Boston Book Festival October 27

Full Schedule of Events

By: BBF - Oct 09, 2012

The Boston Book Festival, in partnership with WBUR 90.9 FM, announces the complete schedule and locations for the widely anticipated annual event, taking place Oct. 27, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in locations in and around Copley Square. Festival events include presentations and panels featuring the internationally-known writers, scholars, critics, and commentators listed below; programming for children, teens, and families; writing seminars and competitions; outdoor booths; and spoken word and music performances. All daytime events are FREE and open to the public with no reservations required. There are two ticketed events: a Friday evening Page to Screen event and the Saturday evening Keynote event with Richard Ford. Details below.

.bostonbookfest.org

Back Bay Hotel, 250 Stuart St.

Boston Common Hotel, 40 Trinity Place

Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St.

Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury St.

Old South Church, 645 Boylston St.

Trinity Church, 206 Clarendon St.

and outdoors in Copley Square.

Line-up is subject to change.

10:15 - 11:45 a.m.

Old South Church, Mary Norton Hall

Writer Idol

An actor will read the first page of participants’ unpublished manuscript for the audience and a panel of experienced agent judges including Esmond Harmsworth of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, Ann Collette with the Helen Rees Agency, and Katherine Flynn of Kneerim and Williams. Manuscripts will be chosen and evaluated on the spot and the judges will crown a winner. Potential participants are encouraged to bring THE FIRST 250 WORDS of their manuscript (fiction or nonfiction only) double-spaced, TITLED, with its genre marked clearly. Submissions should be dropped in the box provided near the entrance. Warning: this session is not for the thin-skinned! Session limited to 200, first come, first seated. Grub Street’s Christopher Castellani will emcee. Presented by Grub Street.

11 a.m. - noon

Trinity Church

Fiction: The Short Story

Lorrie Moore said, “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage.” An all-star panel on the intense thrill of short fiction includes Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, whose much-anticipated new volume, This is How You Lose Her, explores the theme of breakups. Edith Pearlman, recipient of the 2011 PEN/Malamud award for excellence in short fiction, discusses her latest collection, Binocular Vision. And Jennifer Haigh, whose story “Paramour” is included in this year’s Best American Short Stories, rounds out the panel. Moderated by editor of The Harvard Review, Christina Thompson.  Sponsored by PEN New England.

11 a.m. - noon

Church of the Covenant

Memoir: Parents and Children

Four writers dissect the crucial relationship of parent and child. Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights, delivers a painful appraisal of his relationship with his brain-damaged son in Father’s Day. Alexandra Styron discusses Reading My Father, her memoir of growing up the daughter of the novelist William Styron. Alex Witchel, New York Times staff writer, explores the heartbreaking decline of her mother into dementia in All Gone, while in Crossing the Borders of Time, Leslie Maitland locates the lover from whom her mother was separated while fleeing Nazi Germany. Moderated by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, author of the memoir Bending Toward the Sun. Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

11 a.m. - noon

Boston Common Hotel, Hancock Room

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

On the 75th anniversary of the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit Corey Olsen, a.k.a. the Tolkien Professor, will discuss his companion volume, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull will show the original artwork drawn by Tolkien himself.  The session will include a sneak preview of the soon-to-be-released film directed by Peter Jackson. Moderated by Ethan Gilsdorf, Hobbit enthusiast and author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

11 a.m. - noon

Boston Public Library, Abbey Room

True Crime: The Whitey Bulger Story

The Whitey Bulger story is a case of the truth being stranger than fiction.  The Boston Book Festival assembles some authors who have spent a good part of their lives chasing and chronicling the formerly elusive Bulger. Thomas Foley will discuss his book, Most Wanted, and Dick Lehr will share stories from his book, Black Mass. Another Bulger expert, WBUR’s David Boeri, will moderate.

11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall

What’s Next for Women?

As the 50th anniversary of Betty Freidan’s The Feminine Mystique approaches, it’s time to assess where women stand today in the workplace, at home, in society. Anita Hill looks at gender and race inequalities at home and in the housing market in Reimagining Equality. Former governor of Vermont Madeline Kunin examines what’s next in The New Feminist Agenda, while Hanna Rosin argues in her widely discussed new book The End of Men that women have pulled ahead of men by most measures. This is sure to be a spirited conversation. Moderated by Meghna Chakrabarti, co-host of WBUR’s Radio Boston.

