Events

This event is canceled.

PEN New England
Readings at the Hotel Marlowe

Gail Mazur is the author of Zeppo's First Wife,
a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, a 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize
Finalist, and winner of a Massachusetts Book Award. Her book They Can't That Away from Me,
was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award. She is Distinquished
Writer in Residence in Emerson College's Writing, Literature and
Publishing Program, and founding director of the Blacksmith House
Poetry Center. She has won fellowships from the National Endowment for
the Arts and the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, as well as the
St. Botoloph Club Foundation Distinquished Artist Award.

Please note: this is an off-site event to be held at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, MA. Directions to the Hotel Marlowe.

For info or questions, contact:
Emily Hiestand, / 617-497-1225.

About PEN New England
PEN New England is an organization of writers and all those who love
the written word. Our mission is to advance the cause of literature in
New England and defend freedom of expression everywhere. PEN New
England is one of five regional branches of PEN American Center, and
part of International PEN, the oldest human rights organization in the
world, and also the oldest international literary organization. PEN NE
is honored to collaborate with the Marlowe Hotel and Porter Square
Books to produce the PEN-Marlowe Reading Series, now in its fourth
year. The monthly reading series is programmed by two PEN NE board
members and award-winning authors: fiction writer, Edith Pearlman, and
essayist/photographer, Emily Hiestand. For more information, visit the PEN New England website.

This event is canceled.

Due to an unforseen illness this event is canceled.

Please join Porter Square Books for an evening of poetry with Doug Holder and Elizabeth Kirschner.

Two poets with a common knowledge. Two points of view from a shared experience--the kept and the keeper--of life in the psych ward. Both know what it's like to be behind the red line six feet from the locked door of the unit. One could cross over it, go home, the other could not. Hence poet Elizabeth Kirschner as one of the kept. Hence poet Doug Holder as one of the keepers. Two separate books--My Life as a Doll--by Kirschner and From the Back Bay to the Back Ward by Holder, a pick of the month in the Small Press Review.

The lock-up, the ward. One reading. So just what goes on behind the red line? Kirschner's book, nominated for the Lenore Marshall Prize, is a survivor's tale, a memoir in verse which has devoted one of its four sections, "Tra-la-la," to depicting in detail the Dantesque inferno of the unit. The other three are a harrowing account of the childhood abuse that later erupted into terrifying flights into madness which have led and still lead her to life behind the red line, that holding tank of the damned.

Doug Holder founded the Ibbetson Street Press in the winter of 1998 in Somerville, Mass. Holder is the arts/editor for The Somerville News, a co-founder of "The Somerville News Writers Festival (founded in 2003)," and is the curator of the "Newton Free Library Poetry Series" in Newton, Mass. Holder's articles and poetry have appeared in several anthologies including: Inside the Outside: An Anthology of Avant-Garde American Poets, Greatest Hits: Twelve Years of Compost Magazine, and America's Favorite Poems edited by Robert Pinsky. His work has also appeared Rattle, Hazmat, The Boston Globe Magazine, Caesura, Poesy, Small Press Review, Northeast Corridor, and many others. He is the author of Of All The Meals I Had Before..., No One Dies at the Au Bon Pain, and The Man in the Booth in the Midtown Tunnel. In 2009 he released a collection of interviews: From the Paris of New England: Interviews with Poets and Writers.

Elizabeth Kirschner is the author of five books, Slow Risen Among the Smoke Trees, Postal Routes, Twenty Colors, Surrender to Light, and My Life as a Doll. She has collaborated with many composers both nationally and internationally and has had her lyrics set on two CDs The Dichterliebe in Four Seasons and New Dawn. She has taught at Boston College for many years and sponsors a mentorhsip program called "Wise Eye: Creating Poetry that Soars."

"Wood is among the few contemporary
writers of great consequence...Reading Wood, no matter the book under
review, provides enormous
pleasure." Los Angeles Times

"A perceptive and graceful essay which almost anybody who's interested in books could read . . .Well worth reading." The Sunday Times

James Wood is a staff writer at the New Yorker and a visiting lecturer at Harvard. He is the author of two essay collections, The Broken Estate and The Irresponsible Self, and a novel The Book Against God.

