The 9th Annual Boston Book Festival Celebrates Writers and Readers

The ninth annual Boston Book Festival took place on Saturday, Oct. 28 in Copley Square. The event celebrated reading, writing, and other less traditional forms of literature. The festival was reminiscent of an amusement park—especially for those who enjoy reading and writing—enlivening Copley Square in a welcoming, warm, and exciting way.

Live music permeated the Square, playing in the background of the free event, and tents filled the space. These tents housed publishing houses from both the Cambridge/Boston area and Massachusetts. Additionally, well-respected authors came to sign books, including Tom Perrotta, Jacqueline Woodson, Maureen Dowd, and Harvard University’s Claire Messud, some of whom spoke at the festival as well.

Though the entire festival was star-studded, it was less about the authors themselves and more about what the gathering meant for the city of Boston and its surrounding areas. Catherine Gaggioli, a Boston resident, said, “I’m not a writer, just a reader.” She added, “It’s been really great, because this is sort of the most literary event in the city. It’s such a city full of writers, and there are so many writers in Boston that write about Boston. It just makes me feel really good. So many people from all over this place write so many stories that make Boston what it is, and this event does a good job of celebrating this. It’s like my dream. I love it a lot.”

The true beauty of this event lies in how personable the authors were. Anyone could easily strike up a conversation with a recently published author, bridging the distance between the reader and the author behind a book. [Weike Wang ’10, the author of the recently released book “Chemistry,” gave her insight on what it means for her to be a writer: “When I started off as a freshman in college, I was wondering how writers did it. Now that I’m here, you don’t know that you’re doing it, when you’re doing it, you just end up there. It’s very heartwarming.” She gave a suggestion for aspiring writers: “Harvard has really great writing workshops. My passion for writing actually started and ballooned from there. When I was at Harvard, I didn’t know I would never have the same resources again.”

The event successfully showcased how writers and readers alike can thrive and prosper. Lasting several hours, it had multiple workshops for current and aspiring writers as well as discussions about different types of novels and types of writing, from Young Adult writing to writing from privilege.

Children were also prominently featured throughout the festival. Dana Eger, a member of the marketing team for Candlewick Press, said, “It’s great to actually see the kids who read our books. I don’t normally get to see the kids who read our books.”

An event filled with the hope of writers, intellectual vitality, and the innocence of childhood, the festival thrived. The Boston Book Festival was an accomplishment that successfully showed writers how to grow and be where they wanted to be, all while connecting readers to the creators of their favorite books.