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Writing While Parenting

“Ben Berman’s witty, brainy, soulful look at writing-while-parenting will speak to every parent-and every writer-committed to understanding the way that having kids raises the stakes for-and loosens the reins of-how we speak and write. What we blurt out, what we write down, the letters we help our children form, and those we hold ourselves back from forming for them-all matter. Every writer speaks to posterity, but Berman shows how parenthood brings that message-literally-home.” – Elisa New, director and host of Poetry in America

Ben Berman’s Writing While Parenting explores what it means to pursue a creative passion alongside raising a family, how having children can make a parent both more vulnerable and more adventurous as an artist. Given how hectic parenting is, is it possible to balance a career and family, let alone find two minutes to pee without someone tugging your leg and asking to watch you “make bubbles”? How does one possibly find the time or energy to be creative?

Spanning five years, these essays range from humorous moments (the seven-year-old daughter complaining that she “just got kicked in the weenie”) to the more serious ones (finding two swastikas etched into the slide at the neighborhood playground). No matter its genesis, each piece thoughtfully examines the overlaps and the dissonance between the creative life and the procreative one. This is a witty, inspired, and illuminating collection for the writer, the parent, or both.

Ben Berman‘s new book, Writing While Parenting, is a collection of humorous and literary essays that considers what it means to pursue one’s creative passions while also raising a family and explores the strange overlaps between the creative life and procreative life. 

He is the author of three previous collections of poems. He has won the Peace Corps Award for Best Book of Poetry, has twice been shortlisted for the Massachusetts Book Awards, and has received awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and New England Poetry Club. He teaches in the English Department and in SWS at Brookline High School. 

Moderator Whitney Scharer is the author of The Age of Light, which was a Boston Globe and IndieNext bestseller and named one of the best books of 2019 by Parade, Glamour Magazine, Real Simple, Refinery 29, Booklist and Yahoo. Internationally, The Age of Light won Le prix Rive Gauche à Paris, was a coups de couer selection from the American Library in Paris, and has been published in over a dozen other countries. Whitney has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Arts and Ragdale, and is the recipient of a 2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Fellowship in Fiction. She grew up in Denver, Colorado and now lives with her husband and daughter in Arlington, MA, where she is at work on her second novel.

The post IN-PERSON | Ben Berman with Whitney Scharer: Writing While Parenting appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

Curated Cuisine: Celebrating Pi Day with Pieometry author Lauren Ko

Curated Cuisine is a monthly series examining all things edible, from the chefs cooking the food to the writers reviewing the recipes. Meet the people shaping the food industry, both local and national and enjoy a post-show bite inspired by the conversation.

If a classic basketweave on top of your apple pie seems like a feat, prepare yourself for next-level pie design with Lauren Ko, author of New York Times bestseller Pieometry: Modern Tart Art and Pie Design for the Eye and the Palate. Ko doesn’t have formal culinary training but has transformed her piemaking into an eye-catching art form. The Seattle-based artist has also found her way to internet stardom posting beautiful pies and tarts — and puns — to her popular instagram that is filled with brilliant colors and geometric shapes.

Join Here & Now co-host Scott Tong for a special Pi Day conversation with Ko and an onstage demonstration of her technique. Copies of Pieometry will be available to purchase. Ko will sign after the conversation and in-person attendees will enjoy a bite from the book.

This event is co-produced by Boston University Metropolitan College Programs in Food & Wine.

About Pieometry

In a few short years, Lauren Ko made all hell bake loose, going from novice pie baker to internet star and creator of today’s most surprising and delightful pie and tart designs. Her unique geometric style uses fruit and dough cut and woven into stunning shapes to highlight color and texture. With an elegant symmetry that matches their knockout flavor, her dazzlingly intricate and inventive designs look difficult to produce, but can be achieved with little more than a knife, ruler and some patience.

In “Pieometry,” Lauren reveals her secrets, sharing stories about her designs and the inspiration behind them. Warm and funny, she recounts the spectacular piesasters that led to some of her best creations, and breaks down her most beautiful designs, describing how to make naturally-colored dough, intricate weaves and striking cut-out patterns. “Pieometry” provides clear, step-by-step instructions, accompanied by helpful photographs, which any patient baker can follow to build these pies from bottom crust to top in their own kitchens. Lauren makes it easy to mix and match doughs, fruits, fillings and designs, and each recipe includes suggestions for alternative ingredients. Best of all, the beautiful finished pie and tart photos are just as much of a treat to look at as the pies are to eat. But even if you make a mistake here and there, her flavors save the day!

