Beneath The Surface: Confessions, Guilt and Redemption
Sat., 5/18/13
Dillon Bustin, playwright, folklorist, and singer/songwriter with work published through June Appal Recordings, Indiana University Press, International Journal of Folklore Research, and Encyclopedia of Appalachia; and Artistic Director of Hibernian Hall in Boston.
Linda Hoffman, author, poet, artist, sculptor, and founding editor of Wild Apples, A Journal of Nature, Art and Inquiry.
Pagan Kennedy, author of the novels Confessions of a Memory Eater and Spinsters, and of the non fiction books Black Livingston and The Dangerous Joy Of Doctor Sex and Other True Stories, among many others; winner of a National Endowments for The Arts Fellowship in fiction and a Massachusetts Cultural Counsel; finalist for the Orange Prize, and regular columnist for The New York Times Magazine.
Lauren Slater, author of eight books of both fiction and nonfiction, including The 60,000 Dog: My Life with Animals and Opening Skinner's Box: Great Great Psychological Experiments Of the 20th Century; recipient of a 2004 National Endowments for The Arts fellowship; finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for excellence in science writing; essayist with work regularly featured in The New York Times Magazine, Harpers, Elle, and Self and with eight inclusions in The Best American Essays series.
With guest hosts Laura Vilain and Sarah von Conta
Four Stories
Boston 2013 Opening Night
Telling tales: Stories of secrets, lies, & true confessions
3/5/13
Jennifer Haigh, author of the short story collection News From Heaven and four critically acclaimed novels: Faith, The Condition, Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble; recipient of the PEN/Hemingway and PEN/L.L. Winship awards; and writer with fiction in The Atlantic, Granta, The Best American Short Stories 2012, and many others (MP3).
Michael Lowenthal, author of the novels The Paternity Test, Charity Girl, Avoidance, and The Same Embrace as well as short stories in Tin House, the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, Best New American Voices 2005, and more; writer with nonfiction in publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Boston Magazine, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Out; and recipient of the James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize.
Lauren Slater, author of the books Welcome to My Country, Prozac Diary, Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, Opening Skinner's Box, Blue Beyond Blue, and Love Works Like This; editor of the 2006 edition of Best American Essays; and recipient of 2004 National Endowments for the Arts Award, multiple inclusions in Best American Volumes, and A Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at The Massachusetts Institute For Technology (MP3).
Kaitlin Solimine, winner of the Dzanc Books/Disquiet International Literary Program Award for her forthcoming novel Empire of Glass; former Fulbright fellow; and writer with work in Guernica, Cha, The Hairpin, The World of Chinese Magazine, and more (MP3).
A Four Stories
Boston Most Special Event:
Fundraiser for the Tohoku Region of
Japan, benefiting the children
who were orphaned in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
5/23/11
Andre Dubus III, author of The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and the new memoir, Townie;
recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine
Award for fiction, and The Pushcart Prize; and Finalist for the
Rome Prize Fellowship from the Academy of Arts and Letters (MP3)
Elyssa East, author of Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, winner of the 2010 L. L. Winship/P.E.N. New England Award in non-fiction, a Boston Globe Bestseller, an Editors' Choice selection from The New York Times Book Review,
and a "Must-Read Book" by the Massachusetts Book Awards (MP3)
Elizabeth Searle, author of a new novel due put in the fall, Girl Held in Home, and three previous books of fiction : Celebrities in Disgrace, a novella which was produced as a short film in 2010; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an ALA book award; and a story collection, My Body to You, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize, as well as the theatrical work Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera
(MP3)
Joan Wickersham, author of nonfiction book The Suicide Index, a National Book Award Finalist; the novel The Paper Anniversary; and fiction in Agni, Glimmer Train, The Hudson Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Story, and
The Best American Short Stories (MP3)
Watch the Event on Video!
The bad news: this video only contains
hour one of the event. The good news: we now know how to work
the video camera and will be recording full events from now on!
Plus, we have MP3s from the full event above, listed by each
author's name, so please enjoy!
Four Stories
Boston Special Fall 2010 Season
Finale!
"Who Am I? Tales of Identity, Confusion, and Conflict"
Charles Coe, author of the poetry volume Picnic on
the Moon, as well as poems appearing in a wide variety of
literary journals and magazines; and writer of essays, book
reviews and magazine feature articles
Judah Leblang, writer and storyteller whose
column 'Life in the Slow Lane' appears regularly in Bay
Windows, Boston's weekly gay newspaper, and has been
featured on NPR stations around the US; and author of the
book Finding My Place: One Man's Journey from Cleveland to
Boston and Beyond (hear excerpts from the book at
www.lakeeffectpress.com)
Michael Mack, writer with pieces published in America
magazine, the Beloit Poetry Journal, New York Quarterly,
and Journal of the American Medical Association, and
twice anthologized in Best Catholic Writing; recipient of
the Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for New Theater Works;
and performer whose work has been featured on NPR and in the
Washington Post, Boston Sunday Globe, and Backstage
magazine (more @
www.michaelmacklive.com)
Tracy McArdle, novelist screenwriter, and former
entertainment publicist; author of humorous essays for The
Boston Globe magazine and the comic novels Confessions of
a Nervous Shiksa and Real Women Eat Beef; and regular
contributor to the Carlisle Mosquito and the parenting
blog
Momlogic
Stories from
The Drum, a very cool new literary magazine...for your ears
11/15/10
Ethan Gilsdorf; poet, teacher, critic and journalist
with travel, arts, and pop culture pieces regularly appearing
in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Christian
Science Monitor and more; and author of the book Fantasy Freaks
and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players,
Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, named a
"Must-Read"by the Massachusetts Book Awards (more @
www.ethangilsdorf.com) (MP3)
Lynne Griffin, author of the novels Sea Escape
and Life Without Summer, regular contributor to Boston's
Fox Morning News's segment Family Life Stories, and teacher at
Wheelock College and Grub Street (more @
lynnegriffin.com) (MP3)
Michelle Hoover; teacher of writing at Boston
University and Grub Street; fiction writer with work in
Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, StoryQuarterly,
Prairie Schooner, and Best New American Voices, among
others; former Bread Loaf Writer's Conference scholar, Philip
Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, and MacDowell
fellow; 2005 the winner of the PEN/New England Discovery
Award for Fiction; and author of the new novel Quickening,
which has been shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's 2010
Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize (MP3)
Bret Anthony Johnston, author of the internationally
acclaimed Corpus Christi: Stories and editor of the
bestselling Naming the World and Other Exercises for Creative
Writers, teacher in the Bennington Writing Seminar, and
Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University (more @
www.bretanthonyjohnston.com) (MP3
1,
2, and
3)
With guest host-hottie Faith Salie,
writer, television producer, and Drum contributing editor.