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Trinity Church, Forum

Readings in the Forum: Two Debuts and a Forgery

Meredith Goldstein reads from her debut, The Singles, which, according to Kirkus Reviews, is “charming... funny and sad.”  Maryanne O’Hara’s debut is Cascade, a sweeping novel set in 1930’s Massachusetts of an artist torn between ambition and loyalty.  B.A. Shapiro will read from The Art Forger, her novel about the Gardner Museum heist, described by Booklist as “entrancingly visual, historically rich, deliciously witty.” Hosted by Dawn Tripp, author of Game of Secrets.

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Salon

BBF Unbound: Writing the War

One of the most common questions veterans ask is: how could they possibly understand? The answer is that civilians can't begin to understand the war experience until the veterans themselves do. This panel of vets—Colin Halloran, Dario DiBattista, and Lauren Johnson—will discuss the role writing plays in assisting vets' reentry to the civilian world and helping to intellectualize the war experience while also raising awareness. Their session is a vivid reminder that war is a human experience, not just a string of policies and statistics.

12:30 - 1:45 p.m.

Old South Church, Sanctuary

The Economy: Advice for the Winner

Global financial crisis, the economic power of China, increasing poverty worldwide, unemployment -- these are some of the ongoing issues that will face the winner in this year’s presidential race. Some of the world’s leading economists offer analysis and advice. Panelists include Carmen Reinhart, author of This Time Is Different, Jeffrey Frieden, author of Lost Decades, Esther Duflo, author of Poor Economics,  Andrew McAfee, author of Race Against the Machine, and competitiveness guru, Michael Porter, for some tough talk on the economy. Moderated by Adam Davidson, host of NPR’s Planet Money.

12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Abbey Room

Great Brits and Books

Rachel Brownstein, in Why Jane Austen? considers the many faces of Austen: heroine, moralist, satirist, feminist, romantic. Leah Price, in How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain, explores the surprising ways books were used in nineteenth-century England. Harvard’s Maria Tatar talks about The Annotated Peter Pan, her comprehensive companion to the beloved classic, while Lisa Rodensky, author of The Crime in Mind: Criminal Responsibility and the Victorian Novel, speaks about “Popular Dickens.” Moderated by Henriette Lazaridis Power, author of the forthcoming novel Clover House. Sponsored by the British Consulate.

12:45-1:45 p.m.

Trinity Church, Sanctuary

Serious Satire

Three wickedly observant authors take the stage to deliver some witty and perhaps biting satire. The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead presents Lizz Free or Die, referred to by Booklist as “shrewdly observant, linguistically adept, bravely soul-baring, and caustically smart.” Emmy award-winner and Daily Show writer Kevin Bleyer gives his take on the Constitution in Me the People, termed “funny stuff, with both a point and a perspective” by Kirkus Reviews. Former head of digital for The Onion and stand-up comedian Baratunde Thurston provides satirical self-help in How to Be Black, called “a hilarious blend of razor-sharp satire and memoir” by Publishers Weekly. Hosted by David Bernstein, political reporter for the Boston Phoenix.

12:45-1:45 p.m.

Church of the Covenant

Fiction: Heaven Knows

How do novelists approach religion, belief, and the mysteries of the unseen? Three distinguished authors discuss distinctly different approaches: Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers deals with an inexplicable and unselective Rapture-like event and the people who are left behind. Physicist and best-selling novelist Alan Lightman’s Mr. g imagines the creation from the perspective of the creator. In the dystopic and highly allusive Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus creates a world where the speech of Jewish children sickens their parents, then everyone. Elisa New, author of Jacob’s Cane and a professor of English at Harvard, moderates.

12:45-1:45 p.m.