The post IN-PERSON | WBUR CitySpace: Lauren Ko appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

Brian McLaren says Gareth’s new book How Not to be Afraid is “a beautiful book,” Kathleen Norris says it’s “a necessary book,” and Micky ScottBey Jones says it’s “a much-needed resource for skill-building through our fear and trauma, so that we might create the belonging and communities we desire.” Nadia Bolz-Weber says “I totally trust Gareth Higgins when he writes about his own fear and how it’s actually possible to transform it into something powerful, something capable of healing us and the world.” Pádraig Ó Tuama says “Gareth Higgins is a friend. This book is too.” Find out more at www.hownottobeafraid.com

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How Not to Be Afraid

The world seems terrifying. Whether your fear is about violence, shame, illness, money, meaning, or the collapse of certainty, you are not alone. Yet the power of the fear we feel depends on the story we tell about fear. Fight, flee, or freeze: are these are only options?

Growing up near the troubled city of Belfast, Gareth Higgins was schooled in suspicion, mistrust, and paranoia. Would someone be lurking behind the door? Was there a bomb under that car? Yet fear feeds on the stories we tell ourselves, Higgins claims, and in the pages of How Not to Be Afraid, he delves into the mechanisms of fear, as well as the quiet, immense strength of individuals and communities that refuse to let it reign.

Grounded in personal experience and expert reflection on violence, conflict transformation, and trauma recovery, Higgins traces vulnerability as strength to address seven common fears that plague each of us at some point in our lives. By examining such topics as the fear of being alone, the fear of not having enough, and the fear of violence and death, he invites readers into habits of hope rooted in Celtic spirituality and the mysteries of love.

In the rich spiritual, activist, and literary tradition of Walter Wink and Kathleen Norris, Higgins points us toward tenderness, empathy, and gentle encounter with each other and with our deepest and most relentless fears. He shows us how we can replace our narratives of fear and cynicism with better stories. Peace is the way to itself, he reveals, and when we choose this path, our lives will never be the same.

Gareth Higgins was born in Belfast in 1975, grew up during the northern Ireland Troubles, and now lives in the US. He writes and speaks about the power of storytelling to shape our lives and world, peace and making justice, and how to take life seriously without believing your own propaganda. He is passionate about helping people discover the meaning of our own lives, and to learn from each other about how stories help us live better.

The post IN-PERSON | Live at Brookline Booksmith! Gareth Higgins: How Not to Be Afraid appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

Mike Duncan is one of the most popular history podcasters in the world and author of the New York Times–bestselling books Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution and The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic. His award-winning series The History of Rome remains a legendary landmark in the history of podcasting. Duncan’s ongoing series Revolutions explores the great political revolutions that have driven the course of modern history.

The post IN-PERSON | The Wilbur presents Mike Duncan: The Stories of History appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

Confidence Man: New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s newsmaking book on President Donald Trump

Journalist Maggie Haberman’s reporting on Donald Trump’s presidency captivated countless readers during his four tumultuous years. She and a team at the New York Times were also awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for their reporting on the investigations into Trump and his advisers’ connections to Russia. But Haberman chronicled Trump for years before his White House run and may be one of just a few journalists to understand him, his motivations and perhaps what makes the 45th President tick.

Join Here & Now co-host Scott Tong for a conversation with Haberman on her new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking Of America, which reveals new insights into the Trump White House.

The post IN-PERSON | WBUR CitySpace: Maggie Haberman appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

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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.

**MASKING IS REQUIRED AT THIS EVENT REGARDLESS OF LOCAL MANDATES.**

Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way

There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world.

In this profound and personal book, Setiya shows how the tools of philosophy can help us find our way. Drawing on ancient and modern philosophy as well as fiction, history, memoir, film, comedy, social science, and stories from Setiya’s own experience, Life Is Hard is a book for this moment—a work of solace and compassion.

Warm, accessible, and good-humored, this book is about making the best of a bad lot. It offers guidance for coping with pain and making new friends, for grieving the lost and failing with grace, for confronting injustice and searching for meaning in life. Countering pop psychologists and online influencers who admonish us to “find our bliss” and “live our best lives,” Setiya acknowledges that the best is often out of reach. Instead, he asks how we can weather life’s adversities, finding hope and living well when life is hard.

Kieran Setiya teaches philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the author of Midlife: A Philosophical Guide. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and The Yale Review.

Moderator John Kaag is Donohue Professor of the Arts at UMass Lowell and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is author of Hiking with Nietzsche (NPR Best Book and NYT Editor Choice) and Sick Souls Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life.

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