Lit Crawl Boston: Full Schedule

On Thursday, October 13th, on the eve of the Boston Book Festival, come celebrate the city’s literary past, present and future at the inaugural Lit Crawl Boston, a night of irreverent literary programming in Boston’s Back Bay. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., intrepid readers will choose from a variety of unique literary events including games, performances, provocations and other oddities, all in surprising venues ranging from cafes and art galleries to barbershops and shoe stores.

This moveable feast in one of the most walkable cities on the planet is FREE, and most of the events will offer free beer and wine.

The Boston Lit Crawl is held in three “Rounds” plus a closing reading at the Central Burying Ground (Boylston and Charles Street). Guests can choose to attend just one event during each Round - 630PM, 730PM, 830PM-- or “crawl” from event to event. The schedule is as follows:

6:30pm EDT

Kidlit Drink Night

Imagine spending time with your favorite children's book characters, all grown up and out on the town. Boston's meetup group for children's authors hosts a mixer with a purpose: Fill out your bingo card by finding characters based on clues from the books that feature them (i.e., "Find someone who enjoys a butterbeer after a hard day at the Ministry"). There will be prizes for the first few to claim "Bingo!" Guests are welcome to sign up to represent their own favorite kid's lit characters. Costumes encouraged (but not required)!

Speakers

Sam Musher

Dianna Sanchez

Dianna Sanchez is the not-so-secret identity of Jenise Aminoff, whose superpower is cooking with small children. She is an MIT alumna, graduate of the 1995 Clarion Workshop and Odyssey Online, active member of SCBWI, and former editor at New Myths magazine. Aside from 18 years... Read More →

Marlena Zapf

Marlena Zapf holds a master's in children's literature from Simmons College, where she was a Virginia Haviland scholar. She worked in educational publishing for years before writing her first picture book, "Underpants Dance." She loves to dance a LOT, play with kids, conduct occasional... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 6:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
Bukowski Tavern 50 Dalton Street, Boston

Fiction Game

6:30pm EDT

AGNI Presents "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?"

Agni is excited to join LitCrawl Boston to present “Whose Line Is it Anyway?,” a hilarious and highbrow night of literature, guessing games, and other foolish fun. Come hang out at the School of Fashion with Agni contributors and watch these authors guess the author of sentences culled from great works. Short readings by the authors will start the night. The event will start at 6:30 sharp.

Moderators

Daniel Evans Pritchard

Editor / Poet / Critic, The Critical Flame

Daniel is a poet, translator, and essayist. He is the founding editor of The Critical Flame (criticalflame.org), an online journal of literary nonfiction, criticism, and interviews. Daniel advises AGNI on digital strategy and serves on the board at Salamander Magazine. His work has... Read More →

Speakers

Nicole Terez Dutton

Nicole Terez Dutton's work has appeared in Callaloo, Ploughshares, 32 Poems, Indiana Review and Salt Hill Journal. Nicole earned an MFA from Brown University and has received fellowships from the Frost Place, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and... Read More →

Carissa Halston

Fiction writer

Carissa Halston is an award-winning fiction writer and omnireader. She's a doctoral candidate studying Critical Race Feminism and surveillance studies. She's androgynous, Syrian, Mvskoke, and queer.

John Hodgen

John Hodgen is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Assumption College in Worcester. Hodgen won the AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry for "Grace" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005). His fourth book of poetry, "Heaven & Earth Holding Company," came out from University of Pittsburgh... Read More →

Laura Kolbe

Laura Kolbe's poems have appeared in The Awl, the Cincinnati Review, the Colorado Review, the Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Yale Review and elsewhere. Her fiction, essays and criticism have appeared in Bookforum, The Literary Review, Virginia Quarterly Review and elsewhere. Recently... Read More →

Marianne Leone

Marianne Leone is an actress, screenwriter and essayist. Her essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Post Road, Bark Magazine, Coastal Living and WBUR’s Cognoscenti blog. Her memoir, JESSE, A MOTHER’S STORY OF GRIEF, GRACE AND EVERYDAY BLISS, was published by Simon & Schuster... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 6:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
School of Fashion Design 136 Newbury Street, Boston

Fiction Game Poetry Reading

6:30pm EDT

826 Boston Presents Trick or Trivia: "Love Letters" Edition

Got an ex-partner, unrequited love, or nightmare relationship haunting you? You’re not alone when you have books! Join us and the many lovesick characters of fiction as we test our literary cred in a game of Spooky Lit Trivia, hosted by Love Letters columnist Meredith Goldstein. We can’t wait to raise a (Franken)stein with you to jilted love!

