & McPherson gallery, 460 Harrison Avenue, Boston.
TEEN WRITING: Saturday, October 29th, 11am - 1pm or 2pm - 4pm, Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP)
Do you like to write poems, lyrics, stories, novels or screenplays? Come to Grub Street’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), a FREE creative writing workshop for Boston-area high schoolers. Our students, age 13-18, come from a wide variety of schools in the Boston area, and enjoy cool writing exercises, mingling with fellow young writers, snacks, and an optional open mic. Morning and afternoon sessions focus on fiction and poetry. View all the sessions and reserve your FREE space in the class of your choice.
FREE, Grub Street HQ.
FREE Event: Saturday, November 5th, 10:30am-12:30pm, How to Promote Yourself
Join media educator Jon Ebinger to hear tips and suggestions for how to grow interest in your book and literary projects. Jon will discuss how to present yourself in multi-media formats, how to advocate on your own behalf, and how to more fully utilize your existing media toolbox. This program is open to all, and should appeal most to first time authors, writers about to self-publish, as well as those looking to gain additional insight on the tools employed to enhance your potential. Jon will offer a series of short presentations with time for Q&A.
Instructor: Jon Ebinger
FREE, Grub Street HQ.
FREE LUNCHTIME WRITING: Wednesday, November 9th, 12:30-1:15pm, Brown Bag Lunch Series
Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Bring your lunch and come on over to Grub Street for a Brown Bag Writing Workshop – a series recently profiled in the Boston Globe. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises. Led by one of our award-winning instructors or ambassadors. Best of all, you’ll leave lunch with some new ideas to ponder for the rest of your day...and beyond. No need to RSVP-- just come!
Instructor: Tom Meek
FREE, Grub Street HQ.
FREE LECTURE: Thursday, November 10th, 6:30-8:30pm, An Evening With Barry Eisler
Barry Eisler recently shocked the publishing world when he turned down a half-million-dollar advance from a traditional publisher in order to self-publish his next two novels. Since then, he has been outspoken and optimistic about the unprecedented choices writers have in the new world of publishing: legacy, indie, and hybrid. A strong advocate of writers taking advantage of their new opportunities and determining their own fate, Mr. Eisler will talk for roughly 30-45 minutes and then take questions. A book-signing will follow. Part of Grub Street’s "Publish It Forward: Writers and Industry Pioneers Leading Change" 2011-2012 Lecture Series, sponsored by the NEA.
Instructor: Barry Eisler
FREE,Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, MA. Reserve your spot now.
Be sure to check out our website for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.
Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Bonus points and undying gratitude for submitting your event info in the same format as the events below. Our apologies in advance if we cannot fit you in. Please note that we do the best we can to evaluate requests, and do privilege requests from members, but cannot be held responsible for the quality of these events and programs or the legitimacy of contests. We expect that readers will do their own due diligence before sending their work or their money to any individual or organization.
--THREE AUTHORS TALK: Monday, October 24th, 7:00pm, “Life After Brain Injury: Havoc, Hope, and Healing” at the Concord Festival of Authors
For the annual two-week-long festival, Grubbie Larry Kerpelman organized this program to be held at Emerson Hospital. It will feature Kerpelman and two other authors of books on brain injury, Dixie Coskie and Janet Cromer, discussing their experiences when a family member sustained a brain injury. Kerpelman’s Pieces Missing: A Family’s Journey of Recovery After Traumatic Brain Injury was published last month by Two Harbors Press.
FREE, Emerson Hospital, 133 Old Road to Nine Acre Corners, Concord.
--READING: Tuesday, October 25, 7pm, Stories of Suburbia featuring Michael Schiavone and Michael Graves
Celebrate the releases of two debuts from local authors. Michael Schiavone has had his short work published in magazines such as Glimmer Train and Narrative, as well as the Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology. His debut novel, Call Me When You Land, tells the story of a mother divided from her son by the death of his absent father. Michael Graves' fiction has appeared in numerous journals, including Lodestar Quarterly and Velvet Mafia, and he has been nominated for a Pushcart and the Million Writers Award. In his first collection of short stories, Dirty One, he tells strange tales of adolescence in a dying town.