Like to knit, quilt, felt, bead, crochet, or practice some other handicraft. Keep the cold off and join us in our free heat for Knit One, Read Too, On the second Sunday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m. we host an in-store handwork session for knitters, quilters, crocheters, and other handwork enthusiasts.

At each session, we will feature selected books at 10 percent off, and mindseyeyarns.com will offer 10 percent off all yarn for session participants! In between meetings, check out frequent attendee Guido Stein's knitting blog and podcast at It's a Purl, Man.

"[This] is a magical book, at once poetic and
scientific, that holds out great hope for all of us...Barry, an
excellent brain scientist, illustrates through her personal experiences
and the fascinating science of vision that the brain is a marvelously
plastic organ that can continue to change its wiring and thereby its
function throughout our adult life." Eric Kandel, author of In Search of Memory

"Beautifully written, deeply
informative, and profoundly inspiring...[this book] will appeal to
anyone interested in the beauty of the nervous system, and should be
required reading for every person involved with the education,
behavior, and development of children." Brock and Fernette Eide, authors of The Mislabeled Child

Susan R. Barry is a professor of neurobiology in the Department of Biological Sciences
at Mount Holyoke College. She speaks regularly to scientists, eye
doctors, and educators on the topic of neuroplasticity. She has been featured on NPR and in an article in the New Yorker by renowned neurobiologist Oliver Sacks entitled "Stereo Sue." She and
her husband have two grown children and live in South Hadley,
Massachusetts.

As crafters of
all ages take to their sewing machines in unprecedented numbers, many
of them join a movement to distribute hope and warmth to those in need
through quilting. These are volunteers who have inherited a tradition
of comfort and protest, and a belief that they can make the world a
better place one stitch at a time.

Quilting for Peace,
profiles these quilters in more than 25 essays about individuals and
organizations devoted to making quilts and other necessities for the
needy. The efforts range from Newborns in Need, a group that makes
clothing for premature babies at nearby hospitals; to Quilts of Valor,
which makes quilts to honor wounded soldiers; to the Sleeping Bag
Project, which distributes 100,000 homemade sleeping bags to the
homeless every year. This timely book also includes 15 projects and
guidelines for quilters who want to contribute to an existing effort or
establish a new one.

Katherine Bell is a writer, editor, and quilter. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2006, and she works as an online managing editor for Harvard Business Publishing. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Join Porter Square Books and Timothy Basil Ering, illustrator of Finn Throws a Fit, for a special story hour.

Finn likes peaches. Usually. But not today. Today Finn doesn't like anything. Uh-oh. Is Finn going to throw a fit?

This
empathetic yet hilarious picture book will speak directly to anyone who
has ever had--or tried to contain--a real earth-quaking,
ground-shaking, full-on tantrum.

Timothy Basil Ering is the illustrator of
the Newbery Medal-winning The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, as
well as the author-illustrator of The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone and
Necks Out for Adventure! About Finn Throws a Fit, he says, "I am so
happy that I could illustrate David Elliott's story during this time in
my life, as I couldn't have a more perfect model--my own sweet son on
his trip through the terrible twos. And his name just happens to be
Finn! There he goes now!"

"This book is a must read for anybody who cares about science, and the
growing disconnect between the scientific and popular cultures" Realclimate.org

"A truly vital book for the future of our country, because we will fail
to revive our nation if we continue to marginalize science and the
scientific community." Buzzflash.com

Chris Mooney is a contributing editor to Science Progress and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Republican War on Science and Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming. He contributes to many publications including Wired,
Slate, and TheAmerican Prospect. He lives
in Princeton, New Jersey. 