Moderators

Meredith Goldstein

Meredith Goldstein is an advice columnist and entertainment reporter for The Boston Globe. Her love advice column "Love Letters" appears daily on Boston.com and in the Globe’s print edition every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. Meredith Goldstein is also the author of “The Singles,” published by Penguin/Plume on April 24, 2012... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 6:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
Trident Booksellers & Cafe 338 Newbury Street, Boston

Game

6:30pm EDT

All-Star Poetry + Folk Performance

Don't miss award-winning memoirist/poet Nick Flynn (Another Bullsh*t Night in Suck City) and Boston Poet Laureate Danielle Legros Georges as they read poems with folk duo The Shaker. The Shaker is Simi Stone (The New Pornographers) and Philip Marshall (Killcool). Their first collaboration was written spontaneously—the song “240 Red White & Blue”—a response to the killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge the day before. Since then they have written a dozen songs, and when they perform with the poet Nick Flynn, they are known collectively as Shaker Flynn.

Speakers

Nick Flynn

Nick Flynn is the author of three books of poetry—Some Ether, Blind Huber, and The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands. He is also the author of three memoirs, including The Reenactments, The Ticking is the Bomb, and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which has been translated... Read More →

Danielle Legros Georges

Danielle Legros Georges was born in Haiti and raised in the United States. She received a BA from Emerson College in Boston and an MA in English and creative writing from New York University. She is the author of two poetry collections—The Dear Remote Nearness of You(Barrow Street... Read More →

Artists

Shaker Flynn

The Shaker is Simi Stone (The New Pornographers) and Philip Marshall (Killcool). Their first collaboration was written spontaneously—the song “240 Red White & Blue”—a response to the killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge the day before. Since then they have written a dozen... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 6:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
The Frye Company 284 Newbury Street, Boston

Performance Poetry

7:30pm EDT

Mugshot Musings: A Writing Exercise

You are handed a mugshot of a real person with no details included about who they might have been. You now must create a short description of who they could be. It's up to you to create a backstory. Join Boston Writers' Meetup for this exercise to stretch your word muscles during short writing sessions. At the end of each session, sharing is encouraged, but not required.

Thursday October 13, 2016 7:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
Barbershop Lounge 245 Newbury Street

Fiction Game

7:30pm EDT

Finish Line: A Documentary Play About the 2013 Boston Marathon

Boston Theater Company presents a work-in-progress staged reading of "Finish Line: A Documentary Play About the 2013 Boston Marathon," a story of recovery, resilience, and determination. The show, created verbatim from dozens of interviews, is set for its world premiere in March at the Citi Shubert Theatre.

Artists

Boston Theater Company

Boston Theater Company is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to preserving the messages and historical language of classical scripts while making them accessible for modern audiences. The three prongs of our mission are gender-blind casting, an innovative approach to our texts, and... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 7:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
School of Fashion Design 136 Newbury Street, Boston

Performance

7:30pm EDT

The Here Comes Everybody Players: James Joyce, Performed

The work of James Joyce, one of the most celebrated (but also most inaccessible) authors in English, comes to life with the Here Comes Everybody Players performance of excerpts from "Finnegans Wake" and "Ulysses," complete with audience participation and music. Come and join in the fun! Mind your hats goan in!