'Til Death Do Us Part: Tales of love and expiration
10/18/10
Alex Beinstein; recent graduate from the University
of Chicago; former radio host for the interview-based show
Tomorrow with Alex Beinstein, featuring interviews with the
Reverend Jesse Jackson, former UN Ambassador John Bolton,
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, and more; and Border's
Bookstore employee extraordinaire (more @
alexbeinstein.com) (MP3)
Dave Dickerson, storyteller in the New York area;
regular on NPR’s This American Life and at shows around
New York City; author of House of Cards: Love, Faith, and
Other Social Expressions,; and video blogger with work @
Greeting Card Emergency (MP3)
Daniel Gewertz, longtime journalist with work in the
Boston Herald, Harvard Magazine, The New York Times, and
more; essayist with pieces in Conclave Journal, North
Shore Magazine, and The Boston Phoenix; writing
instructor who has taught at Lesley University and the Cambridge
Center for Adult Education; member of the performance group The
Roving Raconteurs; and prize-winning storyteller from the
"All-Star MassMouth Story Slam" (MP3)
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, recipient of a 2010
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in nonfiction and the 2009
Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction; writer with essays
and fiction in Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre, Southeast
Review, Connecticut Review, and others; and creative writing
instructor at Boston's Grub Street (more @
www.alexandria-marzano-lesnevich.com) (MP3)
With guest host-hottie
Steve Brykman,
the 2nd funniest guy in the entire universe
Four Stories
Boston Fall 2010 Opening Night!
The Forbidden: Tales of transgressions, secrets, and sins
Steven Beeber, author of the book The
Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk,
editor of the anthology AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless,
associate editor of the literary journal Conduit; and
writer with work in The Paris Review, Fiction, The New York
Times, Bridge, Spin, Maxim, and others (more @
www.jewpunk.com)
(MP3)
Jennifer Haigh, author of the novels The
Condition, Baker Towers , Mrs. Kimble and the
forthcoming The Lost Gospel (August 2011); winner of the
PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction and the PEN L.L. Winship
Award for outstanding book by a New England author; and writer
with short fiction published in Granta, Ploughshares,
The Atlantic, The Saturday Evening Post, and many others (MP3)
Carissa Halston, author of A Girl Named Charlie
Lester (honorably mentioned in the New York Book Festival),
contributing editor of apt, and two-time Pushcart Prize
nominee (MP3)
Randy Ross, writer with articles published in the
Boston Phoenix, the
Boston Herald and more, and former
executive editor at PC World magazine (MP3)
Four Stories
Osaka Special Event & Book
Party, Celebrating the Forthcoming, Award-Winning Book The
Insomniac's Weather Report
6/27/10
Michael H. Fox, criminological researcher, social
activist, and writer with essays and translations in the Japan Times, No. 1 Shimbun, Kansai Time Out, Asian Jewish Life,
and the Asia-Pacific Journal (MP3)
Jessica Goodfellow, author of The Insomniac's
Weather Report, winner of the Three Candles Press First Book
Award, and the award-winning poetry chapbook, A Pilgrim's
Guide to Chaos in the Heartland; recipient of the Chad Walsh
Poetry Prize from The Beloit Poetry Journal; and
four-time Pushcart nominee (MP3,
with event intro)
Joshua Lewis, award-winning editorial cartoon writer;
former freelance writer, photographer, stand-up comedian, and
radio comedy writer in America, including work as a contributing
editor at Louisiana Life magazine; and technical editor
of research papers in Japan (MP3)
Elizabeth McKenzie, author of MacGregor Tells the
World, a San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and
Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Stop That Girl,
a Newsday and Library Journal Best Book of the
Year; and articles in The New York Times, Best American
Nonrequired Reading, Pushcart Prize XXV, and more; and 2010
Japan-US Friendship Commission and National Endowment for the
Arts Creative Artists Exchange Fellow (sorry, no MP3 for this
reader!)
Four Stories
Boston Winter/Spring 2010 Season
Finale!
Me, Myself, and I: Stories of Solitude, Solipsism, and Individuality
5/17/10
Download the MP3
of the full event here including the event intro and
questions for the readers, or get the individual MP3s of each
author's reading below:
Timothy Gager, author of eight books of poetry and
fiction, host of the Dire Literary Series for the past nine
years, and co-founder of The Somerville News Writers Festival (MP3)
Lauren Mackler, author of the international
bestseller Solemate; co-author of the book Speaking of
Success; writer with pieces in London ’s Daily Mail and
Women’s Business; and regular blogger for the Huffington
Post (MP3)
Joanna Smith Rakoff, writer with work in the New
York Times, Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, the
Guardian, and more; and author of the novel, A Fortunate
Age, a Booklist Top Ten Debut Novel of 2009, a New York
Times Editors’ Pick, winner of the Elle Readers’ Prize, an IndieNext Pick, a
San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller, and a
selection of Barnes and Noble’s First Look Book Club (MP3)
Shankar Vedantam, author of The Hidden Brain;
national reporter at The Washington Post; winner of the
Templeton-Cambridge Fellowship on Science and Religion, the
World Health Organization Journalism Fellowship, and the
Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship; and current
Nieman Fellow at Harvard University (MP3)
Plus guest-host-hottie, the funnier-than-anyone
Steve Brykman!
Four Stories
Boston Event:
The Places We Go: Tales of voyage and discovery
3/22/10
Ethan Gilsdorf, journalist, teacher, poet and critic;
writer for the New York Times, Boston Globe and
National Geographic Traveler; author ofFantasy Freaks and
Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players,
Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms
Tara L. Masih, freelance book editor, author of
several chapbooks and Where the Dog Star Never Glows: Stories,
and editor of the acclaimed Rose Metal Press Field Guide to
Writing Flash Fiction
Ladette Randolph, author of the novel A Sandhills
Ballad and the short story collection This Is Not the
Tropics; Editor-in-chief of the journal Ploughshares
; and faculty member in Emerson College's Writing, Literature,
and Publishing department
Jeff Talarigo, author of the novels The
Pearl Diver and The Ginseng Hunter as well as a
novel-in-progress set in Gaza, where he lived on two occasions.
More @
www.jefftalarigo.com
Family Feuds: Stories of Troubled Tribes & Bizarre Bonds, a
celebration of both the opening of the 2010 series & the launch of
Post Road’s 18th issue:
(Cover art by Naoe Suzuki)
1/25/10
Nicole Fix, contributor to Pear Noir! and
Thieves Jargon; recipient of awards and fellowships from
Elizabeth George Foundation, Summer Literary Seminars-Kenya, and
the Drisha Institute; author of the screenplay Toy Fair
and short story "Fish," finalists for The Chesterfield Writer’s
Film Project Fellowship (MP3)
Elizabeth Gonzalez, freelance writer with short
stories appearing or forthcoming in Greensboro Review,
Sycamore Review, and Post Road (MP3)
Natasha Lvovich, Professor of English at the City
University of New York, Kingsborough Community College; author
of the autobiographical essay collection, The Multilingual
Self; and writer with work appearing in Life Writing,
Big.City.Lit, and WHL Review (MP3)
Tom Perrotta, acclaimed author of the novels The
Abstinence Teacher, Little Children, Election, Bad Haircut, The
Wishbones, and Joe College (MP3)
Plus guest host-hottie Mike Rosovsky! (MP3
of event intro)
Check out
pix from the event on Post Road's Flick site, or watch video clips from the event here!
