We are pleased to present, as our first Lifelong Learning Keynote, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Tamara Payne, co-author with her late father, Les Payne, of The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. We hope that young adults and their parents tune in together to hear from the author as she is interviewed by Wellesley College history professor Kellie Carter Jackson and Fenway High School senior Jurianny Guerrero. Malcolm X lived for many years in the Nubian Square neighborhood in Roxbury, so his life and times have special resonance for our city. As Kerri Greenridge writes in the Atlantic, “The Dead Are Arising is a meticulously researched, compassionately rendered, and fiercely analytical examination of the radical revolutionary as a human being.” We look forward to a multi-generational audience for this multi-generational session. Sponsored by the Eric and Jane Nord Family Fund.

This fall, Macmillan launched an exciting new YA project, lining up some of the most talented authors for teens to “remix” works of classic literature and reinterpret them through their own cultural lenses, creating culturally relevant YA novels that make those dusty tomes feel brand-new. The first two books in the series have just been released this fall, and we’re pleased to host a conversation with C.B. Lee and Bethany C. Morrow, hosted by Laura Berestecki of the Boston Public Library. Lee’s book, A Clash of Steel, offers a queer re-visioning of Treasure Island centered on two young women and inspired by the legend of Chinese pirate queen Ching Shih. Morrow takes on New England classic Little Women in So Many Beginnings, setting her version in a community of newly freed Black people during the Civil War. Future volumes in the series will take on Wuthering Heights and Robin Hood—what classic works of literature would you want to remix? Sponsored by Simmons University.

Donations made during registration or during the session will go to support the Boston Book Festival's Shelf Help Partnership, providing brand-new books and an author/illustrator visit to Boston-area public schools. This year's recipient schools are Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown and Chelsea High School in Chelsea. Thank you for your support!

Whether you identify as a city kid or an avid naturalist, fascinating birds can be found everywhere! In this session, we’ll hear from Rosemary Mosco, who’s been connecting people to the natural world with her funny (but scientifically accurate!) cartoons for years. In A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching she demystifies these ubiquitous but often misunderstood birds. Ornithologist Stephen W. Kress and photographer Derrick Z. Jackson team up for The Puffin Plan, a beautifully photographed account of reintroducing these gorgeous birds to rocky islands off the coast of Maine. We’ll hear from all these creators and get their ideas for incorporating the natural world into young people’s lives in this session hosted by Jeremy Spool of the Massachusetts Young Birders Club.

Donations made during registration or during the session will go to support the Boston Book Festival's Shelf Help Partnership, providing brand-new books and an author/illustrator visit to Boston-area public schools. This year's recipient schools are Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown and Chelsea High School in Chelsea. Thank you for your support!

Looking for inspiration and empowerment to get involved in political and social action? Your first stop should be this bold and galvanizing session. Kekla Magoon’s Revolution in Our Time, recently longlisted for the National Book Award, offers meticulously researched historical context for today’s Black activist movements, as the author traces the history of the Black Panther Party in a narrative Kirkus calls a “not-to-be-missed story of America’s history and current reality.” In Rise Up! sociologist Crystal M. Fleming inspires readers to take up the cause of anti-racism in their own lives, thoroughly outlining the ongoing lineage of racial injustice and outlining concrete steps young people can take to work toward justice in their own communities. Jamia Wilson’s This Book Is Feminist offers an intersectional framework for understanding the history of feminist movements and for viewing contemporary feminism as the key to overcoming systemic oppression and injustice. If hearing all these inspiring stories of activism has you ready to hit the streets, artivist De Nichols will inspire your revolutionary creativity in her new book Art of Protest. Whether you’re looking to understand how we got here or you’re ready to take on the world, this dynamic conversation, hosted by interviewer Carissa Romain, will offer you a roadmap for your own activist journey. Sponsored by Candlewick Press.

Donations made during registration or during the session will go to support the Boston Book Festival's Shelf Help Partnership, providing brand-new books and an author/illustrator visit to Boston-area public schools. This year's recipient schools are Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown and Chelsea High School in Chelsea. Thank you for your support!

We’re pleased to present a handful of interactive, family-friendly activities in partnership with the Boston Public Library as part of their celebration of the newly remodeled and reopened Roxbury Branch, which recently won an ALA/AIA Library Building Award. These activities are made possible with the support of the Wagner Foundation.

At 1pm, celebrate the new Nubian Square HQ for Boston’s METCO program by taking a Boston Education Activism Tour (BEAT) of Nubian Square. High school students in METCO—the historic voluntary school desegregation program between Boston and the mostly white suburbs—travel between worlds every day when they ride their buses to school and back. Now they want to take everyone on a journey into Boston’s past to uncover the dynamic history of the Black community in Roxbury. These young people will use Nubian Square’s landmarks, from the Dillaway-Thomas House to Hibernian Hall, to uncover the stories of decades of artistry, activism, and achievement. They will introduce you to the brave organizers who envisioned a better world, like Ruth Batson, Ellen Jackson, Melnea Cass, Mel King and more. The tour will culminate at the brand new Nubian Square headquarters of METCO itself, whose founding story has many lessons for today.

Screenwriter and activist George M. Johnson’s 2020 book All Boys Aren’t Blue was a “memoir-manifesto,” offering young people, especially queer Black boys, a testimony of Johnson’s own adolescent experiences blended with reflections on gender identity, consent, toxic masculinity, and Black joy. Their new memoir, We Are Not Broken, is similarly both deeply personal and emphatically universal, as the author explores the close relationships between them, their brother, and their cousins, all growing up under the loving, wise, no-nonsense guidance of their grandmother, known as “Nanny.” Under Nanny’s eye, George and their cousins become aware of racial injustice, George embraces their queer identity . . . and they all grasp on to their abiding, fierce love for one another. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls We Are Not Broken “an intensely emotional, stunning read.” In this keynote session sponsored by Simmons University, Johnson will discuss their memoir with Nicholl Montgomery, a lecturer in children’s literature at Simmons.

Donations made during registration or during the session will go to support the Boston Book Festival's Shelf Help Partnership, providing brand-new books and an author/illustrator visit to Boston-area public schools. This year's recipient schools are Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown and Chelsea High School in Chelsea. Thank you for your support!