Boston Common Hotel, Hancock Room

One City One Story

The Lobster Mafia Story

Were you surprised by the murder in “The Lobster Mafia Story”? Would any wife follow Marcella’s lead? What draws teenager Emma into Marcella’s world? Join author Anna Solomon for a discussion of the poignant One City One Story pick. Haven’t read it yet? Pick up a free copy at the BBF tent. Moderated by Ladette Randolph, editor-in-chief of Ploughshares and author of A Sandhill Ballad.

1 – 2 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall

An Ocean Apart: Paris and New York

Hear about these irresistible cities from two highly entertaining and erudite experts. Adam Gopnik, famously in love with Paris but firmly planted in NYC, will speak about the Parisian origins of our obsession with food as explored in his latest book, The Table Comes First. Parisian Vahram Muratyan, author of the popular blog and the book Paris Vs. New York, shows his charming visual homage to his home town and adopted second city. Discussion and Q & A follow the presentations. Hosted by Adeline Sire, producer for PRI’s The World. Sponsored by the French Consulate and Lia and Bil Poorvu.

1 – 2 p.m.

Trinity Church, Forum

A Conversation about the Iliad

Scholars and novelists alike have delighted in revisiting and reimagining the rich material of the ancient epic poems since, well, since forever. This discussion of the Iliad features Madeline Miller, whose debut novel Song of Achilles, winner of the Orange Prize for fiction, imagines the life of Patroclus and his relationship with Achilles, and David Elmer, a professor of classics at Harvard, whose forthcoming book is The Poetics of Consent: Collective Decision Making and the Iliad.

1 – 2 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Salon

True Story: Personal Visions

Three authors whose new nonfiction derives from personal experience. Novelist Deni Béchard shares his quest to understand his father’s secrets in Cures for Hunger, described by Kirkus Reviews as "a poignant but rigorously unsentimental account of hard-won maturity." Patricia Ellis Herr, in Up: A Mother and Daughter’s Peakbagging Adventure, tells of scaling mountains with her five-year-old daughter in what Publishers Weekly calls “a keen feminist fable for brave girls." Best-selling author John Spooner shares his wit and wisdom with the next generation in No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Letters to My Grandchildren.  Hosted by Anthony Brooks, co-host of WBUR’s Radio Boston.

1:45 - 2:45 p.m.

Boston Common Hotel, Carver Room

Black Culture: Music and More

A panel of multi-talented scholars talks about black culture, and especially the role of music in shaping it. Leonard Brown, musician and author of John Coltrane and Black America’s Quest for Freedom, Emily Bernard, author of Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance, Tsitsi Ella Jaji, a pianist and professor of English at University of Pennsylvania, and our host for the session, composer William Banfield, author of Representing Black Music Culture, will come together for a conversation, music included.

2:00 - 3:15 p.m.

Old South Church, Mary Norton Hall

Flash Fiction Open Mic

It’s the audience’s turn behind the microphone in this flash-fiction recording session. No need to sign up ahead of time. Potential participants should take a number on arrival and be ready to step up to the mic and read their stories. The Drum, an audio literary magazine, will record each story and choose the best ones for publication in the magazine. Each piece must be no longer than three minutes. Emceed by Henriette Lazaridis Power, editor of The Drum, and comedian Steve Macone.

2 -3 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Abbey Room

YA: Overcoming Adversity

The teenaged protagonists of the books featured in this session confront nearly overwhelming trials. Fern, the heroine of Jo Knowles's See You at Harry's, finds her world turned inside out after a family tragedy. Claire, the protagonist of Kathryn Burak's debut Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things, is nearly paralyzed by grief over her mother's death and her best friend's disappearance. And Jazz, the hero of Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers, must overcome both nature and nurture as he struggles to live a good life despite being the son of a serial killer. Moderator Amy Pattee of Simmons College will lead a discussion about how--and why--YA authors write about adversity. Sponsored by Hachette Book Group.

2:15 - 3:15 p.m.