"[This book] is charming, hilarious, effervescent, and dead serious. I read it in one sitting and adored it." Anita Shreve author of Testimony

"I fell in love with [this book] on
page one, and by novel's end had appointed myself president of
Sebastian Stuart's fan club. This story is all heart--at the same time
it's layered with wit, sorrow, and pitch-perfect satire." Elinor Lipman author of The Family Man

Sebastian Stuart has written novels, screenplays and
many Off-Off Broadway plays. His novels include The
Mentor and Charm! by Kendall Hart, a New
York Times bestselling tie-in with the soap opera All My Children. A
native New Yorker, he now lives in Cambridge with novelist Stephen
McCauley

The Porter Square Books Book Club will be discussing The Transit of Venus. Visit the Book Club page for more information.

The Porter Square Books Book Club will be discussing The Transit of Venus. Visit the Book Club page for more information.

"Surely Joyce Maynard is one of our
best storytellers. And [this book] is her best novel. It is such a
generous book, full of love and hope. Long after I finished reading it,
I was full of all it gave me: the joys of a perfect pie, of babies, and
of love" Anne Hood author of The Knitting Circle

"[This is] a sexy, page turning,
poignant story told by a sweetly baffled young hero, perhaps the best
kind of hero to narrate any tale. Joyce Maynard is at her finest." Jane Hamilton author of Laura Rider's Masterpiece

Joyce Maynard has been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times,
a syndicated newspaper columnist whose "Domestic Affairs" column
appeared in more than fifty papers nationwide, and a regular contributor to
NPR. Her writing has also been published in national magazines,
including O, The Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, USA Weekly, and many more. She has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Charlie Rose, and on Fresh Air. The author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, including the novel To Die For, the bestselling memoir At Home in the World, and the young adult novel The Usual Rules. Maynard lives in Mill Valley, California.

"It has often been proposed that the
ultimate human future lies in space.  It has become clear instead that
the strange world really holding our future, now and forever is the
ocean. In [this book], Deborah Cramer explains why this is so.
Authoritatively researched, clearly written, and beautifully
illustrated, this book is best of its class." E.O. Wilson, author of The Creation and Superorganism

"Deborah Cramer's achievement in
creating this classic study of the world's seas is destined for lasting
importance. Her book is a hymn to something that is both beautiful and
fragile, a fervent prayer that we recognize it as such, and an eloquent
plea for all humankind to cherish it--to embrace the sea as it embraces
us." Simon Winchester author of The Man Who Loved China

Deborah Cramer writes about science, nature, and the
environment. Currently a visiting scholar at MIT's Earth System
Initiative, she is the author of Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Join Porter Square Books for an evening of poetry with Frannie Lindsay and Sabra Loomis.

Frannie Lindsay's third volume of poetry, Mayweed, to be released in January 2010, is the current winner of the Washington Prize. Her previous books are Lamb and Where She Always Was. She is the 2008 winner of the Missouri Review Prize. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Georiga Review, Field, Salamander, The Harvard Review, and many other journals. They have also been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. She has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as well as residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Millay Colony.

Sabra Loomis is the author of Rosetree and two chapbooks of poetry. She has received awards from the Massachusetts Artists' Foundation, the Yeats Society, and the British Council, as well as fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. She teaches frequently at the William Joiner Center at the University of Massachusetts, and was on the faculty of the Poets' House, Donegal, for many years. She divides her time between New York City and Achill Island, Ireland.

"Reconsidering Happiness is a courageously intimate novel about
the young women of modern America, their friendships, their betrayals,
and their anxious cravings for everything from sex to pastry." Jim Crace, author of The Pest House

"With penetrating insight and solid authority on the rural West, Ladette
Randolph has carved out a compelling saga of a young woman ripening
into maturity. You cannot help but cheer for Mary Rasmussen. Randolph's
work is tough, tender, and brave, a pitch-perfect take on the hard
beauty of life on the Nebraska prairie." Pamela Carter Joern, author of The Floor in the Sky

Sherrie Flick is the author of the award-winning flash fiction chapbook I Call This Flirting. Her work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including Norton's Flash Fiction Forward and New Sudden Fiction.
A recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, she works
in Pittsburgh as a freelance writer and artistic director for the Gist
Street Reading Series.

