Writer-in-Residence Virtual Celebration & Reading

Join the Associates of the Boston Public Library for a virtual celebration welcoming the 2021-22 Writers-in-Residence Ying-Ju Lai and Katy Doughty to the Library, and honoring the completed work of outgoing writer, Autumn Allen. All three writers will read from their respective manuscripts and reflect on their writing journeys.

*** Please RSVP via https://writer-in-residence21.eventbrite.com/?aff=BPLEvent to obtain a Zoom link for this free public event.

About the Writer-in-Residence Program

One of the most financially generous programs of its kind in the United States, the Associates’ Writer-in-Residence fellowship provides an emerging author with the financial support and dedicated time needed to complete one literary work within a year’s time. Now in its eighteenth year, the program was created to support emerging authors who write for children and young adults. In turn these authors nurture developing minds and encourage the imagination of our young readers, as well as establishing a living link between Boston Public Library and the community. To learn more, please visit http://www.Writer-in-Residence.org.

About the Authors

Ying-Ju Lai grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, before moving to New England for college and earning a MFA from Boston University’s Creative Writing Program. Currently a resident of Brookline, MA, and working as a graduate program administrator, Lai’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Literary Hub, and WBUR.

Lai’s proposed young adult novel Going to Disneyland is a coming-of-age story centered on sixteen-year-old Jiajia “Jacqueline” Liu, a “parachute kid” whose parents are wanted by the Chinese government for fraud and bribery. Jiajia’s father suddenly appears in the United States, resulting in an adventurous and eye-opening cross-country journey during which Jiajia must come to grips with her parent’s behavior and her own privilege.

Katy Doughty is an illustrator living in Somerville, MA. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she currently works in the Boston area as a designer and media coordinator and her work has been published in The Nib, The Lily, and Womenly Magazine.

Doughty’s proposed nonfiction young adult graphic novel A Handful of Stories From the End of the World deals with the potential of an extinction level event for humanity by weaving together perspectives from the fields of biology, engineering, geology, religion, and astronomy. A series of small vignettes takes the reader on a humorous, yet reflective, journey that examines various “end of the world” scenarios.

Autumn Allen is an author living in Stoughton, MA. Allen received her B.A. in Literature from Yale University, her master’s degree in Education from Harvard University, and her MA-MFA in Children’s Literature and Writing for Children from Simmons University. She spent fifteen years as an educator before returning to her first love, writing, when she saw the need for more books that affirm the identities of her children and the communities she serves.

Allen spent her 2020-21 residency writing All You Have to Do—is a historical novel set in April 1968 and the fall of 1995. It tells the story of two generations of a Black, middle-class family in alternating narrative threads. The story follows a college student searching for his place in the Black Power movement by joining a student takeover on campus and a high school senior who tries to change the culture of his prep school amidst controversy over the Million Man March.