FREE, Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner, Brookline.
--READING: Thursday, November 3, 7-9pm, Literary Ladies of the South Shore
Join authors Kathy Handley, Jamie Cat Callan and Virginia Young who will discuss the art of writing and getting published! Kathy is the author of many short stories and a novel Birds of Paradise. A Grub Street member, Kathy has been involved in many writing contests, both as a contestant and judge. Jamie Cat Callan is well know for her wildly popuplar French Women Don't Sleep Alone. Her latest book is Bonjour Happiness! Secrets for Finding your Joie de Vivre. Virginia Young's current novel, Sleepless Tides, is a light romance inspired by America's hometown, Plymouth, MA. This program is presented in cooperation with Westwinds Bookshop which will have books available for purchase and signature. Free tickets are required and will be available two weeks prior to the event.
FREE, Merry Room, Duxbury Free Library, Duxbury.
--READING: Tuesday, October 25th, 7:00 PM, The Best American Short Stories 2011
Join Porter Square Books & PEN New England for a conversation with Megan Mayhew Bergman, Bret Anthony Johnston and Allegra Goodman. Moderated by series editor Heidi Pitlor.
FREE, Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA
--READING: Thursday, October 27th, 7:00 PM, Jon Reiner discusses The Man Who Couldn't Eat
In this memoir, both gut-wrenching and inspiring, award-winning writer Jon Reiner explores our complex and often contradictory relationship with food as he tells the story of his agonizing battle with Crohn's disease--and the extraordinary places his hunger and obsession with food took him. "The Man Who Couldn't Eat "is an unvarnished account of a marriage in crisis, children faced with grown-up fears, a man at a life-and-death crossroads sifting through his past and his present. And it shows us a tough, courageous climb out of despair and hopelessness.
FREE, Back Pages Books, 289 Moody Street, Waltham, MA 02453
--Reading: Sunday, October 3oth, 2:30pm, Hanging Loose 45th Anniversary
The New England Poetry Club invites you to a poetry reading to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of Hanging Loose Press. Hanging Loose editors Dick Lourie, Mark Pawlak, Robert Hershon and Donna Brook will be joined by Boston area Hanging Loose authors William Corbett, Pablo Medina and Gemma Cooper-Novack in a reading to celebrate 45 years of cutting-edge poetry from Hanging Loose Press.
FREE, Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
--READING AND CELEBRATION: Saturday, November 5th, 2pm, Small Press Saturday
Join Newtonville Books for a celebration of small press and indie publishing with the editors and readings by select contributors from McSweeney's, Last Light Studio, Melville House, Hanging Loose Press, Muumuu House, and Madras Press. Hosted by Sumanth Prabhaker, founder of Madras Press.
Free, Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newtonville, MA, 02460
--PARTY: Monday, November 14th, 2011, 5:30 – 7:30pm, Denis Leary Hosts Ploughshares 40th Anniversary Celebration
Don’t miss this chance to mingle with Boston’s literary luminaries and exciting celebrity guests and celebrate one of the most important magazines in the country. You will hear short readings and tributes from Alice Hoffman, Sue Miller, Wally Lamb, Andre Dubus III, Dennis Lehane, Pamela Painter, Joan Parker (for Robert B. Parker), Ming Tsai, Cam Neely and many others. Before the readings, enjoy an intimate cocktail reception with the presenters. All proceeds will benefit Boston-based Ploughshares. Hosted by the inimitable Denis Leary! Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.pshares.org/subscriptions/40yearsevent.cfm#reserve
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like making small talk while wearing a fascinator, we offer you the chance to win a prize. Today is the birthday of one of the few men in America ever encouraged by his father to be a cartoonist. Email your answer to whitney@grubstreet.org. The first correct respondent wins a Starbucks gift card for a coffee treat.
Last week's trivia: Charles Dickens, who was born into an impoverished family and worked as a child slave in a London factory, became the most popular author in England at the age of 25. Winner: Henriette Power.