Four Stories
Boston Event:
Accidents Will Happen: Stories of Mistakes, Mishaps, & Screw-Ups
11/16/09
Suzanne Guillette, author of Much to Your Chagrin:
A Memoir of Embarrassment, and essayist with writing in
Time Out New York, Publisher's Weekly, Self, and Tin House
Michelle Hoover, author with work in Prairie
Schooner, Massachusetts Review, Confrontation, and Best
New American Voices 2004, and more; former Philip Roth
Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell; and recipient of a MacDowell
Fellowship the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction;
nominee for the Pushcart Prize; and author of the forthcoming
novel, The Quickening (Spring 2010)
Allan Reeder, former assistant to novelist John
Irving, editor at The Atlantic Monthly, and fiction
editor at DoubleTake Magazine; teacher of young writers
in the Writing & Publishing Program at Walnut Hill; and
recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council
and the Vermont Studio Center
Susan Tepper, author of Deer & Other Stories
and the chapbook Blue Edge, and five-time Pushcart Prize
nominee
As the World Turns: Tales of Changes & Transformations
11/8/09
Thersa Matsuura, author of the short story collection
A Robe of Feathers and Other Stories
Rebecca Otowa, contributor to Kansai Time Out
magazine and Kyoto Journal, and author of At Home in
Japan: A Foreign Woman's Journey of Discovery
Ian Richards, associate professor at Osaka City
University; reviewer of fiction in his own country, New Zealand;
and author of the collection of short stories Everyday Life
in Paradise and the biography To Bed at Noon: The Life
and Art of Maurice Duggan, which was nominated for NZ book
of the year
Tracy Slater, author of essays from Best Women’s
Travel Writing 2008, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Kansai Time
Out, and more; and the Gourmet Girl columnist for Kansai
Scene
Theme: Conspicuous Consumption: Stories of eating, shopping,
spending, taking
10/5/09
Erica Ferencik, award winning writer, screenwriter,
filmmaker and standup comedian; former featured guest on NPR’s
Morning Stories; and author of the novel Cracks in the
Foundation
Ru Freeman, creative and political writer with work
appearing internationally, and author of the novel A
Disobedient Girl
Tracy McArdle, author of Confessions of a Nervous
Shiksa, Real Women Eat Beef, and essays
in Premiere, The Boston Globe, and more; regular
contributor to
Momlogic.com and her own blog,
Getting Some; and teacher of fiction at Grub Street
Amy Yelin, writer with work in the Boston Globe
Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Gettysburg Review,
and Literary Mama; and recipient of a notable essay
mention in the Best American Essays 2007 and an MFA
in creative writing from Lesley University.
Lisa Borders, author of the novel Cloud Cuckoo
Land and contributor to the anthology Don't You
Forget About Me; and teacher of writing at Grub Street (MP3)
Steven Brykman, author and comic with work published
in Playboy.com, Cracked, Nerve, and Awake: a Reader
for the Sleepless; former writing fellow at the University
of Massachusetts; and winner of the Harvey Swados prize for
fiction (MP3)
Tim Horvath, author of the novella Circulation
and stories out or forthcoming in Conjunctions, Fiction,
Puerto del Sol, Alimentum, and elsewhere; and teacher of
creative writing at Chester College of New England and Grub
Street Writers (more @
www.timhorvath.com) (MP3,
also appearing in print in Conjunctions: Hybrid Histories,
issue #53)
Sebastian Stuart, author of the just-released novel
The Hour Between; the New York Times bestselling
novel--and tie-in with the soap opera All My Children--Charm!
by Kendall Hart; and the novel 24-Karat Kids (written
with Dr. Judy Goldstein) (MP3)
Four Stories
Osaka
event:
Dazed and Confused: Stories of uncertainty
5/24/09
Sally McLaren, Kyoto-based writer, editor, translator
and media researcher with pieces in both domestic and
international media, including The Japan Times, The
Independent, Kyoto Journal, Kansai Time Out, Brutus, and
The Rough Guide to Japan
Paul Morrison, widely published author, visiting
scholar in American Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, and
chair of the English & American Literature Department at
Brandeis University
Jane Singer, contributor to the Asahi
International Herald Tribune, Kansai Time Out, and
other English-language publications
Sorry: no pix or MP3s for this event
Four Stories Boston
Event:
"Love and Madness: Tales of the things we'll do"
No pix for this event, but to see the scene at other Four Stories
events, visit the Four Stories Flickr Web site
4/13/09
Jamie Cat Callan, creator of The Writers Toolbox
from Chronicle Books and author of the new book French Women
Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love (MP3)
Chris Castellani, author of the novels A Kiss From
Maddalena, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for
Fiction, and The Saint of Lost Things; and Artistic
Director of
Grub Street (MP3)
Diana Spechler, author of the novel Who By Fire
and fiction in Glimmer Train Stories, Moment, Lilith, and
elsewhere (no MP3 for this reader due to due recorder error)
Patrick Tracey, author of Stalking Irish Madness:
Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia, named
to the Indie Next list and by Slate magazine as one of
"the best books of 2008," and winner of the Ken Book Award (TBA)
from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the PEN New
England L.L. Winship Non-fiction prize (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Tokyo
Event:
"Love and Lust: Tales of the ties that bind"
3/5/09
Elaine Lies, 20-year resident of Japan; correspondent
at Thomson Reuters News agency; fiction writer with stories in
the anthology of expat literature Faces in the Crowd
and the magazine Wingspan; and three-time award winner of
the Wingspan/ANA fiction contest (MP3,
with event intro)
Karen McGee, poet and writer with an MA in creative
writing and work in Jabberwocky Review, Earth's Daughters
and Sleepy Tree, Book II; and author with online work
from Blade Publishing (written under the pen name Vera Lane)(MP3)
Shogo Oketani, former Tokyo-based journalist; author
of the poetry collection Cold River and a collection of
linked stories, J-Boys,(translated by Avery Udagawa); and
recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the
Translation
of Japanese Literature (MP3)
Ann Slater, longtime Tokyo resident and Associate
Professor of American Literature at Japan Women's University;
author whose stories have appeared in journals and in
American Dragons, an anthology of work by Asian-American
writers; translator of a novella by Cuban writer Reinaldo
Arenas, published in Old Rosa: A Novel in Two Stories (no
MP3 available)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
"Body Parts: Tales of the head, the heart, and everything in
between"
Sorry--No pix for this event
1/26/09
Jaime Clarke, author of the novel We're So Famous,;
editor of Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on
the Films of John Hughes; cofounder of Post Road, a
national literary magazine based out of New York and Boston;
host of Talk Show, a monthly writers' roundtable at
Fanzine.com,
and co-owner of Newtonville Books (MP3)
Jeannie Greeley, relationship and humor columnist for
Boston's Stuff@Night magazine; writer with work in the
Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, Bay Windows, MTV's
LOGO; and former guest on the Matty in the Morning
Show and WFNX's 'One in Ten' program (MP3)
Ron Maclean, fiction writer with pieces in GQ,
Greensboro Review, Prism International , Night Train and other
quarterlies; recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short
Fiction and recurring Pushcart Prize nominee; author of the
novel Blue Winnetka Skies and the just-released
short-story collection Why the Long Face?; and former executive director and
current instructor at Grub Street (MP3)
Terri Trespicio , senior editor at Body+Soul
magazine; regular contributor to the Coupling column in the
Boston Globe magazine and other local and national media;
and essayist with work in Best Women's Travel Writing 2008.