Artists

The Here Comes Everybody Players

Boston's Here Comes Everybody Players bring the literary work of James Joyce to the stage for both academic and general audiences. Our performances celebrate the richness of Joyce's unique langauge and bring to vivid life the humor and humanity of his characters and stories. Donal... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 7:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
Goorin Brothers Hat Shop 130 Newbury Street, Boston

Performance

7:30pm EDT

Wheel of Austen Presents A Night of Literary Improv

Much-beloved English author Jane Austen gets the experimental comedy treatment for one madcap night at LitCrawl Boston. Can a young lady tear herself away from her vampire romance novel to catch the eye of a gentleman caller? Will there be zombies? Audiences will seek true love in twisted situations featuring top Boston comedians in period costume. According to ‘Wheel of Austen’ creators, audiences can expect bombastic characters playing with the conventions of Jane Austen in unexpected ways.

All atttendees to this event are eligible for a 20% discount on Frye footwear on the day of the event.

Thursday October 13, 2016 7:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
The Frye Company 284 Newbury Street, Boston

Performance

7:30pm EDT

MassLEAP/Louder than a Bomb Youth Poetry Slam All-Stars

For the past 5 years, MassLEAP has brought together teen poetry performers from across Boston and beyond for an annual poetry contest where "the points are not the point – the point is the poetry." These amazing young voices cross neighborhood, town and city lines, share their original stories, support one another and engage the audience's attention with their dynamic, timely verse. www.massleap.org.

Converse is offering 20 percent off during event hours! (Some restrictions may apply.)

Exhibitors

Alex Charalambides

Amanda Torres

writer & educator

Amanda Torres (AT) is a futurist writer, educator & cultural organizer. The director of the Poetry Foundation’s National Incubator for Community Engaged Poets, as well as the co-founder and former director of MassLEAP, a youth literary organization in Boston, they are a designer... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 7:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
Converse 348 Newbury Street, Boston

Performance Poetry

8:30pm EDT

GrubStreet Presents Exquisite Corpse

GrubStreet presents the Exquisite Corpse. If you’ve never heard of Exquisite Corpse, here’s how it works: One person writes the first few paragraphs. The final line of those paragraphs is sent to the next writer, who continues the story. Then the writers come together to read their collective tale, without knowing where it began or where it will end. The only direction offered for this night’s “corpse": because Halloween is around the corner, make it spooky.

Moderators

Eve Bridburg

Executive Director & Founder, eve@grubstreet.org

Eve Bridburg founded Grub Street in 1997 with the goal of creating a supportive yet rigorous place to study writing beyond the halls of academia. The experiment was a success from the beginning, convincing Eve that there was a great desire in Boston for a literary arts center where... Read More →

Speakers

Jonathan Escoffery

Jonathan Escoffery's writing has been selected to appear in Prairie Schooner, The Caribbean Writer, Passages North, Salt Hill Journal, Solstice, Pangyrus, The Best Emerging Poets of 2013, and elsewhere. His story, "Stripper Pants," was selected as the Editor's Choice pick for Solstice... Read More →

Alden Jones

Author, THE WANTING WAS A WILDERNESS

Alden Jones’s most recent book is The Wanting Was a Wilderness, coming soon from Fiction Advocate. Her story collection, Unaccompanied Minors, won of the New American Fiction Prize, the Lascaux Book Prize, and an Independent Publishers Book Award in Short Fiction. Her memoir, The... Read More →

Eson Kim

Director of Faculty & Fellowships, GrubStreet

I love talking about both fiction and nonfiction--adult and YA. I love all genres but sci-fi holds a special place in my heart.

Ron MacLean

Author, WE MIGHT AS WELL LIGHT SOMETHING ON FIRE

Ron MacLean is author of the story collections We Might as Well Light Something On Fire and Why the Long Face? and the novels Blue Winnetka Skies and Headlong, winner of the 2014 Indie Book Award for Best Mystery. MacLean’s fiction has appeared widely in magazines including GQ... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 8:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Trident Booksellers & Cafe 338 Newbury Street, Boston

Fiction Game Reading

8:30pm EDT

Ploughshares Presents Literary Balderdash

Ploughshares joins the Lit Crawl with a presentation of Literary Balderdash, a game of weird word guessing and derring-do. Players include Chris Castellani, Michael Lowenthal, Nick Flynn, Ted Kehoe, and Suzanne Matson.

