fiction Archives - Literary Massachusetts

IN-PERSON | GennaRose Nethercott presents Thistlefoot

Literary MA Research — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 01:46:29 +0000

Join us in person on Wednesday, October 12 at 7 PM as GennaRose Nethercott presents her debut novel, Thistlefoot. The reading will be animated by hand-built, hand-cranked shadow panoramas and puppetry created with the help of Wooly Mar and Shoshana Bass. She will be joined in conversation by Jedediah Berry.

About the Book

In the tradition of modern fairy tales like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver comes a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore—a debut novel about the ancestral hauntings that stalk us, and the uncanny power of story.

The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive a mysterious inheritance, the siblings are reunited—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home in Russia—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

About the Author

GennaRose Nethercott is a writer and folklorist. Her first book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series, and whether authoring novels, poems, ballads, or even fold-up paper cootie catchers, her projects are all rooted in myth—and what our stories reveal about who we are. She tours nationally and internationally performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow) and composing poems-to-order on an antique typewriter with her team, The Traveling Poetry Emporium. She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery. Thistlefoot is her debut novel.

About Jedediah Berry

Jedediah Berry’s first novel, The Manual of Detection, won the Crawford Award and the Dashiell Hammett Prize, and was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. The book has been translated into a dozen languages and was adapted for broadcast by BBC Radio. His story in cards, “The Family Arcana,” was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award. With his partner Emily R. Houk, he co-founded Ninepin Press. He lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

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IN-PERSON | Live at Brookline Booksmith! S.T. Gibson with Kit Mayquist

Literary MA Research — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:13:07 +0000

In person at Brookline Booksmith! Celebrate the new edition of A Dowry of Blood with author S.T. Gibson, in conversation with Kit Mayquist.

Register for the event!

RSVP to let us know you’re coming! Depending on the volume of responses, an RSVP may be required for entrance to the event. You will also be alerted to important details about the program, including safety requirements, cancellations, and book signing updates.

A Dowry of Blood

“A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful.” –Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf

This deliciously dark retelling of Dracula is a sensual story of obsession, desire, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love.

This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.

Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

S.T. Gibson is an author, literary agent, and village wise woman in training. She currently lives in Boston with her fiance, spoiled Persian cat, and vintage blazer collection.

A fan of everything spooky and indulgent, Kit Mayquist is a bisexual, trans masculine writer who can be found in the historic shadows of Boston, MA, hunched over his desk with a sullen Persian cat in his lap and surrounded in antiques. He has a MA degree in Medieval History from the University of Iceland, and a BA from Portland State University (and if you ask him, yes, Stumptown will always have the best coffee).

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IN-PERSON | Live at Brookline Booksmith! Artist Dani Pendergast: Demon in the Wood

Literary MA Research — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:09:48 +0000

In-person at Brookline Booksmith, in partnership with the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo!

Dani Pendergast joins us for a special artist launch of Demon in the Wood, sharing what it was like to create the art for this new Shadow and Bone graphic novel. Dani is joined in conversation by Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb.

Demon in the Wood is written by Leigh Bardugo. Leigh will NOT be present at this artist-only launch event.

Register for the event!

Demon in the Wood

Discover the start of a grand and sinister destiny in this must-have graphic novel prequel to the bestselling series and international Netflix sensation Shadow and Bone from spectacular new talent Dani Pendergast and #1 New York Times bestseller Leigh Bardugo.

Before he led Ravka’s Second Army, before he created the Fold, and long before he became the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power.

Eryk and his mother, Lena, have spent their lives on the run. But they will never find a safe haven. They are not only Grisha―they are the deadliest and rarest of their kind. Feared by those who wish to destroy them and hunted by those who would exploit their gifts, they must hide their true abilities wherever they go. But sometimes deadly secrets have a way of revealing themselves . . .

Dani Pendergast is a cartoonist and illustrator from Parkland, Florida, with a BFA and MFA from the Illustration program at Syracuse University. She’s done work for Apple, Boom! Studios, Mondo Tees, and Wizards of the Coast, among others. She is the illustrator of Leigh Bardugo’s Demon in the Wood Graphic Novel. She is currently based in Boston, Massachusetts.

About MICE

The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) is the Boston area’s premiere event dedicated to the exciting and accessible art form of independent comics and graphic novels. MICE 2022 returns in person to Boston University on October 22 – 23. www.micexpo.org

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Donna Leon: Give Unto Others

Literary MA Research — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:51:57 +0000

Celebrate the release of Give Unto Others, the thirty-first Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery, with author Donna Leon.

About the event

Give Unto Others

Brunetti is forced to confront the price of loyalty, to his past and in his work, as a seemingly innocent request leads him into troubling waters.

What role can or should loyalty play in the life of a police inspector? It’s a question Commissario Guido Brunetti must face and ultimately answer in Give Unto Others, Donna Leon’s splendid 31st installment of her acclaimed Venetian crime series.

Brunetti is approached for a favor by Elisabetta Foscarini, a woman he knows casually, but her mother was good to Brunetti’s mother, so he feels obliged to at least look into the matter privately, and not as official police business. Foscarini’s son-in-law, Enrico Fenzo, has alarmed his wife (her daughter) by confessing their family might be in danger because of something he’s involved with. Since Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti logically suspects the cause of danger is related to the finances of a client. Yet his clients seem benign: an optician, a restaurateur, a charity established by his father-in-law. However, when his friend’s daughter’s place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favors–that his colleagues Claudia Griffoni, Lorenzo Vianello, and Signorina Elettra Zorzi assist his private investigation, which soon enough turns official as they uncover the dark and Janus-faced nature of a venerable Italian institution.

Exploring the wobbly line between the criminal and non-criminal, revealing previously untold elements of Brunetti’s past, Give Unto Others shows that the price of reciprocity can be steep.

Donna Leon, born in New Jersey in 1942, has worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. Commissario Brunetti made her books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for many years, and although she now lives in Switzerland, she often visits Venice.

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MIT Reads: A Conversation with Elizabeth Acevedo

Literary MA Research — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:38:21 +0000

Join Elizabeth Acevedo, the author of this semester’s MIT Reads selection, in dialog with an MIT student moderator.

About this event

Two girls, unknown to each other and separated by distance and family secrets, discover one another through a shared tragedy. In Clap When You Land, a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

This event is free and open to all, but you must pre-register.

If you choose to join us in person, please note that MIT CovidPass or Tim Tickets are required, and all participants must follow all MIT COVID safety protocols.
For virtual registrants: the URL will be emailed closer to the event.

Small group discussions: In-person audience members are invited to stay for a post-event talkback session (no separate registration required.) Or sign up here for a virtual small group discussion on April 26, 5-6 pm.

Your participation makes this program better. Please email mitreads-events@mit.edu if you require accommodation in order to join us.

Clap When You Land was chosen by the MIT Libraries, Global Languages, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Additional program sponsors are the Committee on Race and Diversity, the Latino Employee Resource Group, Hermanas Unidas, and My Sister’s Keeper.

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Shawn Peters

Literary MA Research — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 17:52:06 +0000

All attendees will be required to wear masks at all times, no exceptions.

About this event

Get ready for a brand new, epic middle grade series from debut author Shawn Peters! THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER is packed with superheroes, supervillains, and epic showdowns between good and evil. The first book in the series is action-packed and shows that sometimes being a hero is just about being yourself. During this event, Shawn will discuss and sign copies of his book. Register to attend the free event below.

If you cannot make the event but would still like a personalized copy of THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER, please order it below, and include the name of the person you’d like the book inscribed to in the “order comments” when checking out.

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