Ladette Randolph is the author of the short story collection This is Not the Tropics and the editor of two anthologies, A Different Plain and The Big Empty. She is the recipient of three Nebraska Book Awards, a Rona Jaffe grant,
a Pushcart Prize and a Virginia Faulkner award. She has published
stories and essays in numerous literary journals and is editor in chief
of Ploughshares. She teaches at Emerson college.

Rin has always been the quiet, helpful girl, her mother’s shadow,
her family’s helper. But a  secret has been eating away at her, and the
solace Rin could once find among the tall trees that  surround her
forest home seems gone forever. When she leaves home to join her older
brother  Razo, as well as Enna, Dasha, and Isi in the city, she finds
intriguing answers to her questions  and a sense of self she never
thought she would find.

In this much-anticipated fourth title in
the Books of Bayern series, Shannon Hale delivers an  emotionally
wrenching journey of self-discovery set in the magical and alluring
world we first encountered in The Goose Girl and the other Books of Bayern.

Shannon Hale is the New York Times best-selling author of five
award-winning young adult novels, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy, and two books for adults Austenland and The Actor and the Housewife. She co-wrote a graphic novel, Rapunzel's Revenge with husband Dean Hale. They live with their two small children near Salt Lake City, Utah.

The time of this event is subject to change. Please check back.

"For building bridges across the
chasm that exists between religion and psychology and for her dutiful
service to suffering people both in her practice and in the prose of
this rich book, Nancy Kehoe deserves all our gratitude and respect and
attention." Joshua Shenk author of Lincoln's Melancholy

"Nancy Kehoe has done something truly
remarkable both in this book and in her practice as a Harvard
psychologist--she has broken the taboo on talking about religious
beliefs in the treatment of mental illness...Anyone who has ever dealt
with mental illness or thought seriously about religion should read
this book." Cokie Roberts, author of We Are Our Mothers' Daughters

Nancy Kehoe is a nun in the Society of the Sacred
Heart and a distinguished clinician well known for her pioneering work
with the mentally ill. She is a clinical instructor in psychology in
the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance,
affiliated with the Harvard Medical School.

Praise for You're Wearing That?:

"Tannen doesn't just point out the pitfalls of the
mother-daughter relationship, she also provides guidance for changing the
conversations (or the way that we feel about the conversations) before they
degenerate into what Tannen
calls a mutually aggravating spiral ..." San Francisco Chronicle

Deborah Tannen is the acclaimed author of, You Just Don't Understand, You're
Wearing THAT?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, I
Only Say This Because I Love You: Talking to Your Parents, Partner,
Sibs and Kids When You’re All Adults, which won the Books for a Better Life Award; and many other books. She has written for and been featured in newspapers and
magazines such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek. She appears frequently on TV and radio, including such shows as The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Colbert Report, Good Morning America, and NPR's Morning EditionAll Things Considered.
She is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown
University, and has been McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton
University. and

David Sibley, the preeminent bird-guide author and illustrator,
now applies his formidable skills of identification and illustration to
the trees of North America.

Monumental in scope but small enough to take into the field, The Sibley Guide to Trees
is an astonishingly elegant guide to a complex subject. It condenses a
huge amount of information about tree identification—more than has ever
been collected in a single book—into a logical, accessible, easy-to-use
format.

With more than 4,100 meticulous, exquisitely detailed paintings, the Guide
highlights the often subtle similarities and distinctions between more
than 600 tree species—native trees as well as many introduced species.
No other guide has ever made field identification so clear.

David Allen Sibley began seriously watching and drawing birds in
1969, at age seven. Since 1980 he has traveled throughout the North
American continent studying the natural world, both on his own and as a
leader of bird-watching tours. This intensive travel and study
culminated in the publication of his comprehensive guide to bird
identification, The Sibley Guide to Birds, followed by The
Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior, Sibley’s Birding Basics, The
Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, and The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.