More @
trespicio.com. (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Osaka event:
"Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Stories of being lost or found"
12/7/08
Peter Mallett, Longtime Japan resident and essayist
widely published in newspapers and magazines in Japan, the UK
and US; former Arts Editor of Kansai Time Out; founder
and former editor for the journal Artspace; and recipient
of an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Bath Spa (MP3)
Wendy Jones Nakanishi, Professor of English
Literature at Shikoku Gakuin University; author of essays from
Kyoto Journal, Tales from a Small Planet, and
more; and recipient of a PhD in English from Edinburgh
University (MP3)
Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder and writer who
divides her time between Boston and Osaka; lecturer in writing
at Boston University; author of essays from Best Women’s
Travel Writing 2008, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Kansai Time
Out, and more; columnist for the Asahi Weekly and
Kansai Scene; and recipient of a PhD in English and American
literature from Brandeis University (MP3)
Ted Taylor, Writer and musician living in Kyoto,
whose work has appeared in Kyoto Journal and more; and
winner of the 1999 Kyoto International Cultural Association
Essay Contest (MP3,
with event intro)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston
event:
Saints and Sinners: Stories of temptation, seduction, and redemption
11/3/08
Rebecca Goldstein, author of eight books, including
the bestselling The Mind-Body Problem and the
prize-winning Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us
Modernity; and recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Prize
(MP3)
Robin Lippincott, author of the novels In the
Meantime, Our Arcadia, and Mr. Dalloway, and the
story collection The Real, True Angel, as well as
fiction/nonfiction in Paris Review, Fence, American Short
Fiction, Memorious, The Literary Review, and others;
recipient of fellowships to Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony; and
teacher of writing in Spalding's brief-residency MFA Writing
Program and at Harvard University. (MP3,
with event intro)
Joseph Olshan, award-winning author of the novels
Clara's Heart, The Conversion, Nightswimmer, Vanitas, The
Waterline, A Warmer Season, The Sound of Heaven, and In
Clara's Hands; and essayist with pieces in the New York
Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Times,
The Guardian , The Independent , The Washington
Post,The Chicago Tribune, and more. (MP3)
Scott Pomfret, author of Since My Last Confession,
the Romentics gay romance novels series, The Q Guide
to Wine and Cocktails, and short stories in Post Road,
New Orleans Review, Fiction International, and other places.
More @
www.scottpomfret.com. (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston Event:
The Big Trip: Stories of growing up, messing up, and everything
along the way
10/19/08
Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog,
an Oprah's Book Club selection and finalist for the National
Book Award; Bluesman; The Cage Keeper and Other
Stories; and more (MP3)
Margot Livesey, author of the novels Homework,
Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing
Verona and The House on Fortune Street; recipient of
fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the
Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation and the Canada Council for the
Arts; and current distinguished writer in residence at Emerson
College and the John F. and Dorothy H. Magee writer in residence
at Bowdoin College (MP3)
Two writers-to-watch from
Grub Street's YAWP Teen Writing Fellowship, Ali Dokus (MP3,
with event intro) and Sarah Berman (MP3)
Two young up-and-coming authors from Beacon Academy,
Myjah Snate (MP3) and Cristina Hughes (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston
Event:
Friends and Strangers: Stories of the people we meet
9/8/08
Steve Almond, Pushcart Prize winner, National
Magazine Award finalist, writer twice featured in the Best
American series; and author of the books Candy Freak and
Not That You Asked . More @
www.stevenalmond.com (MP3)
Ethan Gilsdorf, poet, journalist, critic and essayist
for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and
the Boston Globe, with poems published in Poetry, The
Southern Review and Poetry London; author of the book Escape
Artists: Travels through the Worlds of Role Playing Freaks,
Online Gaming Geeks, Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms
(forthcoming 2009) (MP3)
Felicia Sullivan, author of the new memoir The Sky
Isn’t Visible from Here. More @
www.feliciasullivan.com (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Osaka Event:
"Life among the Locals: Tales of expat writers in Japan"
6/15/08
Hans Brinckmann, Dutch-born ex-banker living in Tokyo
and London, and the author of The Magatama Doodle, Noon
Elusive, The Ballad of Hope Hill, and the forthcoming
Showa Japan. (MP3)
Deborah Iwabuchi, translator, author and long-time
Japan Resident who has translated Crossfire (with Anna
Isozaki) and Devil’s Whisper by Miyabe Miyuki, Beyond
the Blossoming Fields (with Anna Isozaki) by Junichi
Watanabe, Translucent Tree by Nobuko Takagi, Love From
the Depths (with Kazuko Enda) by Tomihiro Hoshino, and
others. (MP3)
Sarah Mulvey, instructor at Nanzan University in Nagoya
and candidate for a Masters in Creative Writing (U. of
Lancaster), where her thesis is "One Way to Tokyo - Experiences
of Western Women in Japan." (MP3)
Owen Schaefer, Canadian writer living in Tokyo with
work appearing in the expatriate anthology Jungle Crows,
Dimsum Literary Journal, the Tokyo Advocate, and
McGill Street Magazine; and winner of the New Brunswick
Writers' Federation prize for poetry. (MP3
[with event intro])
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston Event:
On Your Marks, Get Set: Stories of going
5/19/08
Alden Jones, Bread Loaf Scholar, Emerson College
faculty member, and recent visiting professor of English on
Semester at Sea, whose short stories and essays have appeared in
AGNI, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, Time Out New York,
Gulf Coast, Best American Travel Writing, and elsewhere (MP3)
Michael Palmer, M.D., associate director of the
Massachusetts Medical Society's physician health program and
author of The Fifth Vial, The Society, Fatal, The Patient,
Miracle Cure, Critical Judgment, Silent Treatment, Natural Causes,
Extreme Measures, Flashback, Side Effects, The Sisterhood, and
the recent New York Times Best Seller, The First Patient
(MP3)
Jon Papernick, author of the novels The Ascent of
Eli Israel and Who by Fire, Who
by Blood, and teacher of fiction writing at Emerson College (MP3,
with event intro)
Ted Weesner, Jr., author of fiction selected as a Best
American Notable and published in Ploughshares, The Cincinnati
Review, and elsewhere; and recipient of the PEN/New
England Discovery Award, a MacDowell Colony residency, and
Somerville Arts Council grant (MP3)
Jennifer Cook, assistant professor of English at
Bentley College; author of Machine and Metaphor: The Ethics of
Language in American Realism; and essayist with pieces in
Best Women's Travel Writing 2007 and 2008
Susan Freireich, recipient of the 1998 Frances Shaw
Fellowship from The Ragdale Foundation and the 2005 Mildren
Sherrod Bissinger Memorial Endowed Fellowship at the Djerassi
Resident Artists Program; and author with work in Poetic Voices
Without Borders, The Best Women's Travel Writing 2007
and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008
Kathleen Spivack, author of Moments of Past Happiness
and five other books of prose and poetry, as well as work
appearing in over 300 magazines and anthologies, including
Best Travel Writing, Best Women's Travel Writing, Atlantic
Monthly, & the Harvard Review; and nominee for the Pulitzer
Prize
Kate Wheeler, author of the novel When Mountains
Walked and the short story collection Not Where I Started
From; essayist with work in Best American Short Stories
1992 and Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008, among
others; recipient of the Pushcart Prize and two O. Henry Awards
Sorry, no MP3s from this event! But you can still
check out the scene at the Four Stories Flickr Web site.
