The Women’s National Book Association’s Boston chapter hosts a diverse and exciting range of events throughout the year. Here are just a few recent examples:
Processing Critique
Tuesday, September 24th, 2024
7 pm EST, Virtual
Critique is vital. Looking at our work through the eyes of others is the only way to ensure that the story they read is the story we intend. In this session, we will share critiquing strategies to make your work stronger, your resolve deeper, and will move you closer to your writing goals. Embrace feedback! It’s the only way to push through mental roadblocks and propel your work forward!
Deborah Norkin is the President of the Boston Chapter of the WNBA, and the Food Writing Editor at Pangyrus Literary Magazine. As a writer and editor, Deborah has been on both sides of the critique desk. Through trial and error, Deborah has learned how to get great feedback. She’s excited to share her tactics with you!
Lisa Braxton is the author of the award-winning Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter’s Reflections on Love and Loss. The memoir in essays speaks to anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to navigate the world without them while coming to terms with complicated emotions. In this intimate, lyrical work, Lisa Braxton takes us to the core of her loss and extends a lifeline of comfort to anyone who needs to be reminded that in their grief, they are not alone. Lisa Braxton is on the executive board of the Writers Room of Boston, and a writing instructor at Grub Street Center for Creative Writing. https://lisabraxton.com
B. A. Shapiro is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Metropolis, The Collector’s Apprentice, The Muralist, and The Art Forger, which won the New England Book Award for Fiction, and the Boston Authors Society Award for Fiction. Her books have been selected as Community Reads in dozens of cities and have been translated into over ten languages. Shapiro has taught sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She divides her time between Boston and Florida. www.bashapirobooks.com
Come out for Boston’s premier FREE literary event!
Union Square, Somerville hosts this year’s LitCrawl. It’s an energetic, entertaining, and unexpected lit night out! Check out WNBA’s session!
Boston Women Writers History Bingo
Saturday, June 6, 8 PM
Boston Figurative Art Center, 285 Washington Street Somerville, MA
Learn about the impact of Boston women in the literary world! Deborah Norkin, president of the Boston chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, will host this game-show-style trivia event. Our panel of experts will share how women have shaped the literary landscape.
WNBA-Boston End-of-Year Social
Thursday, May 23rd
BookEnds, Winchester, MA
How to Navigate Today’s Publishing Landscape
with Anjali Mitter Duva and Henriette Lazaridis of Galiot Press
Thursday, May 2nd, 7 PM
Virtual Event
Anjali Mitter Duva and Henriette Lazaridis have spent two years planning for the launch of their new publishing company, Galiot Press. Together, they have decades of experience as authors, editors, writing instructors, and founders of various literary programs. Join us to listen to them share some of the more eye-opening things they have learned about the inner workings of publishing, what they are looking to fix, and how writers can improve their chances of a rewarding writing career. Learn more about Galiot at their Kickstarter page.
WNBA-Boston Professional Development Series Presents:
Nina Stoller-Lindsey Masterclass
Tuesday, February 13th, 7 pm EST
Virtual Event
The Lazy Content Creator:
How to Generate High-Conversion Content Even When You’re Burnt Out and Bored
Join us for a masterclass hosted by Nina Lindsey-Stoller on:
The Lazy Content Creator and How to Generate High-Conversion Content Even When You’re Burnt Out and Bored!
In this Masterclass, you’ll learn…
- What high-conversion content actually is and how it can make your marketing efficient, effective, and fun
- The 4 things you need to create high-conversion content on repeat and reclaim your time and energy in the process
- How to reliably generate content you’re proud to share without waiting for “inspiration” to strike
About Nina
Nina is a Social Media & Content Strategist who helps mission-driven entrepreneurs craft industry-shifting brand messages and trend-proof marketing strategies.
With her background in journalism and experience creating award-winning marketing campaigns for big brands, she helps clients find their voice, hone their message, and optimize their content for conversion so they can increase sales and give back to humanity and the planet.
“Nina’s process helped me to create content with ease and avoid burnout. After working with Nina, I don’t have to spend extra time thinking about my content because I already know what my game plan is. I can write all my captions for a whole month in 2 hours!” – Kim Meehan, Psychiatric NP & Therapist
Connect with Nina on Instagram, LinkedIn, and her website.
