It’s a weekend filled with presentations and panels featuring internationally-known writers including award-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Susan Minot, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and writer, Geeta Anand, and many, many more. There is also programming for children, teens and families such as storytelling, a costume parade and a puppet showcase; writing seminars and competitions; outdoor booths; and a Berklee stage with spoken word and musical performances. All daytime events are free and open to the public.
Geeta Anand
Wambura Mitaru
The Banner spoke to festival founder and executive director, Deborah Z. Porter about the festival and what’s in store for this weekend.
When you started the Boston Book Festival did you imagine it would get this far?
Deborah Porter: It was hard to imagine I must admit. There was so much we didn’t know. It was a long-time in coming. It took a long time to figure out how to do it. … but it’s now got a lot of momentum at this point.
How have you been able to quickly get some remarkable writers and talent to come to the festival?
DP: I think we got a reputation pretty quickly as being a good festival. It’s a great audience in Boston for books. I think people want to come. It’s a fun event and I think we treat the authors really well and I think word got around. And then it’s a little bit of networking as well and to try to make contact with authors we want to come and persuading them to come.
What made you want to start doing the festival and what was your inspiration behind it?
DP: I was reviewing books for a number of publications and I thought of starting a speakers’ series. I was researching that when someone pointed out that Boston was one of the few major cities in the world without a book festival. So, that’s like a pretty good fit for me; my interest in books and book reviewing.
You have the One City One Story program. Can you tell me a little about how that came about?
DP: I had been reading and talking to people in different cities about their all-city reading programs. I talked to people in Chicago which was one of the first cities to do that. And, about how to pick a book, and libraries buy many copies of the book, and the bookstores all have the book and I thought ‘what could we do to make an all-city read even more accessible to more people?’ I was a subscriber at that point to a magazine called One Story that’s in Brooklyn and every month they send you a short story in a little pamphlet form. I was sitting one day looking at the story that came in the mail and I thought ‘wait a minute this is it’. We’ll do a short story instead of a book. So, that was the beginning of that project.
For someone or a family that may not be internet savvy, how can they participate in something like this?
DP: We distribute 30,000 bound copies all over the city, all over library branches, many Dunkin’ Donuts, and other coffee shops. We distribute many hard copies of the pamphlets One City One Story. We have several thousand in Spanish and we also have downloads in many other languages on the website. So, you don’t have to be web-savvy and we have hard copies all over town.
For kids who may not be into reading as of yet what’s the best way to get them involved in the festival and in reading?
DP: I really believe that kids need to feel that reading is something exciting and that the adults in their lives should do it as well. We have all kinds of things for little kids; story time, characters like Curious George, Corduroy, and Llama Llama. There’s lots for little kids to do. I think bringing them to a book festival is exciting and a big deal for a family to go. I think that encourages kids to love reading and to love books; to see all the people in their lives are excited by this.
What do you want people to feel as they attend and leave the festival?
DP: I hope that people feel inspired and motivated to learn and to read and the culture of literature and ideas and inquiry is something that I’m hoping to foster at the book festival. I’m hoping to get everyone excited that the book festival is coming and that it’s all a celebration of words and reading and ideas.
For a complete list of events and information on the Boston Book Festival, visit www.bostonbookfest.org.