Four Stories Boston
Event
Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Tales of appearing & disappearing
3/31/08
Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the
forthcoming We Disappear; and winner of fellowships to the
London Arts Board and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (MP3
[with event intro])
Alison Lobron, essayist and feature writer for the
Boston Globe Sunday Magazine (MP3)
John Sedgwick, author of seven books, including two
novels and, most recently, a multi-generational family memoir,
In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American
Family; and journalist with over 500 magazine stories for
Newsweek, GQ, the Atlantic Monthly, and many others (MP3)
Laura Van den Berg, editor-in-chief of Redivider;
Ploughshares staff member; writer with fiction published
(or forthcoming) in The Indiana Review, The Literary Review,
American Short Fiction, One Story, and StoryQuarterly,
among others; and recipient of the 2007 Dzanc Prize (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Tokyo
Event
Sight, Taste, Touch: Tales of the senses
1/31/08
Leza Lowitz, author of over 12 books of fiction, poetry
and translation; winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and PEN
Josephine Miles Poetry Award; and NEA Fellowship recipient. More @ www.lezalowitz.com.
(MP3)
Mark Robinson, author of the book Izakaya: The
Japanese Pub Cookbook; editor of the Japanese culinary
magazine Eat; deputy editor and music editor of Tokyo
Journal magazine; and food and culture contributor
to publications such as Nest (U.S.), the
Financial Times, The Times (U.K.), the Australian Financial
Review Magazine, and others. (MP3)
Ted Taylor, writer and musician living in Kyoto, whose
work has appeared in Kyoto Journal and more; winner of the
1999 Kyoto International Cultural Association Essay Contest. More
@
http://notesfromthenog.blogspot.com. (MP3)
Hillel Wright, author of Rotary Sushi, a collection
of stories, and two novels, All Worldly Pursuits and the
recently released Border Town; winner of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation Best "Postcard" Story and Japanzine Magazine
Best Short Story; and nominee for the Pushcart and Journey
(Best Canadian Stories) prizes. (MP3,
w/event intro)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Osaka
Event
In/Out: Stories of being inside, outside, or somewhere
in between
12/16/07
Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, author of Skin Museum and
Aquiline; poet, essayist and associate professor at a national
university in Japan, whose work has been featured in New
American Writing, ACM, Tinfish, 580 Split, Otoliths, One Less,
and numerous other literary journals, anthologies and zines.
Chris Page, editor of Kansai Scene
magazine; author of the novel Weed; and
writer of short stories and articles in The London Magazine,
The London News Review, and more
Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories
Japan founder; teacher of writing and literature in Boston
University's Prison Education Program; author of essays in or
forthcoming from Best Women's Travel Writing 2008, The
Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai Time Out; and Asahi
Weekly, and founder and writer of Kansai Scene's
monthly "Gourmet
Girl" column
The Bitter End: Stories of loss, endings, and final acts
12/3/07
Jeremiah Healy, Harvard Law School graduate; creator
of the John Francis Cuddy private-investigator series and (under
the pseudonym “Terry Devane”) the Mairead O’Clare legal-thriller
series; author of eighteen novels and over sixty short stories,
sixteen of which works have won or been nominated for the Shamus
Award; and past-president of the International Association of
Crime Writers
Drew Johnson, author of stories from Harper's,
the Virginia Quarterly Review, and StoryQuarterly
Julia Glass, author of the novels Three Junes,
winner of the 2002 National Book Award, and The Whole World
Over; as well as a forthcoming story collection (appearing
Sept. '08)
Joan Wickersham, writer of fiction from The Hudson
Review, Story, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, and The Best
American Short Stories; and author of the novel The Paper
Anniversary and the forthcoming memoir The Suicide Index
Curious Stories: Tales of exploration, experimentation, and
questioning
11/5/07
Steve Almond, Pushcart Prize winner, National Magazine
Award finalist, writer twice featured in the Best American
series; and author of the books Candy Freak and Not That
You Asked More @
www.stevenalmond.com (MP3)
Lisa Genova, writer with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from
Harvard University; author of the book Still Alice; member of the
Dementia Advocacy and Support Network International and
DementiaUSA; and blogger for National Alzheimer's Association
Voice Open
Move blog. More @
www.stillalice.com. (MP3,
including event intro)
Ken Shulman, veteran journalist, radio
producer, and frequent contributor to The New York Times,
Newsweek, Metropolis, Surface, and National Public Radio (MP3)
Grace Talusan, teacher of writing at the awesome
Grub Street
and Tufts University, and writer whose latest publication appears
in Creative Nonfiction. More @
www.gracetalusan.com. (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston Event:
Love and Money: Tales of making it, having it, and losing it
10/1/07
Kris Frieswick, former senior writer at CFO magazine
and humor writer for the Phoenix newspapers; and author
with essays in the Economist, Boston Magazine, The Boston
Globe Sunday Magazine, and MSN Money(MP3)
Michael Lowenthal, writer named one of
"Best New American Voices" of 2005, and author of the critically
acclaimed novel Charity Girl, among others. More @
www.MichaelLowenthal.com(MP3)
Hank Phillippi Ryan, investigative reporter for
Boston's NBC affiliate; winner of 24 EMMYs and dozens of other
regional, national and international honors for her hard-hitting
investigations; and author of the Boston Globe best-selling
mystery novel Prime Time, and Face Time (forthcoming Oct. 9 '07).
