ANNOUNCING THE 2025 GREAT GROUP READS!
Happy October, Bookwomen! 🍂🎃
With buckets of yellow leaves on the ground and remnants of pumpkin-flavored coffee in every cool breeze, we are officially in the swing of fall. And with the change in weather comes a new season of WNBA-Boston events. Thank you to the small but mighty group that showed out for our September event, Women Writers History Trivia Night at All She Wrote Books in Somerville!
In just one week, we're thrilled to bring back our collaborative event with Emerson College's Writing, Literature, and Publishing department! This year, a panel of four amazing publishing professionals, and our very own Perpetua Cannistraro, will explore what it means to make and sustain a literary community. As a current master's student in Emerson's Publishing & Writing MA program, I'm especially excited to help run the event and participate in the conversation between new and experienced voices in the industry. This event is free, but space is limited! Be sure to RSVP before it sells out again! More info about this event and our upcoming speculative fiction discussion in November can be found below.
Speaking of a literary community, every year, the WNBA receives hundreds of books from publishers for consideration to be included in our annual reading group guide. This year, we received more than 200 books! The books are evaluated by First Readers, which filters out about half. The remaining hundred or so books are passed along to a Selection Committee of about 40 WNBA members from around the country, each reading 25-30 books between March and the end of July. It's a big reading challenge, but all the books are FREE! Join us in February for an event to celebrate these noteworthy books! Learn more about the Great Group Reads HERE!
Lastly, you won't want to miss this year's Boston Book Festival, located in Copley Square from 10 am - 6 pm. With over one hundred authors and a bustling street fair featuring local publishers, bookstores, the Boston Globe, and more, the BBF is the largest literary event in New England! Pop by to see me ushering and mic-ing authors during my volunteer shift in First Church, or say hi to Deborah Norkin at the outdoor Pangyrus literary magazine table. Whether you're a reader, writer, or parent of children who love Arthur, come enjoy this free festival!
That's all for now. Hope to see many smiling faces at our next few events!
Signing off from somewhere in Boston,
Lizzy DiGrande
Communications Chair, WNBA 💓
|
|
|
But first...a website update & new membership link!
|
|
|
CHECK OUT OUR FALL EVENTS!
|
|
|
Tuesday, October 28th, 6-8 p.m.
Bill Bordy Theatre at Emerson College
216 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116
We'll have networking & a panel discussion on:
Making Literary Community: Strategies for Platform-Building and Collective Connection
In today’s literary world, community among writers, readers, booksellers, and publishing professionals is so valuable to us, yet it can sometimes feel so elusive. How do we find that community? Where do we start? What does it really take to foster a strong literary community in 2025?
This panel brings together people working across the industry to explore how we build audience, foster connection, and create platforms that are more than just tools for self-promotion. Whether you’re writing a book, helping promote one, or simply trying to find your voice in the literary space, this conversation will offer tangible ideas for building both your platform and your community among writers, readers, and publishers.
|
|
|
Monday, November 17th @ 7 p.m.
Virtual Event
The Rise of Literary Speculative Fiction!
Most readers have heard of the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and magical realism—but have you heard of “speculative fiction”? It’s an umbrella term that describes stories of all genres that go beyond the ordinary or realistic.
Historically, publishers have viewed these stories more as entertainment instead of craft, but speculative elements permeate many of today’s most popular novels, and writers are increasingly blending the otherworldly—from the paranormal to romantasy to the apocalypse—into their literary fiction. But where do the two categories intersect? Why are writers gravitating toward the speculative? And why do readers find these stories so irresistible?
Join us in November for a virtual conversation with a literary agent, writers, and readers to discuss the rise of the speculative fiction market!
|
|
|
Mark your calendars!
Virtual Member/Author Book Party
Monday, December 8th at 7 p.m.
This is a great opportunity for all the wonderful authors within our membership to showcase their work and connect with a larger community of writers and readers!
Sign-up details available soon!
|
|
|
|
And from another chapter...
|
|
WNBA Mid-Atlantic Hosts:
📚 DIY book festival! 📚
with guest presenter: Dian Seidel
November 11, 2025, 7 PM EST via Zoom
Book festivals are a great way to promote your book and meet both readers and other authors. But participating isn't always easy due to competition for slots, entry fees, and inconvenient locations and times. So what's a writer to do? Build your own! Participants in this workshop will learn how to organize a local book festival and will be given a practically foolproof, step-by-step recipe that minimizes effort and expense and maximizes sales, community, and joy.
 Dian Seidel is the author of Kindergarten at 60: A Memoir of Teaching in Thailand (Apprentice House Press, 2023) and has published short essays and stories in Bethesda Magazine, Washington Family, Pen in Hand, Passager, Halfway Down the Stairs, Lucky Jefferson, Anak Sastra, and The New York Times. She has participated in book festivals in Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts, but had the most fun at the first-ever Town of Chevy Chase Book Festival last April, which she organized. Before turning to writing, Dian was a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She teaches English as a second language and Iyengar yoga in the Washington DC area. www.DianSeidel.com
Register here!
|
|
|
|
Even more exciting news...
|
|
|
The WNBA is excited to be a sponsor for this new writing conference!