Boston Common Hotel, Hancock Room

Why Picture Books Matter

When video games are pitched at babies and toddlers pick up iPad apps faster than their parents do, it's tempting to think that picture books are relics of another time. But these accomplished authors and illustrators demonstrate that the picture book is more relevant than ever. Harry Bliss (Bailey at the Museum), Anna Dewdney (Llama Llama Time to Share), and Kadir Nelson (I Have a Dream) join children's literature critic Leonard Marcus for a wide-ranging discussion on why picture books belong in the 21^st-century child's life. Note that this session is about children's books, but the discussion will be aimed at parents and teachers.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Trinity Church, Sanctuary

The Brain: Thinking about Thinking

Eric Kandel applies his famous work on memory, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 2000, to explore how the mind perceives art in The Age of Insight. Ray Kurzweil, arguably one of the world’s most provocative futurists, looks at how our increasing ability to reverse-engineer the brain will lead to ever more intelligent machines in How to Create a Mind. Each author will give a presentation, followed by Q & A. Hosted by Sacha Pfeiffer, WBUR’s host of All Things Considered. Sponsored by Good Measures.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Old South Church, Sanctuary

Graphic Novels: Drawing the Story

Chris Ware will present Building Stories, described by Publishers Weekly as “the graphic novel of the season or perhaps the year…Ware takes visual storytelling to a new level of both beauty and despair.” Charles Burns will show The Hive, volume two of the highly acclaimed X’d Out comic book. Legendary designer and writer Chip Kidd will present Batman: Death by Design, his architecture-themed Batman comic. And one of the brightest young stars of the genre, Gabrielle Bell, will show The Voyeurs as an opening act for the session. Hosted by writer and critic Eugenia Williamson. Sponsored by the Boston Phoenix.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Church of the Covenant

Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith, medical ethicist, author of textbooks on criminal law and of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, will present the just-released ninth book in the Isabel Dalhousie series, The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds. The witty philosopher and amateur sleuth Isabel attempts to solve the mystery of a valuable painting’s disappearance while also considering how to handle a variety of other issues, including her three-year-old’s extraordinary mathematical abilities. Moderated by Robin Young, host of WBUR’s Here & Now.

2:30 - 3:45 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall

Triumph of the City

Harvard’s Edward Glaeser will provide a context for this discussion about Boston with a presentation on his book, Triumph of the City. Respondents representing a variety of perspectives will discuss how well Boston is doing, and you can join the discussion, too. Respondents include Boston Foundation President and CEO Paul Grogan; Barbara Berke, Senior Policy Advisor to Mayor Menino; and Boston City Councillor Ayanna Pressley, with an Introduction by Mayor Thomas Menino. Moderated by Bob Oakes, WBUR’s host of Morning Edition. Sponsored by the Plymouth Rock Foundation.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Trinity Church, Forum

Readings in the Forum: Uncanny Imagination

Three talented writers share their distinct artistic visions. Matthew Battles reads from his collection of stories, Sovereignties of Invention, which is written in prose that is “concise, musical, and alive,” according to The Paris Review. Justin Torres reads from We the Animals, praised as a “sensitive, carefully wrought autobiographical first novel” by Charles Isherwood in the NYT. Acclaimed memoirist Joan Wickersham reads from her short story collection, The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story. Hosted by Dawn Tripp, author of Game of Secrets.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Salon

Edith Wharton: Real and Imagined

2012 marks the 150th anniversary of Edith Wharton's birth, and the old girl still feels as relevant as ever, thanks to a crop of new publications, both fiction and nonfiction. Irene Goldman-Price examines one of Wharton's foundational relationships in My Dear Governess, while novelist Jennie Fields saucily imagines Wharton's real-life love affair in The Age of Desire. In The Innocents, debut novelist Francesca Segal takes Wharton's own fiction as her inspiration, re-casting The Age of Innocence in modern-day London's Jewish community. The session will be moderated by Alan Price, author of The End of the Age of Innocence.

3:45 - 5:15 p.m.

Old South Church, Mary Norton Hall

Page and Stage: Teen Spoken Word

The talented teens from Mass LEAP will bring their blend of powerful emotion, provocative ideas, and rhythmic words to create a stirring experience that straddles the space between poetry and storytelling. The host for this exciting session, Regie Gibson, winner of the 1998 National Slam Competition, will kick off the proceedings with a spoken word performance. Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

4 – 5 p.m.

