Boston Book Festival

This session will consist of three twenty-minute guided explorations of the work of authors whose recent fiction engages with social issues past, present, and (near) future. Suzanne Berne (The Dogs of Littlefield), Meg Little Reilly (We Are Unprepared), and Anna Solomon (Leaving Lucy Pear). Our host is novelist Michelle Hoover, author most recently of the novel Bottomland. Sponsored by The Drum.

Three debut novelists gather to talk about their disappointments, surprises, and expectations for their first times—publishing, that is! Following brief readings from their new books, these three first-time novelists will tell all, from polishing the manuscript and securing an agent to surviving the tour and (ahem) book festival circuit. Representing a diverse range of styles and subjects are former Car Talk producer Louie Cronin, whose locally-colored, radio-infused debut is Everyone Loves You Back; baker-turned-novelist Louise Miller, whose first novel is The City Baker's Guide to Country Living; and Hirsh Sawhney, whose debut novel South Haven tackles topical issues of faith, family, and migration. Guiding their conversation will be Jabari Asim, Emerson College professor and author most recently of Only the Strong. Come hear some great new voices--and maybe get inspired yourself!

Crime fiction often explores themes of loss: loss of life, humanity, and, perhaps most terrifying, one’s mind. What is it about meeting characters on the worst day of their lives that has intrigued readers for centuries? Find out from masters of the craft. New York Times bestseller Joseph Finder explores how a powerful person’s life can spiral out of control in an instant in Guilty Minds. The shadowy world of a terror plot drives Red Right Hand, by award-winning author Chris Holm. And in Say No More, Agatha Award winner Hank Phillippi Ryan’s tough reporter Jane Ryland tries to unravel the truth about a date rape and a hit and run crash. Join them in a conversation about the novels of murder and mayhem that we love, where truth is the only comfort. Moderated by Amy MacKinnon, author of Tethered. Sponsored by Massachusetts Center for the Book.

Just like the best imaginary worlds, the realm of fantasy literature is vast, varied, and exciting to navigate. The three authors in this session will read excerpts from their new novels, each of which offers a dramatically different approach to the genre. Ken Liu’s The Wall of Storms, informed by Chinese history and folklore, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his ambitious epic fantasy debut The Grace of Kings. Katie Schickel’s The Mermaid’s Secret imagines a woman who discovers an alternate reality beneath the waves off the coast of Maine. And Keith Donohue’s The Motion of Puppets blends elements of fantasy and reality, circus folk and marionettes, into a wholly original perspective. Helping us find our way through this fantastic session is writer and BBF Fellow Boyah J. Farah, who teaches at Bunker Hill Community College.

Colson Whitehead’s latest work of fiction, The Underground Railroad, imagines the metaphorical underground railroad as a real railroad shuttling slaves to freedom. With this imaginative leap into fantasy, Whitehead also lays bare the cruel reality of slavery. Praise for this highly original novel has been universal, with Kirkus Reviews declaring that Whitehead executes his “inquiry into race mythology and history with rousing audacity and razor-sharp ingenuity; he is now assuredly a writer of the first rank” and Publishers Weekly calling it “literature at its finest and history at its most barbaric.” Join Fiction Keynote and Oprah pick Colson Whitehead as he talks with poet and executive editor for culture at BuzzFeed, Saeed Jones.

Zahia Rahmani will talk about France, Story of a Childhood, recently released in English. An autobiographical novel, the book tells the story of an Algerian family’s exile to France, drawing inspiration from Rahmani’s childhood as the daughter of an accused Harki. Rahmani will be interviewed by Maria Koundoura, a scholar of transnationalism and chair of the Department of Writing, Literature, & Publishing at Emerson College.

This session will consist of three twenty-minute guided explorations of the work of authors whose recent fiction is experimental in substance or style: Christopher Boucher (Golden Delicious), Alexandra Kleeman (Intimations), and Liz Moore (The Unseen World) will discuss experimentation and the writer’s craft with Henriette Lazaridis, author of The Clover House. Sponsored by The Drum.

Uwe Timm is one of the most successful contemporary authors in Germany, having published more than twenty books. Six are available in English translation, among them The Invention of Curried Sausage (Die Entdeckung der Currywurst) and In My Brother’s Shadow (Am Beispiel meines Bruders), in which he approached his relationship with his father and brother. Uwe Timm was the youngest son in his family. His brother, sixteen years his senior, was a soldier in the Waffen SS and died in Ukraine in 1943. This autobiographical novel is the point of departure for a conversation with Sabine von Mering, a professor of German and the director of the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University, about Germany’s past in the present.

This session will consist of three twenty-minute guided explorations of the work of authors whose latest novels are propelled by memorable, thoroughly realized characters: Anne Korkeakivi (Shining Sea), Margot Livesey (Mercury), and Justin Tussing (Vexation Lullaby). Leading these inquiries into craft and character development is author Dawn Tripp, whose latest novel is Georgia. Sponsored by The Drum.

Food is an important cultural touchstone in literature, representing more than just full bellies; food brings characters together and highlights the differences between communities. It can be used metaphorically or as a way to define place and time. Exploring the use of food as a tool in their own writing and the writing of others are Jennifer S. Brown, whose Modern Girls shows how food can represent the assimilation of Jewish immigrants in the early twentieth century; Louise Miller, who uses food in her novel The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living as a way for her protagonist to connect to a rural community; and Dawn Lerman, who links food to physical and emotional well-being in her memoir My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes. Setting the table will be our host, Lori Galvin, an agent at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth and former editor at America’s Test Kitchen.

At the Book Revue, authors strut their hour upon the stage. And they sing, and they show slides, and they play guitar, and they tell stories. Richard Russo, Ann Hood, Ben Mezrich and Faith Salie, joined by Berklee singer songwriter Jennah Bell, will entertain, challenge, and move you with a series of presentations inspired by their recent work. Ann Hood will talk about writing in the context of her latest novel, The Book That Matters Most. Ben Mezrich tells a compelling (and true!) tale about the hunt for UFO’s in his nonfiction The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America’s UFO Highway. Richard Russo displays talents you didn’t know he had when he presents his latest, Everybody’s Fool. And Faith Salie tells a story from her memoir, Approval Junkie. Join us at this unconventional author event, part Moth, part TED, part cabaret and 100% bookish fun.Hosted by Henriette Lazaridis, founding editor of The Drum and author of The Clover House. Sponsored by the Boston Globe.