TBR is a new writing and publishing conference coming to Cambridge, and WNBA Boston is thrilled to be a sponsor! It’s an all-day event on January 17, 2026. There will be 30 different sessions on writing and publishing, with a party at the end of the day to celebrate all things literary.
Deborah Norkin, WNBA Boston President, spoke with Whitney Scharer, Co-Founder, along with Sonya Larson, about the event.
DN: How did this conference come about?
WS: A couple of years ago, I was out and about at literary events, and everyone I saw seemed to be missing the kind of community we had before Covid. We all got used to being home, and it persisted. But people were hungry to see each other. As writers, we sit at our desks all day and tear our hair out trying to create. We need to be around other people who understand why we do what we do. We need our people!
DN: How did you decide on a format?
WS: About a year ago, we put together a survey and sent it out to the writing community at large. We figured we would get 25 or so responses, but we got over 300. People gave such thoughtful, lengthy answers, which I suppose isn’t surprising given we’re all writers. We created the conference based on what they said they wanted, and it boiled down to two different camps. The first camp was writers who were trying to break in. They’ve got a draft of a book and want to get it published. The other camp was writers who have published a novel or more. They want to know how to stay motivated for the long haul. How do they adapt in a publishing industry that is constantly changing? Many writing conferences focus on beginners. There aren’t as many conferences geared toward established writers. We’re excited to see how these two groups interact and what the energy will be like.
DN: You’re also offering one-on-one sessions with literary agents.
WS: Yes! Our Publishing Matchmaker Program is a brand-new way for writers to meet one-on-one with agents.. Unlike most conference meetings, where writers have to choose which agents they want to meet with, we’ve flipped things around so that the agents do the choosing. Our goal is to produce meetings between agents and writers in which BOTH parties already arrive with verifiable enthusiasm. We hope to greatly reduce going-nowhere meetings that waste everyone’s time and money. The meetings are $195 each, take place on-site and in person for 20 minutes, and the agents will read and comment on twenty pages of the writer’s work, as well as their query and synopsis. Even if you don’t sign with an agent, you’ll get great feedback from someone who is genuinely interested in your work.
DN: We're very excited to be there! Thanks so much to you and Sonya for bringing this event to Cambridge!
Whitney Scharer and Deborah Norkin
|
|
|
|
Stay tuned for details on upcoming events!
|
|
Lesley Bannatyne Begins Her Book Tour for Lake Song!
 Lesley Bannatyne is the 2024 recipient of the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction for Lake Song (Mad Creek Books, 2025). Her debut collection of short stories, Unaccustomed to Grace, was published by Kallisto Gaia Press in 2022. Lesley's fiction and short essays have appeared in Boston Globe, Smithsonian, Christian Science Monitor, and Zone 3, Shooter, Craft, and many other literary magazines. She won the 2018 Bosque Fiction Prize and received the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award for Fiction, and her work has been nominated for the Story Prize, Pushcart, and Best of the Net. As a freelance journalist, she has covered topics ranging from druids in Massachusetts to relief workers in Bolivia. She holds an ALM in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University Extension Studies.
Regarding her book tour, Lesley says: "One of the best things about having a new book is being able to share it and talk about it with people who love to read.  I'm just about to finish up a series of launch events for my new novel in stories, Lake Song, and was thrilled to see folks in so many wonderful indie bookstores in Boston and beyond. Thank you, Porter Square Books (Cambridge), The Next Chapter Books (Quincy, MA), Molly's Bookstore (Melrose, MA), and Buffalo Street Books (Ithaca, NY), all truly remarkable stores with fabulous staff."
Check out her last tour stop at the Arlington Book Fair on November 8th! We're proud of you, Lesley!
Read more about Lesley and her work here.
|
|
|
|
Be featured in a WNBA-Boston newsletter!
Are you an author with an upcoming release or have exciting literary news to share? We want to let the membership know about it! Fill out this form, and we'll be sure to include the details in a future newsletter.
|
|
|
Subscribe to the Bookwoman Newsletter
for news from WNBA National and
information about other chapter events!
|
|
|
Deborah Norkin, PresidentAnnie Stone, Past President
Kelsey Costa, Programs Chair Manager
Taylor McTootle, C.H. Barron, Robin Van Impe, Laurie Hillburn, Program Chairs
Lizzy DiGrande and Kay Rollins, Communications Chairs
Rebecca Blanchfield, Treasurer
Nicole Angeloro, Membership Chair
Lisa Paige, Recording Secretary
Alejandra Loperena and Keera Lydon, Outreach Chairs
Perpetua Cannistraro, Publishing Industry Chair
Lauren Tiedemann, Board Member at Large
Virginia Pye, Board Member at Large
Morgan Hillman, Board Member at Large
|
|
|
|