Boston Common Hotel, Hancock Room

Jewish Jocks

Journalist and author of How Soccer Explains the World, Franklin Foer and National Magazine Award-winner Marc Tracy asked some brainy non-jocks to contribute essays for the collection Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame. Contributors Steven Pinker, Harvard professor of psychology and author of Better Angels of Our Nature, and Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of  Harvard University, join Franklin, Marc, and moderator Bill Littlefield, host of WBUR’s Only A Game, for a seriously amusing discussion of Jewish jocks.

4 – 5 p.m.

Trinity Church, Forum

Readings in the Forum: Families

These three readings explore the theme of families. Jessica Keener reads from Night Swim, her debut novel deemed “memorable” by Booklist and “moving” by the New York Times. Michael Lowenthal reads from Paternity Test, praised by Tom Perrotta as a “complex, emotionally satisfying, and thoroughly engaging story." And Ilie Ruby reads from The Salt God’s Daughter, described by Publishers Weekly as “elegant and insightful.” Hosted by Michelle Hoover, author of The Quickening.

4 – 5 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Salon

BBF Unbound: Books Behind Bars

2.2 million people are currently incarcerated in the U.S. Studies show that education—especially literacy—is perhaps the most effective means to reduce recidivism. Stories are far more powerful than statistics, though, and in this session formerly incarcerated people and the representatives of literacy organizations that serve prison populations will discuss the impact books and reading have had on their lives both in and out of prison. Robert Waxler, co-founder of Changing Lives Through Literature and a professor at UMass Dartmouth, will moderate.

4:15 - 5:30 p.m.

Trinity Church, Sanctuary

Political Culture

Join a discussion with some veteran observers of our political culture, including author of What Money Can’t Buy, Michael Sandel; Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, author of The Persistence of the Color Line; Harvard law professor and activist Lawrence Lessig, author of Republic Lost;  historian and journalist Nancy Cohen, author of Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America; and founder of Common Good, Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense. Moderated by Tom Ashbrook, host of WBUR’s On Point.

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.

Old South Church, Sanctuary

Fiction: Time and Place

Several of today's most exciting and articulate young novelists will discuss the role of setting, both time and place. Master of modern noir and local hero Dennis Lehane's latest, Live by Night, takes an epic journey from Prohibition-era Boston to the Gulf Coast. Tayari Jones’s Silver Sparrow--called "realistic and sparkling" by Anita Shreve--is set in 1980’s Atlanta. From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, Alex Gilvarry’s much-praised debut, offers a satirical look at post 9/11 Guantanamo. Join moderator Nicole Lamy, Books Editor of the Boston Globe, for a revealing discussion of craft with three accomplished authors.       

4:15 - 5:30 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall

Future of Reading

Will books on paper survive? Will all libraries be digital? Will kids, fed a steady diet of iPad apps, even read books? How will authors be compensated in a digital world? Join a top-notch panel of experts, including Baratunde Thurston, former head of digital for The Onion; digital futurist Nicholas Negroponte; University Librarian at Harvard and proponent of the Digital Library of America, Robert Darnton; Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid and an authority on the reading brain; and Cheryl Cramer, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Moderated by Steve Wasserman, executive editor at-large at Yale University Press.

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.

Church of the Covenant

YA: The Future Is Now

When M. T. Anderson's novel Feed was published 10 years ago, the notion of being constantly connected to the Internet seemed far-fetched. Anderson will lead a discussion with three authors whose books are set in the near future: Rachel Cohn, whose Beta kicks off a new series about cloning; Cory Doctorow, whose Pirate Cinema takes on notions of intellectual property; and Gabrielle Zevin, whose Because It Is My Blood imagines a world where chocolate is illegal and organized crime presides over a world in shambles. We'll try to wrap our heads around the future in this lively session. Sponsored by Simmons College.

5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

Back Bay Hotel, Cuffs

Poems and Pints

The setting is an Irish pub, for three acclaimed Irish-American poets. Panelists include Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and numerous collections of poetry, most recently The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands; X.J. Kennedy, author of In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus; Joan Houlihan, author of The Us and the forthcoming Ay; Aidan Rooney, native of Ireland and author of the collection Tightrope. The session is hosted by Daniel Tobin, author of Belated Heavens, winner of the 2011 Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry, and Awake in America, a study of Irish and Irish American poetry.

