Copley Square hosted the 17th annual Boston Book Festival Saturday, Oct. 25, bringing together authors, publishers, and readers for a day of panels and community events.
The festival featured dozens of vendors and presentations across nearby venues, including the Boston Public Library, First Church in Boston and Old South Church. Free and open to the public, the event continues to highlight the city’s literary culture and wide range of voices.
Among the organizations represented were The Writers’ Room of Boston, Mystery Writers of America, and Redivider: A Journal For New Literature. Tents throughout the square offered resources and literary advice, with many giving out bookmarks, tote bags and other small goodies.
Panels ran throughout the day, covering genres like horror, fiction, romance, young-adult and memoir. Tickets were available to purchase for the keynote speaker events, which included bestselling authors Julia Quinn and Andrew Ross Sorkin, as well as author and TV producer Shonda Rhimes, who came to share their stories and advice for the young writers of Boston.
One of the first events, “Horror: The Body as Villain or Hero,” brought together authors Kalynn Bayron, Ryan La Sala and Fin Leary. The discussion was moderated by Katie B. Kohn, a professor at Harvard Extension School’s ALM program in creative writing. The authors discussed the connection between identity and horror, focusing on how the genre can reflect social fears while also creating a space for underrepresented characters.
“Horror asks for your point of view,” said La Sala. “There’s no predetermined idea of what is scary.”
Known for queer-centered horror and fantasy novels, La Sala spoke about his latest book, “The Dead of Summer,” which follows a gay teenager who returns to his hometown during a mysterious contagion. La Sala said horror allows writers to explore transformation and fear in ways that feel both personal and universal.
For Bayron, author of “Cinderella is Dead” and “You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight,” the genre offers an opportunity to reclaim space for queer and Black characters. She said she aims to write stories where readers can see themselves in characters who survive and take control of their own narratives.
“There’s a long history of queer characters and queer-coded characters being villains in movies, not even just horror movies,” she said. “We should be able to take this and challenge it, to explore the full breadth of our humanity.”
Leary, a trans and autistic writer, discussed their debut novel, “These Bodies Ain’t Broken,” which features an agender and disabled protagonist. The character’s story challenges the way horror has historically treated disabled people, reflecting Leary’s goal of challenging the narrative that disabled characters can only be portrayed as helpless victims or villains.
“The scariest thing is ableism and not creating a safe space for marginalized people,” Leary said. “We’ve seen a lot of great movies that serve as a metaphor for disabled people, allowing audiences to feel sympathy for their characters. I just hope that same empathy can be extended to real life.”
Later in the day, the panel “Memoir: The Lifechanging Power of Literature” brought together authors Sarah Chihaya and Nicole Graev Lipson, moderated by author Jessica Keener. The discussion focused on how writing about personal experiences can be both healing and challenging.
Graev Lipson discussed her memoir “Mothers and Other Fictional Characters,” which reflects on motherhood and identity through the lens of literature. She references Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” as one work that helped her explore how women adapt to the roles society expects of them. Opening up about the constant shape-shifting women must undergo during pivotal phases of their lives, Grave Lipson discusses her many identities: from girl to woman to mother.
“I struggled with the feeling of moving through the world as both myself and not myself. Of distinguishing between my real self and the character of a mother,” she said.
Chihaya spoke about her memoir “Bibliophobia,” which examines her relationship with literature and the anxiety that stemmed from turning her passion for reading into a career. Known primarily for academic work, she described the book as a turning point in her career.
“Writing this book felt really cathartic, like a release,” she said. “I tried so hard to fit in with other academic writing, but I finally decided to write what I want and was too afraid to talk about before.”
In “Bibliophobia,” Chihaya writes about how reading and writing had once felt like a wall of safety, but soon began to feel like a prison. Chihaya took this vulnerability and stepped outside of her comfort zone, hoping to reach a community of writers who may relate to her struggles.
“No matter what you write about, there’s someone who will understand you,” she said. “There’s comfort in that, almost, writing for someone else while writing about yourself.”