Salon Acote will have gift bags and discount offers for all attendees.

Speakers

Christopher Castellani

Author, LEADING MEN

Christopher Castellani's fourth novel, Leading Men, is forthcoming from Viking in February 2019. He is also the author of The Art of Perspective, a collection of essays on point of view in fiction, and three other novels. Christopher works as artistic director of GrubStreet, was a... Read More →

Nick Flynn

Ted Kehoe

Ted Kehoe was a teaching/writing fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His fiction has appeared in Epoch, Southwest Review, Prairie Schooner and Shock Totem. He won Prairie Schooner’s Bernice Slote Award for Best New Author. His criticism has appeared in The Arts Fuse and The... Read More →

Michael Lowenthal

Author, THE PATERNITY TEST

Michael Lowenthal is the author of four novels: The Same Embrace, Avoidance, Charity Girl (a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” and Washington Post “Top Fiction of 2007” pick), and The Paternity Test (an IndieNext List selection and a Lambda Literary Award finalist... Read More →

Suzanne Matson

A 2012 fellow in fiction writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, Suzanne Matson has also received creative writing fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Her most recent novel is The Tree-Sitter, published by... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 8:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Salon Acote 132 Newbury Street, Boston

Game

8:30pm EDT

In the Absence of Sparrows: A Poetic Remembrance of Journalist James Foley

Poet Daniel Johnson pays tribute to American journalist James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2014. In a multi-media presentation, Johnson explores his nearly twenty-year friendship with Foley, while layering poetry over combat footage, still photos, and live music. Johnson’s wife, Ebele Okpokwasili-Johnson, joins him in paying tribute and provides vocal accompaniment.

Speakers

Daniel Johnson

Executive director, Mass Poetry

Daniel Johnson is the author of Shadow Act: an Elegy for Journalist James Foley, which is forthcoming from McSweeney's in August 2023. Shadow Act explores Johnson's nearly 20-year friendship with James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2014. Johnson is also the author of... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 8:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Martha Richardson Fine Art/Robert Klein Gallery/Quidley & Co. 38 Newbury Street, Boston

Poetry

8:30pm EDT

PEN New England Presents "Games People Play: Why Sportswriting Matters"

From Hemingway to Ben Fountain's award-winning "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," the athletic arts have secured a place in American literature that reaches far beyond the box scores. Join our terrific fight card – author/journalists Jay Atkinson, Jaed Coffin and James Parker – as they explain how great sportswriting has inspired their own work.

Speakers

Jay Atkinson

Called "the bard of New England toughness" by Men’s Health magazine, Jay Atkinson has published eight books, including "Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man" and "Ice Time." "Caveman Politics" was a national Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection; "Ice Time" was a Publishers... Read More →

Jaed Coffin

Jaed Coffin is the author of "A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants," a memoir about the summer he spent as a monk in his mother’s native Thailand, and the forthcoming "Roughhouse Friday," which chronicles the year he won the middleweight title of a barroom boxing show in Alaska. He... Read More →

James Parker

James Parker is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and editor of The Pilgrim, which features writing from the homeless community of downtown Boston.

Thursday October 13, 2016 8:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Title Boxing Club 338 Newbury Street, Boston

Reading

8:30pm EDT

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Boston

David Foster Wallace lived in Boston for three years, from 1989-1992, but he wrote about it like an Allston-Brighton lifer. Celebrate maybe the most important American writer of the last 50 years and take a virtual tour through the real-life Boston places and experiences he transformed into the sad, hilarious, and enduring world of his beloved (and sometimes hated!) novel, "Infinite Jest." Pictures, talking, music (recorded) and conversation. We will also invite audience members to read excerpts from some of DFW's finest works!

Speakers

Bill Lattanzi

Bill Lattanzi has worked in film and non-fiction television for over 30 years, as editor, writer and producer. A past Knight Fellow in Science Journalism at M.I.T., Bill is also an award-winning playwright. He’s been writing and talking about Wallace for many years, from the LA... Read More →

Thursday October 13, 2016 8:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Barbershop Lounge 245 Newbury Street

Talk