6 – 7 p.m.

Old South Church, Sanctuary

Keynote: Richard Ford

***TICKETED EVENT***

2012's Boston Book Festival keynote will be delivered by award-winning novelist and short story writer Richard Ford. Ford is best known for his Frank Bascombe novels, including Independence Day, the first novel ever to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His latest work, Canada, has been called by Lorrie Moore "a hearty meal of a novel." It is indeed a supremely satisfying, beautifully introspective novel about loss and progress, about the ongoing process of making sense of one's past in order to proceed into the future. Ford will be interviewed by Claire Messud, author of the forthcoming The Woman Upstairs. Sponsored by the New York Review of Books and Liz and George Krupp. Tickets, which are $10, are required for this session. Tickets will be available for purchase, while supplies last, at our merchandise booths in the BBF tent and at Old South Church.  Tickets are also available online at http://www.bostonbookfest.org/ticketed_events

SEMINARS

10:45 - 11:45 A.M.

Boston Common Hotel, Carver Room

All About You: Writing Memoir

Participants at this session will gain an understanding of memoir craft and technique, differences between memoir and other nonfiction, and specific publishing advice. Attendees are encouraged to bring a few pages of their manuscript. The workshop will be taught by Shonna Milliken Humphrey, whose nonfiction work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon.com, Down East, and Maine Magazine. Suggested Reading: “On Apprenticeship” by Bill Roorbach and The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick. 

Section One: 12:15 - 1:15 p.m. (sign-up required)

Boston Common Hotel, Carver Room

Section Two: 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. (first come, first served)

Boston Public Library, Abbey Room

Self-Publishing

Do you have a novel, photo book, or cookbook that you want to see beautifully bound in a bookstore-quality book--or turned into an e-book? Learn how with Blurb's suite of free self-publishing tools. This seminar includes a demo on designing books, an overview of Blurb's online marketing and promotion tools, and information on how writers can harness the power of self-publishing by selling their book on the Blurb Bookstore and keeping 100% of the markup. Writers will get a chance to see the most beautiful and best-selling Blurb books made by authors like them. Session concludes with Q & A with host Geary Zendejas. Sponsored by Blurb, Inc. (blurb.com.)

3:15 - 4:15 p.m.

Boston Common Hotel, Carver Room

How to Write a Crime Novel

Hank Phillippi Ryan, investigative reporter for Channel 7, has written many award-winning mystery novels, including Prime Time, winner of the Agatha Award for best first novel and her latest, The Other Woman. In this seminar, Hank will share her secrets for writing crime fiction, from concocting a crime and designing a protagonist to the all-important role of revision.

4:45 - 5:45 p.m.

Boston Common Hotel, Carver Room

Secrets of the Advice Columnists

Get the lowdown on what it takes to write an advice column. Meredith Goldstein’s Boston Globe column Love Letters gives advice to the lovelorn to the tune of one million page views every month. Margo Howard, who took the mantle of advice maven from her mother, Ann Landers, wrote the Dear Prudence column featured in Slate Magazine and syndicated in 200 newspapers, as well as Dear Margo for Women on the Web and Creators Syndicate.

KIDS AND TEEN EVENTS

KIDS:

11 a.m. - noon

Old South, Sanctuary

Kids' Keynote: Lemony Snicket (ages 8-12)

2012's BBF kids' keynote will be delivered by the elusive and mysterious Lemony Snicket, author of the wildly popular Series of Unfortunate Events. This month, he'll be publishing Who Could That Be At This Hour? It's the first volume of his autobiography, an account that shouldn't be published, in four volumes that should never be read. Does attending this year's kids' keynote require bravery? Or foolhardiness? We'll let you be the judge of that. Hosted by Roger Sutton, editor of The Horn Book.

11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Popular Reading Room

StoryPlace (ages 3-8)

Families can drop in anytime to read a picture book together or complete a craft project inspired by your favorite characters! Sponsored by the Pearson Foundation.