More @
www.hankphillippiryan.com(MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston Event:
Emails from the Edge: 21st Century Tales of Far-Away Places
9/10/07
Ethan Gilsdorf, travel writer, poet, journalist and
essayist with work in The New York Times, National Geographic
Traveler, The Washington Post, Boston Globe and Fodor’s;
poems in Poetry, The Southern Review,Exquisite Corpse, and
anthologies Future Welcome, Short Fuse and Outsiders;
and teacher at Boston's Grub Street. More @
www.ethangilsdorf.com (MP3)
Michelle Hoover, a Best New American Voices
author and winner of Pen-New England's Emerging Writer Award (MP3)
Roland Kelts, Lecturer at the University of Tokyo;
co-editor of the New York-based literary journal A Public Space;
author of
JapanAmerica; and writer with work in Zoetrope,
Playboy, Doubletake, Salon, The Village Voice, Newsday,
Cosmopolitan, Vogue and The Japan Times (MP3
[including event intro])
Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories
Japan founder; teacher of writing and literature at Boston
University; and author of essays and reviews from The Chronicle
Review, Post Road, Kansai Time Out, Asahi Weekly, and more (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Osaka Event
Living on the Edge: Tales of tempting fate, taking risks, and breaking
boundaries
7/29/07
Tom Bradley, author of seven novels, including
Acting Alone (Browntrout Books, San Franciscio), Fission
Among the Fanatics (Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC) and Lemur
(Raw Dog Screaming Press); Essayist with pieces in Salon.com,
Poets & Writers Magazine and elsewhere. More at
http://tombradley.org (MP3)
Johannes Schonherr, author Trashfilm Roadshows: Off
the Beaten Track with Subversive Movies (Headpress, 2002) and
Permanent State of War: A Short History of North Korean Cinema,
from the anthology Film Out of Bounds (McFarland, July
2007); and freelance writer living in Beppu, Kyushu (MP3)
Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories
Japan founder; teacher of writing and literature in Boston
University's Prison Education Program; and author of essays and
reviews from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai TimeOut,, Asahi Weekly, and more (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Osaka
Event:
East and West: Tales from two hemispheres
6/17/07
Juliet Winters Carpenter, Kyoto professor; acclaimed
translator of Ryotaro Shiba's The Last Shogun, Kobo Abe's
Beyond the Curve, and Miyuki Miyabe's Shadow Family;
and author of Seeing Kyoto (MP3)
Jessica Goodfellow, author of A Pilgrim’s Guide to
Chaos in the Heartland; recipient of the Chad Walsh Poetry
Prize from The Beloit Poetry Journal and three-time Pushcart
nominee, with work featured in Best New Poets 2006 and on
Garrison Keillor’s NPR program The Writer’s Almanac (MP3
[including event intro])
Roland Kelts, Lecturer at the University of Tokyo;
co-editor of the New York-based literary journal A Public
Space; author of JapanAmerica; and writer with work in
Zoetrope, Playboy, Doubletake, Salon, The Village Voice,
Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and The Japan Times (MP3)
Lou Rowan, author of the story collection Sweet
Potatoes and critical essays in The English Studies Forum
and The Review of Contemporary Fiction, and editor of the Seattle-based journal
Golden Handcuffs Review (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
Personal Space: Stories of distance, collision, and place
5/14/07
Tim Horvath, MFA recipient in Fiction from
University of New Hampshire 2007; winner of the Raymond Carver
Award and the Prize of the Society for the Study of the Short
Story; nominee for the 2007 Pushcart Prize; writer with work published
or forthcoming in Carve, pacificREVIEW, Sein und Werden,
Seventh Quark, The Abiko Annual, Cranky, Eclectica, Drumlummon
Views, and SleepingFish, and poetry editor for
Entelechy. More at
www.timhorvath.com
Tehila Lieberman, author of fiction and non fiction
published in Salon.com, Nimrod, the Colorado
Review, and Salamander; winner of the Stanley Elkin
Memorial and Rick Dimarinis Prizes for Fiction; and nominee for
the Pushcart Prize
Jean Trounstine, author of Shakespeare Behind Bars:
The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, about her 10 years
directing plays at Framingham Prison; co-author of Finding A
Voice, about the internationally acclaimed program for
offenders "Changing Lives through Literature"; and co-editor of
the Boston best-seller Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their
Hearts Out On Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes
David Wildman, Arts Editor and chief film critic for Boston's coolest
and funniest paper, the Weekly Dig, and author of the
The Book of Enemy
Sorry–sadly, theMP3s for this event did not come
out right. But you can still
peruse the event pics from our Flickr site and catch the scene
that way instead!
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
Dark Matter: Stories of science, discovery, and the unknown
4/23/07
Allegra Goodman, author of the books Total
Immersion, The Family Markowitz, Kaaterskill Fall, Paradise
Park, and Intuition; recipient of a Whiting Award and
the Salon magazine award for fiction; and named one of 20
best writers under 40 by New Yorker magazine (MP3
[including event intro])
Perri Klass, practicing pediatrician; acclaimed
author of fiction and nonfiction such as Love and Modern
Medicine and Recombinations; prize-winning journalist;
and medical director of the national literacy program
Reach
Out and Read (MP3)
Alan Lightman, PhD recipient in theoretical physics
from the California Institute of Technology; Adjunct Professor of
Humanities at MIT; writer of essays in The American Scholar,
The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, Granta, Harper's, The New Yorker,
The New York Times, Smithsonian, Story, and more;
award-winning author of Einstein's Dreams, The Good Benito,
Dance for Two, and The Diagnosis; and founder of the
Harpswell Foundation (MP3)
Sven Birkerts (event moderator), Editor of AGNI; author of six
books, including An Artificial Wilderness: Essays on 20th
Century Literature, The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of
Reading in an Electronic Age, and My Sky Blue Trades:
Growing Up Counter in a Contrary Time; and recipient of a PEN
Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award and a Guggenheim Foundation grant
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Boston
Spring '07 Season Opening Night:
The Seven Deadly Sins: Stories of vice and scandal
4/9/07
Lawrence Douglas, author of the novel The
Catastrophist, named one of the 25 best books of 2006 by
Kirkus; essayist with work in the New Yorker, the
Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, the New York Times Book
Review, Tikkun, and more; expert on international war
crimes trials; and Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social
Thought at Amherst College
Hank Phillippi Ryan, investigative reporter for
Boston's NBC affiliate; winner of 24 EMMYs and dozens of other
regional, national and international honors for her hard-hitting
investigations; and author of the mystery novel Prime Time
(forthcoming June '07) and Face Time (forthcoming Oct. '07)
More @
www.hankphillippiryan.com
Andrew McAleer, Professor of Crime Fiction and
Espionage at Boston College, and author of Appearance of Counsel,
Double Endorsement, Bait and Switch, and the number 1
best-seller, Mystery Writing in a Nutshell (www.Crimestalkers.com)
Luke Salisbury, Professor of English at Bunker Hill
Community College; co-director of the Commonwealth Honors Program;
and author of The Answer Is Baseball–called
the best baseball book of 1989 by the Chicago Tribune–and
three works of fiction, The Cleveland Indian, Blue Eden
and the multiple award-winning Hollywood & Sunset
No MP3s for this event–Sorry!