Wednesday, January 17th, 2024:
Agent Query Event
Virtual Event
Whether you are ready to submit your query letter or just wondering how it all works, join us with literary agents Ellen Goff, Lesley Sabga, and Sarah Younger hosted by Aime Alley Card, author of forthcoming The Tigerbells from Lyons Press.
This virtual event is free to all WNBA members. For non-members, there is a $20 attendance fee. We will accept a maximum number of 20 submissions. Please note that we will try to get through as many queries as we can during the event but may not be able to read them all.
Friday, December 1st, 2023:
Member Book Sale
7pm, Porter Square Books Cambridge
Join the Boston Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association for a special holiday shopping party at Porter Square Books Cambridge! Booksellers and local authors will be on hand to help find the perfect titles for everyone on your list. Shop small, support your local literary community, and kick off the holiday season with great company and festive refreshments!
Professional Development Series for the Publishing Industry: Session Three
Professional Development Series Tech Checklist
Wednesday, November 8th, 2023
Virtual Event
Our professional development series continues with a session hosted by WNBA-Boston board members intended to teach valuable tools for anyone in any career. Whether you need a touch-up on Zoom features, learning how to use Canva, or navigating Google Suite and MailChimp, we’ll cover a little bit of everything in the technological toolbox needed for success. Registration and more info to come!
WNBA-Boston Professional Development Series: Annie Stone of Podium Audio
in conversation with Hannah Feldman, Pubmark
Wednesday, October 18th, 2023 7PM
Virtual Event
Between self-publishing, AI, the explosion of audiobooks, and more, the world of publishing has been constantly changing over the past decade. What are the opportunities for people in Boston looking to break into publishing? How can students, recent grads, or people looking to change careers think creatively about joining the field and setting themselves up for success? Join this session, hosted by the Women’s National Book Association (Boston Chapter) and featuring Annie Stone, current Director of Acquisitions at Podium Audio and former president of the Boston Chapter, in conversation with Hannah Feldman of Pubmark to learn more about publishing careers and how to work in the world of books.
Annie Stone has been working with authors and publishers on both developing great content and connecting books with audiences for more than a decade. Most recently, she was the Director of Content Acquisitions for YONDER, a serial fiction mobile reading app launched by Wattpad/Webtoon. Before joining YONDER, Annie was the Head of Business Development at BookBub, where her team helped authors and publishers leverage BookBub’s marketing platform to reach new readers. Annie has also worked as an editor of fiction for several major publishing groups including Harlequin and Harper Collins.
Hannah Feldman started out her book industry career at Macmillan’s Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. She has worked at Pubmark, the parent company for book discovery platforms BookBub and Chirp, since 2018, where she was first a Production Editor. She eventually transitioned to People Operations and led recruiting across all teams for 2 years. These days Hannah works as an HR Business Partner, focusing on building a great employee experience at Pubmark. Outside of work you can find her running a book club, cooking, and wandering around Somerville, MA. 
WNBA-Boston Professional Development Series: Perpetua Charles of Beacon Press
Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 7PM
Virtual Event
Join us with Beacon Press Publicist, Perpetua Charles, for a look behind the curtain of the often mysterious publishing industry. Whether you currently work in publishing, aspire to, or are simply interested in how books make their way from imagination onto the shelves of your favorite bookstore, you will not want to miss the kick-off to the Boston Chapter Women’s National Book Association’s inaugural professional development series. Read our pre-event interview with Perpetua here.
WNBA-Boston Fall Members-Only Party
Thursday, September 21, 2023
When: Thursday, September 21st, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Board member Annie Stone’s place in Somerville (address to be shared after RSVP for event)
2023 WNBA Award Presentation, June 2023
2023 WNBA Award Recipient: Eve Bridburg, Founder and Executive Director of GrubStreet in Boston
Join us for our program at Porter Square Books honoring our 2023 WNBA Award winner, Eve Bridburg! In addition to the award presentation, there will be time for networking, and a panel of literary luminaries from Boston speaking to their experience creating community around writing.