StoryPlace Schedule:

11 a.m. Bailey at the Museum author Harry Bliss reads stories

11:45 a.m. Appearance by Max the Bunny

12:30 p.m. Llama Llama author Anna Dewdney reads stories

1:15 p.m. Appearance by Llama Llama

2 p.m. Appearance by Frog and Toad

2:45 p.m. Yes! Yes! Yaul! author Jef Czekaj reads stories

3:30 p.m. Appearance by Curious George

12:15 - 1:15 p.m.

Old South Church, Mary Norton Hall

Youth Literacy Theatre (ages 4-8)

Teens who make up Hyde Square Task Force's Youth Literacy Theatre perform a series of short and funny plays based on children's books. Then it's the kids’ turn to get in on the act, with acting games and craft projects they can take home! 

2 -3 p.m.

Boston Public Library, McKim Building

Whodunit? Mysteries for Middle-Graders (ages 8-12)

Any story can keep kids turning pages well past bedtime, but mysteries offer readers extra motivation to find out "whodunit"! Discover how authors of recent middle-grade mystery novels create a sense of suspense. Edgar Award winner Peter Abrahams brings a modern-day Robin Hood to life in Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St. Siblings we first met in The Lemonade War investigate the mystery of a missing bell in Jacqueline Davies's The Bell Bandit. And in Phoebe Stone's The Boy on Cinnamon Street, the mystery Louise thinks she's out to solve winds up to be something else altogether. Moderated by Elissa Gershowitz, senior editor of the Horn Book.

3:15 - 4:15 p.m.

Boston Public Library, McKim Building

Read a Mystery, Solve a Mystery (ages 7-12 with adult supervision)

Kids work together with friends, parents, and students from Simmons College to sharpen their detection skills with our hands-on activities. They might dust for fingerprints or be asked to describe a suspect in a crime. They might even catch a counterfeiter or a bank robber! Pretty soon they'll be ready to take your place alongside Sammy Keyes and Encyclopedia Brown!

TEENS:

2 -3 p.m.

Boston Public Library, Abbey Room

YA: Overcoming Adversity

The teenaged protagonists of the books featured in this session confront nearly overwhelming trials. Fern, the heroine of Jo Knowles's See You at Harry's, finds her world turned inside out after a family tragedy. Claire, the protagonist of Kathryn Burak's debut Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things, is nearly paralyzed by grief over her mother's death and her best friend's disappearance. And Jazz, the hero of Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers, must overcome both nature and nurture as he struggles to live a good life despite being the son of a serial killer. Moderator Amy Pattee of Simmons College will lead a discussion about how--and why--YA authors write about adversity. Sponsored by Hachette Book Group.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Old South Church, Sanctuary

Graphic Novels: Drawing the Story

Chris Ware will present Building Stories, described by Publishers Weekly as “the graphic novel of the season or perhaps the year…Ware takes visual storytelling to a new level of both beauty and despair.” Charles Burns will show The Hive, volume two of the highly acclaimed X’d Out comic book. Legendary designer and writer Chip Kidd will present Batman: Death by Design, his architecture-themed Batman comic. And one of the brightest young stars of the genre, Gabrielle Bell, will show The Voyeurs as an opening act for the session. Hosted by writer and critic Eugenia Williamson. Sponsored by the Boston Phoenix.

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.

Church of the Covenant

YA: The Future Is Now

When M. T. Anderson's novel Feed was published 10 years ago, the notion of being constantly connected to the Internet seemed far-fetched. Anderson will lead a discussion with three authors whose books are set in the near future: Rachel Cohn, whose Beta kicks off a new series about cloning; Cory Doctorow, whose Pirate Cinema takes on notions of intellectual property; and Gabrielle Zevin, whose Because It Is My Blood imagines a world where chocolate is illegal and organized crime presides over a world in shambles. We'll try to wrap our heads around the future in this lively session. Sponsored by Simmons College.

