North Shore Community College, Lynn Campus Library (LE-127) 300 Broad Street Lynn, MA 01901

Join the North Shore Community College Lynn Campus Library for an afternoon with January Gill O’Neil, author of Glitter Road, a Massachusetts Book Awards Honors title in poetry. O’Neil will read from her celebrated collection, speak about her writing process, and share insights into her approach to crafting poems before opening the floor for an audience Q&amp;A. She will also lead a brief writing prompt for anyone who would like to participate.

Glitter Road opens in the wake of loss, deep pain, and anger, yet the poems insist on finding flashes of celebration and joy—even if that joy is simply, in the spirit of Lucille Clifton, “what i have shaped into / a kind of life,” the triumph of survival and self-recognition. With formal dexterity and richly charged syntax, O’Neil’s poems resist the silences of fear, grief, desire, and anxiety, speaking aloud what is so often left unspoken in both private and public life. Her interrogations of race thread through the collection, shaping a speaker whose history—personal and collective—unfolds with carefully rendered detail.

This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>.

JANUARY GILL O’NEIL is a poet and author of Glitter Road, Rewilding, Misery Islands, and Underlife. Her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, American Poetry Review, and Poetry, among other publications. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, among others. O’Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University and lives in Massachusetts.

Local Event: “Glitter Road”: A Reading and Conversation with January Gill O’Neil

Essex County

Lynn

Massachusetts

“Glitter Road”: A Reading and Conversation with...

Join the North Shore Community College Lynn Campus Library for an afternoon with January Gill O’Neil, author of Glitter Road, a...

“Glitter Road”: A Reading and Conversation with January Gill O’Neil

Richard Salter Storrs Library

Storrs Library will host acclaimed children’s author Vicki Johnson for a special Mass Kids Lit Fest event celebrating her brand-new picture book, Mac Wears a Hat!&nbsp;&nbsp; Mac loves hats—she has one for every occasion. As an only child, she sometimes feels lonely, but her hat collection cheers her up, helps her express herself, and sparks joyful connections with others. This inclusive book celebrates kindness and positivity, and that what makes you different, makes you special! A hatmaking activity will follow the presentation. ​​Registration is required. This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit <a href="https://www.makidslitfest.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.makidslitfest.org/</a>. Vicki Johnson is children’s author, and a former band nerd, lawyer, White House staffer, and nonprofit director, among other life adventures. Her debut picture book&nbsp;Molly’s Tuxedo, illustrated by Gillian Reid (2023), received an NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, was included on the American Library Association’s Rainbow Book List, and was selected as a Children’s Book Council “Teacher Favorite.” Her next book,&nbsp;Mac Wears a Hat, is from the same creative team. Johnson is a Southern writer who lives in western MA, where she tends to several rescue animals and one college kid.

Local Event: Mac Wears a Hat: Special Storytime with author Vicki Johnson

Hampden County

Longmeadow

Mac Wears a Hat: Special Storytime with author...

Storrs Library will host acclaimed children’s author Vicki Johnson for a special Mass Kids Lit Fest event celebrating her...

Mac Wears a Hat: Special Storytime with author Vicki Johnson

Grafton Public Library

Join the Grafton Public Library for an evening of tea and conversation with Margot Livesey, whose novel The Road from Belhaven received Honors in the Fiction category of the Massachusetts Book Awards. This relaxed, discussion-based program invites readers to engage directly with the author, asking questions and exploring the themes, craft, and inspirations behind her work. Attendees are encouraged to have read at least one of Livesey’s novels and to bring their own questions for the conversation. Leading up to the event, the library will host a book club discussion and feature a display of Livesey’s novels, offering readers an opportunity to revisit favorite titles or discover her work for the first time.

The Road from Belhaven is a richly imagined historical novel inspired by Livesey’s mother and her “gift of second sight.” Set in late nineteenth-century Scotland, the book illuminates the social constraints faced by women while paying homage to the classic novels that shaped Livesey’s literary imagination. Blending careful historical detail with a subtle strain of magical realism, the novel explores questions of fate, free will, and feminine agency, suggesting that even the most grounded realities are touched by mystery.

This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>.

MARGOT LIVESEY grew up at a boys’ boarding school in the Scottish Highlands, where her father taught and her mother worked as the school nurse. She is the author of nine novels, including Eva Moves the Furniture, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mercury, and The Boy in the Field, as well as The Road from Belhaven, which received Fiction Honors in the Mass Book Awards. Her nonfiction book The Hidden Machinery, a collection of essays on writing, was published by Tin House Books. Livesey has taught at numerous institutions, including Boston University, Emerson College, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she currently teaches. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., and other organizations, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Local Event: “The Road from Belhaven”: Tea & Conversation with Margot Livesey

Worcester County

Grafton

“The Road from Belhaven”: Tea & Conversation...

Join the Grafton Public Library for an evening of tea and conversation with Margot Livesey, whose novel The Road from Belhaven...

“The Road from Belhaven”: Tea & Conversation with Margot Livesey