Panel:
Natalie Obando, Host WNBA National President
Serina Gousby, Panelist, Program Manager, Boston Writers of Color
Namrata Patel, Panelist, Author
Diana Norma Szokolyai, Panelist, Co-founder/Artistic Director, Cambridge Writer’s Workshop
National Poetry Month with Pangyrus Literary Magazine, April 2023
Join WNBA-Boston in welcoming three poets whose work appears in the latest issue of Pangyrus: DeMisty D. Bellinger, Deborah Leipziger, and Michael Walsh. The virtual event will be hosted by Pangyrus Poetry Editors Cheryl Clark-Vermeulen and Cynthia Bargar.
Virtual Pitch & Query with Literary Agents, February 2023
Whether you’re ready to submit or just wondering how it all works, join us!
What makes a query catch an agent’s interest? What common mistakes drive agents to reject? Don’t have a query ready yet? No need to submit one to attend. Come along and learn from hearing the agents critique your fellow WNBA members’ work!
Bibi Lewis, Chelsey Emmelhainz & Lauren Scovel, will listen to your queries LIVE and provide feedback to help you snag the agent of your dreams! The first 20 to register may submit a query for review, 350 words max. We’ll read in order of submission and get through as many as we can. Register early to assure yours will be at the top of the list!
WNBA-Boston Open Mic with Hank Phillippi Ryan, November 2022
WNBA Boston Chapter’s Third Annual Open Mic is hosted by Hank Phillippi Ryan, the USA Today bestselling author of 13 psychological thrillers, and winner of the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, four Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also the on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. Book critics call her “a master of suspense,” “a superb and gifted storyteller”; she’s the only author to have won the Agatha in four categories: Best First, Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best Non-Fiction.
The event is open to the public and members of the WNBA are invited to read at the “virtual microphone.” Before registering as a reader, make sure to join or renew. Read an excerpt from your original work or from a favorite author.
Agents, Editors, The Pitch Letter, May 2021
About to start, or finish, that manuscript? Join us to hear what two agents and two editors look for in a pitch or query letter. This 90-minute panel, moderated by a publishing marketing veteran, is co-hosted by the New York and Boston chapters of WNBA.
The panelists will clarify what elements and information are most important, what matters to agents and editors as they review pitch (or “query”) letters, especially for works of fiction or memoir. What ammunition can help an author “sell” their work to an agent? Help an agent sell a writer’s work to a publisher? Help an editor “sell” that book to the acquisition committee?
WNBA–Boston Virtual Cooking Class, April 2021
Join fellow WNBA members on a culinary adventure! Food writer, editor, and WNBA board member Deborah Norkin will lead us as we prepare Risotto Primavera Sorpresa. Choose your favorite protein (chicken, tofu, or any seafood) and don’t forget a bottle of wine!
Women Leaders in Digital Publishing Panel, April 2021
Join this panel of women leaders in digital publishing to learn about their companies and careers, and to hear insights into the digital marketplace. We’ll talk about how they reached their current positions, what they focus on in their roles, what advice they’d give to women looking to break into the publishing industry, particularly on the digital side — and of course, what trends they’re seeing in the digital part of the publishing industry, especially during lockdown.
Speakers to include Ali Hammond, Account Manager for audiobook retailer Chirp; Tara Cremin, Director of Kobo Writing Life; and Christine Sikule, Director of Sales Strategy and Analytics at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Moderated by Annie Stone, WNBA–Boston Chapter President and Publisher Relations Lead at BookBub/Chirp.
Netflix Watch Party for Firefly Lane, March 2021
Join fellow Boston WNBA members for a casual Netflix hangout — we’ll use a Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party) link to watch the first episode of Netflix’s Firefly Lane, based on the novel by Kristen Hannah.
Virtual Open Mic Night, January 2021
The event is free to attend, but we’re asking for a suggested donation, 100% of which will be passed along to local youth literacy charity 826 Boston.
Growing Forward: How to Navigate the Next Steps in Your Career During COVID, November 2020
A joint panel co-hosted by WNBA–NYC and WNBA–Boston!
During this time of change, so many of us are learning how to navigate our career next steps. Whether you’re exploring new professional opportunities, charting a course forward as a consultant or freelancer, figuring out how to negotiate raises and promotions at your current job, or re-entering the job market after a layoff, this panel offers insights into how to find your way through these uncertain waters and grow your career — even during COVID.
With expertise on diverse aspects of career growth and tremendous industry experience, our panelists will share perspectives on making (or revisiting) career decisions, networking (remotely!), and negotiating — for anyone who’s interested in looking for a job, growing in place, building an independent income, or pursuing an advanced degree. Through this rich discussion, this panel offers support and guidance for all of those navigating the unique contours of this new professional landscape.