SPECIAL FESTIVAL-EVE TICKETED EVENTS

The Boston Book Festival will open its 4^th annual event with a special festival-eve ticketed event: Page to Screen, a panel discussion with authors who have seen their literary work adapted for film. The event will be held Friday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Old South Church (645 Boylston St., Boston). Featuring Buzz Bissinger (Friday Night Lights), Rachel Cohn (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist), Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog), Nick Flynn (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City/Being Flynn), and Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), the panel will be moderated by Wesley Morris, film critic at The Boston Globe. General admission tickets, starting at $15, are available at www.bostonbookfest.org

H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger is among the nation's most honored and distinguished writers. A native of New York City, Buzz is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award, and the National Headliners Award, among others. He also was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is the author of four highly acclaimed nonfiction books: Father's Day, Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City, and Three Nights in August. Friday Night Lights has been adapted into both an Emmy-winning television series and a feature film by the same name. (buzzbissinger.com

Nick Flynn grew up in Scituate, Mass., and attended New York University. He spent six years working at Pine Street Inn. He has published two books of poetry, Some Ether and Blind Huber; a how-to-teach poetry book, A Note Slipped Under the Door (with Shirley Phillips); and two memoirs, Another Bullshit Night In Suck City and The Ticking Is the Bomb. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, The Paris Review, NPR’s This American Life, and The New York Times Book Review. He was a member of the Columbia University Writing Project, which trained teachers and taught writing to young people. He currently teaches one semester a year at University of Houston, and he lives in upstate New York. Another Bullshit Night In Suck City was made into a film called Being Flynn, released by Focus Features in March 2012. His next book, The Reenactments, is due out in January 2013. It chronicles his experience being on set as his very personal story was committed to film.

Daniel Handler is the author of the literary novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs, and, most recently, the young adult novel Why We Broke Up, illustrated by Maira Kalman. Under the name Lemony Snicket he has also written a sequence of books for children, known collectively as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which have sold more than 60 million copies and were the basis of a feature film by the same name. The first volume (entitled "Who Could That Be at this Hour?") in Lemony Snicket's biography, All the Wrong Questions, will be published in Fall 2012. His intricate and witty writing style has won him numerous fans for his critically-acclaimed literary work and his wildly successful children's books. In December 2004, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was released by Paramount Pictures as a feature film starring Jim Carrey.

Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Morris is a film critic at the Boston Globe. Prior to that, he wrote film reviews and essays for the San Francisco Examiner and later at the San Francisco Chronicle. He also wrote for and edited the culture section for Student.Com, a website for college students. He graduated from Yale University in 1997 and grew up in Philadelphia. He now lives in Cambridge.

ABOUT THE BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL

In just four years, the Boston Book Festival has become one of the most anticipated events in the cultural life of the City. Boston Book Festival organizers estimate that about 25,000 people took part in indoor and outdoor 2011 festival activities through the 12-hour day. More than 130 authors and scholars participated in 40 presentations, panels and participatory sessions in various Back Bay venues. The Festival takes advantage of the great architectural treasures in Copley Square, utilizing such venues as Trinity Church, Old South Church, and the Boston Public Library, among others. A street fair in the square features exhibitors and live music throughout the day.

The Boston Book Festival is produced by the nonprofit organization of the same name and is made possible with the generous support of individual donors and sponsors, including Presenting Partner 90.9 WBUR, as well as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the Pearson Foundation, Good Measures, Other Press, Simmons College, Hachette Book Group, Plymouth Rock, Blurb, Inc. (blurb.com

), Akamai, Target, Copley Square Hotel, Back Bay Hotel, Boston Common Hotel and Conference Center, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and NSTAR. For more information, visit www.bostonbookfest.org

Boston Book Festival Partners include Mayor Thomas M. Menino; The Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events; The City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department; ReadBoston; Boston Public Library; the Boston Athenæum; Foundation for Children's Books; First Literacy; Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston; Mass Center for the Book; PEN New England; Grub Street; Prison Book Program; Trinity Church; Old South Church; Church of the Covenant; Boston Children’s Museum; Cambridge Public Library, New Center for Arts and Culture; 826 Boston; Brattle Theatre, Berklee College of Music; Emerson College; Harvard Book Store; Brookline Booksmith; Porter Square Books; Wellesley Booksmith; Trident Booksellers and Café; Independent Film Festival Boston, and Newtonville Books.