Four Stories
Osaka Event:
Striking out: Stories of failure, desperation, and loss
3/18/07
Jerry Gordon, co-founder of
Reading Words Osaka; author of Language Unfitting,
Armageddon's Garden, Fully Formed Failure (CD) and, most
recently, Milagro and You; and producer of the
spoken-word CD Kansai Poets Vol. 1 (MP3
[including event intro])
Suzanne Kamata, editor of anthology The Broken
Bridge and the journal Yomimono; author of River of
Dolls and the forthcoming novel Losing Kei; and writer
of fiction and nonfiction appearing in Utne Reader, Kyoto
Journal, and more (MP3
)
Chris Page, editor of Kansai Scene
;
author of the novel Weed; and writer of short stories and
articles in The London Magazine, The London News Review,
and more (MP3)
Holly Thompson, professor of creative writing at
Yokohama City University; Regional Advisor of the Tokyo chapter of
the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; and author of the novel Ash and
articles and short stories from Wingspan, The Broken Bridge,
and more (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Growing Pains: Stories of
adolescence, growing up, and breaking all the rules
2./15/07
Leza Lowitz, author of over 12 books of fiction and
poetry; winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and PEN
Josephine Miles Poetry Award; and NEA Fellowship recipient (www.lezalowitz.com)
(MP3)
Donald Richie, author of over 30 books, including the
acclaimed The Inland Sea and The Donald Richie Reader;
ex-curator of film at the New York Museum of Modern Art; and
leading Western authority on Japanese film (MP3)
Eric Shade, author of Eyesores and winner of the
Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (www.ericshade.net)
Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories
Japan founder, teacher of writing and literature in Boston
University's Prison Education Program, and author of essays from
The Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai TimeOut,
and more (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
John Eidswick, author of stories in Adirondack
Review, Amarillo Bay, and Babel, as well as the
novel-in-process The Language of Bears (MP3)
Jessica Goodfellow, prose writer and poet with work featured
in The Beloit Poetry Journal, DIAGRAM, RATTLE, Best New Poets
2006, and other journals; recipient of the 2004 Chad Walsh
Poetry Prize from The Beloit Poetry Journal and the Linda Julian
Essay Award from the Emrys Foundation; three-time nominee for
the Pushcart Prize; and author of the new chapbook
A Pilgrim’s Guide to Chaos in the Heartland (MP3)
Michael Hoffman, author of 4 books of fiction, most recently
Nectar Fragments and The Coat that Covers Him; co-author
of Tabloid Tokyo; freelance journalist and translator;
and contributor to the Japan Times' weekly Tokyo Confidential
feature (www.michaelhoffman.squarespace.com)
(MP3)
Hillel Wright, author of Rotary Sushi, a collection
of stories, and two novels, All Worldly Pursuits and the
recently released Border Town; winner of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation Best "Postcard" Story and Japanzine Magazine
Best Short Story; and nominee for the Pushcart and Journey
(Best Canadian Stories) prizes (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Peter Brown, author of work from Harvard Review, Post
Road, Salamander, The new renaissance and elsewhere; 2006
recipient of the Mass. Cultural Council Artist's Fellowship Grant
and finalist for the Bakeless Prize; and 2003 nominee for the
Pushcart Prize
Jennifer M. Ivers, essayist and editor; instructor of
English at Brandeis University's Transitional Year Program; and
author of the book Information and Meaning and the
memoir-in-process Welcome to the Desert
Bret Anthony Johnston, Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in
Fiction at Harvard; author of the internationally acclaimed Corpus
Christie: Stories, as well as work from The Paris Review, Oxford
American, Tin House, and numerous anthologies; and winner of the
Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Christopher Isherwood
Prize, and the Southern Review's Annual Short Fiction Award (www.bretanthonyjohnston.com)
Katherine Vaz,Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in creative
writing at Harvard University; 2006-7 Fellow of the Radcliffe
Institute; and author of the critically acclaimed novel Saudadea
Barnes & Nobles Discover Great New Writers series, Marianaa
U.S. Library of Congress Top 30 International Books of 1998 pick,
and Fado & Other Storieswinner of the 1997 Drue
Heinz Literature Prize
Friends, Family, and
Foes: Tales of the ties that bind
11/13/06
Elisabeth Brink, author of the comic novel Save Your
Own, a Booksense Notable Book for July 2006, and teacher of
writing and literature at Boston College, Tufts, and Harvard (MP3
[with event intro])
Jessica Berger Gross, editor of the forthcoming
anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage,
Healing, and Hope (January 2007), columnist on the Literary
Mama online magazine, and teacher of writing at the Harvard
Extension School (MP3
)
Tracy McArdle, author of Confessions of a Nervous
Shiksa, the forthcoming Real Women Eat Beef, and essays
in Premiere and The Boston Globe (MP3)
Karen Propp, co-editor of bestselling anthology Why
I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss,
Sex, and Who Does The Dishes; author of the memoirs
In Sickness & In Health and The Pregnancy Project;
writer of nonfiction in Prevention, Salon.com, and
LIlith; and fellowship winner from Massachusetts Cultural
Center for the Arts (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Helen Elaine Lee, associate professor in writing and
humanities at MIT; graduate of Harvard Law School; writer of fiction
from Callaloo, SAGE, Children of the Night: The Best
Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present and Ancestral
House: The Black Story in the Americas and Europe; and author
of the novels The Serpent's Gift, Water Marked, and the
forthcoming Life Without, about the lives of inmates in
American prisons (MP3)
T. J. Parsell, writer and human rights activist, president
of the board of Stop Prisoner Rape, consultant to the US govt's
Prison Rape Elimination Commission, and author of Fish: A Memoir
of a Boy in a Man’s Prison (forthcoming from Caroll &
Graf, November 2006) (MP3)
Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder, teacher of writing
and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program,
and author of essays from The Chronicle Review, Post
Road, and Kansai Time Out (MP3
[including event intro])
Megan Sullivan, associate professor of writing at Boston
University and author of numerous books, including the forthcoming
The Embezzler's Daughter: A memoir, about her father's
incarceration (MP3)
Jean Trounstine, author of Shakespeare Behind Bars:
The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, about her 10 years
directing plays at Framingham Prison; co-author of Finding
A Voice, about the internationally acclaimed program for offenders
"Changing Lives through Literature"; and co-editor of
the Boston best-seller Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their
Hearts Out On Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Boston event:
Driving Solo: Four
Stories presents Grub Street authors on loneliness and love unrequited
10/16/06
Stace Budzko, author of pieces in numerous literary
journals and magazines, including works forthcoming in Norton's
Flash Fiction Forward Anthology, Rose Metal Press' Brevity
and Echo, and The Binnacle; writing instructor at
Emerson College; and writer-in-residence at the Institute of
Contemporary Art, Boston (MP3
[including event intro])
Jamie Cat Callan, author of the forthcoming book
Hooking Up or Holding Out and of essays from The Missouri
Review, Best American Erotica, and Story (MP3)
Mike Heppner, author of Pike's Folly and The
Egg Code, a Publishers Weekly and Washington Post
best book of the year, and the Philadelphia City Paper's
"best novel of 2002" (MP3)
Ellen Litman, writer of fiction from Best New
American Voices 2007, Best of Tin House,
TriQuarterly, and Ontario Review; and author of the
forthcoming short story collection The Last Chicken in
America (W. W. Norton, fall 2007)
(MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Boston event:
Hitting the Road: Four
Stories features Post Road writers
9/25/06
Lise Haines, author of the novels Small Acts of Sex
and Electricity (forthcoming September '06) and In My Sister's
Country , and 06-07 Visiting Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard
University (MP3
[including event intro])
Richard Hoffman, author of the award-winning Half
the House: a Memoir, and Without Paradise: Poems, as
well as prose and poetry in Agni, Ascent, Harvard Review, Hudson
Review, Poetry, and Witness; recipient of the Massachusetts
Cultural Council Fellowship in fiction and The Literary Review’s
Charles Angoff Prize; and teacher of writing at Emerson College
and the Stonecoast MFA Program (MP3)
Randi Triant, author of short stories and essays from
Post Road, the Writer's Chronicle, and Fingernails
Across the Blackboard: An Anthology of HIV/AIDS; and
winner of The Salt Flats Emerging Writer's Fiction Contest (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories Boston event:
A Place Apart II: Tales
of exile and home, family and foreigners
9/11/06
Chris Castellani, author of The Saint of Lost Things
and A Kiss from Maddalena, winner of Massachusetts Book
Award for Fiction; and Artistic Director of Grub Street (MP3)
Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the
forthcoming We Disappear; and winner of fellowships to
the London Arts Board and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (MP3)
Lucy McCauley, author of travel essays and other
nonfiction appearing in The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Review,
The Los Angeles Times, and Salon.com; and series editor
for Best Women's Travel Writing (MP3)
Christine Palamidessi Moore, author of The Virgin
Knows and the forthcoming Fiddle Case, winner of UrbanArts’
Art-on-the-Orange-Line award; and teacher of writing at
Boston University (MP3
[including event intro])
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Japan
Opening Night
A Place Apart: Four Stories goes global with tales of travel, adventure,
and exploration
7/2/06
Juliet Winters Carpenter, Kyoto professor; acclaimed
translator of Ryotaro Shiba's The Last Shogun, Kobo Abe's
Beyond the Curve, and Miyuki Miyabe's Shadow Family;
and author of Seeing Kyoto
Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, poet, essayist, and associate professor
at a national university in Japan, whose work has been featured
in New American Writing, ACM, Aught, How2, Tinfish, One Less,
Moria, Milk, Free Verse, and others
Suzanne Kamata, editor of The Broken Bridge: Fiction
from Expatriates in Literary Japan and the journal Yomimono;
author of River of Dolls; and writer of fiction and nonfiction
appearing in Poesie Yaponesia, The Utne Reader,Kyoto Journal, and Calyx
Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder, teacher of writing
and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program,
and author of essays from The Chronicle Review, Post
Road, and Kansai Time Out
Sorry, no MP3s available
for this event.
