March meeting

Poetic Imagery and Narrative Fiction: The Mystery Novel Considered – Charles Coe
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

An engaging mystery novel pulls the reader in with a solid plot and interesting characters. It also conveys a mood that “paints a picture” of the story’s setting. Please join Charles Coe in a conversation about how the writer of narrative fiction can borrow from the poet’s toolbox to help create that mood. We’ll look at and discuss examples of how poetic techniques such as imagery, metaphor, and simile have been used by mystery novelists Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, Sue Grafton, Mickey Spillane and others to enrich and enhance their “created worlds.”

Charles Coe is the author of four books of poetry: All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents, Picnic on the Moon, Memento Mori, and Purgatory Road, all published by Leapfrog Press. Charles Coe: New and Selected Works will be published by Leapfrog in the summer of 2024. He is also author of 2014’s Spin Cycles, a novella published by Gemma Media that tells the story of a homeless man surviving on the streets of Boston.

Charles was a 2017 artist-in-residence for the city of Boston, where he created an oral history project focused on residents of Mission Hill. He has been chosen as a “Literary Light” by the Associates of the Boston Public Library. He is an adjunct professor of English at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and at Bay Path University, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where he teaches in both MFA writing programs. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Boston Chapter of the National Writers Union, a labor union that serves freelance writers.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

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February meeting

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ – David Kruh
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

It is one of America’s great enduring mysteries; what happened to three inmates who, in 1962, escaped from Alcatraz in a raft they constructed inside the prison? In his illustrated talk, writer David Kruh tells the exciting true story of the escape, which was also the inspiration for his novel, Inseparable.

David Kruh is the published author of several books, notably the only two written exclusively about Boston’s erstwhile entertainment district, Scollay Square; Always Something Doing, Boston’s Infamous Scollay Square (Faber and Faber, 1990, updated version Northeastern University Press, 1999) and Scollay Square (Arcadia Publishing, 2004) which is filled with 180 images – including many never before published views in the Old Howard, Casino, and other places in the Square.

David is also the co-author, with his father Louis, of Presidential Landmarks (Hippocrene Press, 1992) and Building Route 128 (Arcadia Publishing, 2003) with Yanni Tsipis. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, History Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Boston Magazine, and elsewhere. A published and produced playwright, his musical about the Boston Red Sox (The Curse of the Bambino) premiered at Boston’s Lyric Stage in 2001 and still ranks among the most successful productions in this equity theater’s history.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

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January meeting

Crime in Boston – Stephanie Schorow and Beverly Ford
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

Stephanie Schorow is an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor, Boston University communications instructor, and the author or co-author of nine nonfiction books on topics such as fires, crime, drinking, and sexual politics, including The Crime of the Century on the infamous 1950s Brinks robbery. See www.stephanieschorow.com.

Beverly Ford, a former police reporter, is a Boston-based journalist and author who has spent more than 20 years as a reporter and freelance writer for The Boston Herald, The New York Daily News, The London Times, The London Mirror, The Irish Times, Access Magazine, Bloomberg News, and other publications. Schorow and Ford co-authored The Boston Mob Guide: Hit Men, Hoodlums & Hideouts.

They will talk about their experience gathering material for the Boston Mob Guide, and Schorow will talk about the Brink’s heist.

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October meeting

RESEARCH TIME – Mathews and Schuman
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Food and conversation at 6:30.
The meeting proper begins at 7.

Jackson Mathews is a Reference Librarian at the Public Library of Brookline. He focuses on coordinating music and science educational programming, as well as helping manage the library’s ideaSPACE 3D printing services.

Emily Schuman is the membership manager at the Boston Athenaeum. As the Athenaeum is a member-supported organization, her focus is on growing and retaining the membership base to ensure a vibrant community and footprint in the cultural landscape of Boston. With a background in medieval art history and museum management, her passion is ensuring cultural institutions become sustainable and accessible for future generations.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

Home


(617-730-2370)

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September meeting

Our meeting on Wednesday, September 13, will be hybrid.

To join us in person:

The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

Home

Food and conversation at 6:30.
The meeting proper begins at 7.

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June meeting

Celebrate!
Wednesday, June 14, 2022
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

It’s our last meeting before the summer break. Come share what you’re writing with the other members by reading a selection of about five minutes.

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May meeting

The Versatility of Crime Fiction – Yulia Mevissen
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

The beginnings of crime narrative are tied to real criminal cases and the judicial system in the 18th and 19th century. Focusing on exemplary works from the history of European crime fiction, the talk discusses the origins of crime fiction as a genre, its enormous versatility, and, in particular, the connection between restoring law and order in a criminological sense and restoring social and moral order.

Yulia Mevissen studied German Philology and History at Humboldt University in Berlin. She completed her doctorate at the Research Training Group “Literary Form. History and Culture of Aesthetic Modeling” at the University of Münster, Germany, and is now a Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Her research interests include: 17th and 18th century poetics and history of knowledge; genre theory; theories of literary emotion; epistolary novels; letter culture; gallantry. She regularly teaches a class on European crime fiction.

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April meeting

Author Idol
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

Send the first two pages of your double-spaced manuscript with your name removed as an attachment to mwane@stephendrogers.com for a chance to have your words read aloud by a professional reader and critiqued by our panel of agents:

Lori Galvin, Aevitas Creative
Michelle Richter, Fuse Literary
Katharine Sands, Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency

Reading will continue until two of the three agents indicate that they would stop reading, after which the agents will discuss their reaction to the pages.

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March meeting

Publishing Trends in 2023 and What to Watch – Jane Friedman
It’s often said that the pandemic has accelerated changes already underway in business, and that’s proven especially true for book publishing. Even though the industry is often considered slow and not as susceptible to technological change (and print just enjoyed its most robust sales in more than a decade), it’s been a transformative time for the business of books. Jane Friedman will discuss current book sales trends in the United States, the rise of BookTok and its importance to book sales, the DOJ vs PRH suit and what we can take away from the 2022 trial, trends in digital audio, and more.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

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