WNBA–Boston Trivia Night, November 2020
Launching a Debut Novel Virtual Panel, October 2020
Publishing a novel is a dream for many — but how do you get your foot in the door? And what does that dream look like now, with a global pandemic and multiple national crises ongoing? Join Janella Angeles (debut author, Where Dreams Descend, 2020), Ammi-Joan Paquette (author and senior agent, Erin Murphy Literary Agency), and Laura Schreiber (Editorial Director, Jimmy Patterson, an imprint of Hachette) for a discussion on writing, selling, publishing, and promoting your first novel — in times both regular and unprecedented.
A discussion with author Jane Healey, November 2019
A discussion with Melrose author Jane Healey about her second novel, THE BEANTOWN GIRLS. An Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller, THE BEANTOWN GIRLS follows three friends who volunteer as Red Cross Clubmobile Girls, where they are tasked with raising morale of American troops at the front lines of World War II.
National Reading Group Month,
October 2019
Please join us to hear from Adrienne Brodeur and Tova Mirvis read from their work and discuss their writing. Brodeur is the author of the forthcoming memoir WILD GAME: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me (on sale October 15th!) and Mirvis is the author of multiple novels as well as a recent memoir entitled THE BOOK OF SEPARATION.
WNBA-Boston’s Fall Kick-off Happy Hour, 2019
Drinks, pizza, and “blind dates” with books were enjoyed by many at the WNBA-Boston’s fall kick-off on September 25th. We gathered for a few hours at the Alibi Bar in the Liberty Hotel to swap favorite recent reads, chat about recent writing and work projects, and reconnect after WNBA-Boston had been on hiatus.
WNBA-Boston’s NRGM Celebration, 2018
WNBA-Boston held an event for National Reading Group Month in fall 2018 with celebrated authors Suzanne Matson, Jessica Keener and Heather Abel on Thursday, October 4, 2018, 7PM, at Trident Booksellers & Cafe.
Suzanne Matson is the author of Ultraviolet and three previous novels, The Tree-Sitter, A Trick of Nature, and The Hunger Moon.
Ultraviolet (included on Real Simple‘s list of the best books of 2018!) tells the story of Samantha, who’s grown up in the atmosphere of her mother’s discontent, follows her own career to teach at a university in faraway Boston, where she maintains a happy family of her own.
When Kathryn starts to fail, Samantha moves her mother near her to care for, and then to watch over her deathbed, where “something in the room―the spell, the cord knitting them together―is cut. Or no, that can’t be right, either.” Ultraviolet is a lyrical novel of great emotional depth. Suzanne Matson recognizes both the drama that is within every existence and the strengths and fragilities of our relationships with others. She shines a brilliant light on the complexities of marriage, motherhood, aging, and the end of life.
WNBA-Boston’s Centennial Celebration
In celebration of WNBA’s Centennial year, on June 1, 2017, acclaimed author Megan Marshall spoke about women and their involvement in the arts and literature in the Commonwealth Salon at the Boston Public Library. Megan Marshall is the winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in biography for Margaret Fuller and the author of The Peabody Sisters, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and the Mark Lynton History Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. She is the Charles Wesley Emerson College Professor and teaches narrative nonfiction and the art of archival research in the MFA program at Emerson College. Her most recent book is Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast.
Using Your Writing to Make Your Voice Heard
WNBA-Boston, Zephyr Press, and the National Writers Union sponsored a free event for writers of op-eds, letters to the editor, essays, and other short opinion pieces. Two editors and a roundtable of writers shared strategies (and submission tips) for how writers can influence media, legislators, and public opinion.
Query Tutorial, May 2016
WNBA-Boston held its first-ever query tutorial in May 2016. A query letter is your one chance to entice an agent or editor into reading your manuscript. Needless to say it must be just right. But what does a perfect pitch entail? Six agents and editors were on hand to critique your query letter and offer you suggestions on how to improve your chances of an agent or editor requesting your manuscript.
A big thank you for our amazing agents and editors:
Nicole Angeloro
Kaylee Davis
Katherine Flynn
Tim Mudie
Kimiko Nakamura
Amaryah Orenstein