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
Dark and Light: Stories
of laughter and melancholy
4/3/06
Jacqueline Lalley, contributor to The Onion,
Bitch Magazine, Harvard Review, and Secrets & Confidences:
The Complicated Truth about Women's Friendships (MP3)
Don Lee, editor of Ploughshares journal;
acclaimed author of Country of Origin and Yellow;
and winner of an American Book Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize
for First Fiction (MP3)
Stephen McCauley, author of five novels including The
Object of My Affection and, most recently, Alternatives
to Sex; and teacher of Writing at Brandeis University (MP3)
Askold Melnyczuk, director of creative writing at UMASS
Boston; author of the New York Times Notable Book Ambassador
of the Dead; recipient of the Lila Wallace Readers’ Digest
Award and the McGinnis Award in Fiction; and essayist whose work
has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Partisan Review,
Ploughshares, and The Boston Globe (MP3)
(MP3s require media-player software and
may take a while to download.)
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
Down and out in Chestnut
Hill: Stories of suburban angst
3/13/06
Daphne Kalotay, author of Calamity and Other Stories
and teacher of writing at Boston University
Susan Orlean, author of the New York Times best-selling
The Orchid Thief, and The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup:
My Encounters With Extraordinary People
Mike Rosovsky, fiction writer, teacher of creating writing
at Emerson, and co-founder of the journal Post Road
Lauren Slater, author of five books, including Opening
Skinners Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th
Century, winner of the Bild Der Wissenshaft award in Germany
for the most groundbreaking science book of the year and finalist
for the LA Book Prize in science writing; recipient of many prizes
and awards; and 2006 editor for Best American Essays
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
Tall Tales: Stories
of deception and intrigue
2/13/06
Kate Benson, author of Two Harbors, called by
Booklist a "haunting, lush, lyrical, [and] sublimely atmospheric
debut novel"
Tehila Lieberman, author of fiction and non fiction published
in Salon.com, Nimrod, the Colorado Review,
and Salamander; winner of the Stanley Elkin Memorial and
Rick Dimarinis Prizes for Fiction; and nominee for the Pushcart
Prize
Jon Papernick, author of The Ascent of Eli Israel
and Who by Fire, Who by Blood (www.jonpapernick.com)
Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time,Good With
Their Hands, and articles and essays in the Washington
Post Magazine, The American Scholar, Harper's,
and The Best American Essays
Sorry, no MP3s available
for this event.
Four Stories Boston
Event:
Lost in Translation: Stories of alienation
and misunderstanding
1/23/06
Thalassa Ali, acclaimed novelist and author of A Singular
Hostage, A Beggar at the Gate, and The Companions of Paradise
Jake Halpern, author of Braving Home, a Borders'
"Original Voices" book, Amazon.com "Breakout Book,"
and pick for the "Book of the Month Club" by Bill Bryson
Pagan Kennedy, magazine journalist and author of Black
Livingstone, a New York Times Notable Book and Boston Phoenix's
ten best non-fiction works of 2002; The Exes; Zine:
A Memoir; and Spinsters, shortlisted for the Orange
Prize and winner of Barnes and Noble's Discover Award
Alison Lobron, essayist and columnist for the Boston
Globe Sunday Magazine's popular "Coupling" column
Sorry, no MP3s available
for this event.
Four Stories
Boston
Event:
Cain and Abel: Stories
of family on the edge
12/5/05
Elizabeth Benedict, National Book Award and Los Angeles
Times Fiction Prize finalist, and author of The Practice of
Deceit, a Book Sense Pick, Book of the Month Club selection,
and All Things Considered (NPR) recommended novel (www.elizabethbenedict.com)
Jaime Clarke, author of the novel We're So Famous,
co-founder of Post Road Magazine, and teacher of writing
at Emerson College whose work has appeared in The Mississippi
Review,AGNI, and Chelsea
Tom Perrotta, acclaimed author of the novels Little
Children, Election, Bad Haircut, The Wishbones,
and Joe College
Megan Sullivan, associate professor of writing at Boston
University and author of Women in Northern Ireland, Irish Women
and Film: 1980-1990, and The Embezzler's Daughter: A memoir
Sorry, no MP3s available
for this event.
Four Stories Boston
Event:
Feast or Famine: Stories of appetite and
longing
11/7/05
Steve Almond, Pushcart Prize winner, National Magazine
Award finalist, and author twice featured in the Best American
series
Julia Glass, National Book Award winner and author of
Three Junes
Michelle Hoover, named one of the 2004 Best New American
Voices and winner of 2005 Pen-New England Emerging Writer Award
Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, teacher of writing at Boston
College and author of fiction and nonfiction from The North
American Review, The Boston Phoenix, Boston Magazine,
and Take Out
Sorry, no MP3s available
for this event.
Four Stories Boston
Event:
The Green Monster: Stories of envy, greed,
lust
10/24/05
Alden Jones, professor of writing and literature at Emerson
College whose work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, AGNI,
The Iowa Review, and The Best American Travel Writing
Ben Mezrich, New York Times best-selling author of
Bringing Down the House, Ugly Americans, and Busting Vegas
Elizabeth Searle, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize,
and author of the acclaimed Celebrities in Disgrace and
the much-anticipated "Nancy and Tonya: The Opera "
Jen Trynin, author of Everything I’m Cracked Up to
Be, a memoir of her days as an almost-rock star, coming this
February from Harcourt.
Sorry, no MP3s available
for this event.
Four Stories Boston
Event:
Love's Labors Lost: Stories of love going
nowhere
9/19/05
John Fulton, winner of the Pushcart Prize
Elizabeth Graver, New York Times notable author
Michael Lowenthal, critically acclaimed novelist named
one of "Best New American Voices" of 2005
Lauren Slater, award-winning writer whose work has appeared
five times in the Best American series