Events
Reservations for individual events will be available at Eventbrite.com. All events are free and open to the public.
Friday, September 29th
6:00pm Rose Dorothea Award Reading and reception with Frank X. Gaspar, author of the novel "Leaving Pico" and "The Poems of Renata Ferreira." The Rose Dorothea Award is given annually by the Provincetown Board of Library Trustees to a person with a strong connection to the Outer Cape who has made a significant contribution through the written word.
Saturday, September 30th
9:30 am Reading Local: A Curated Reading by Provincetown and Cape Cod Writers: A reading by local and regional Cape Cod writers curated by novelist and short story writer Joe Okonkwo. Katy Abel, Denise Coffey, Steven Bruce Myerson, Dan Perdios, and Judith Stiles were chosen to kick off the Provincetown Book Festival, reading from their writing.
11:00am Biomythography: Family History Through Poetry and Fiction: Rio Cortez, Golden Ax & Kim Coleman Foote, Coleman Hill: Novelist Kim Foote and poet Rio Cortez discuss writing about family history in fiction and poetry. Both writers deal with the way stories passed down through the family become a kind of mythology which may or may not be "the truth."
1:30pm Body Switchers and Sea Creatures: Speculative and Experimental Writing: Sabrina Imbler, How Far the Light Reaches & Isle McElroy, People Collide: Memoirist Sabrina Imbler and novelist Isle McElroy discuss speculative and experimental writing in fiction and non-fiction. Imbler and McElroy are both non-binary, which may or may not affect the way they push the boundaries of their genres.
3:00pm Roots and Relevance: Legacy, Friendship, and Place in Fiction with Alice Elliott Dark, Fellowship Point & A.C. Burch, The Distance Between Us: Alice Elliott Dark and A.C. Burch discuss legacy, friendship, and sense of place in fiction. Both authors have written novels in which a strong sense of community is very important to all the relationships portrayed.
4:30pm Tides and the Towns: Artists, Radicals, and Gay Culture on the Outer Cape with Jane Paradise, The Dune Shacks of Provincetown & Russ Lopez, The Hub of the Gay Universe: Provincetown was a mecca for artists and writers as well as misfits for much of the 20th century. Jane Paradise and Russ Lopez discuss artists, radicals, and gay culture in Provincetown and the outer Cape.
6:30pm An Interview with Ilyon Woo author of Master Slave Husband Wife & Susan Tran, Emmy-winning reporter/anchor: Susan Tran will interview Ilyon Woo, author of "Master Slave Husband Wife," the riveting true story of an enslaved couple who escaped by posing as a white man and his servant. The story of how Ilyon Woo tracked down this hidden African American history is equally riveting.
Sunday, October 1st
9:30am Transgressive: Radical Approaches to Gender and Sex with Janet Hardy, Notes of an Aging Pervert & Oliver Radclyffe, Adult Human Male: Radical views on sex and gender by self-described "kinky poly queer genderbent geezer” Janet Hardy and trans man Oliver Radclyffe. Hardy shares her experiences as an “aging pervert” and Radclyffe talks about normalizing trans identity.
11:00am Queer Histories: Violence, Race, Radicalization, Then and Now with Hugh Ryan, The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History & Prince Shakur, When They Tell You to Be Good: Hugh Ryan, who wrote a history of the infamous women’s jail in New York City, and Prince Shakur, author of a memoir of growing up Jamaican and coming out into a politicized world, share what they’ve learned about race, violence, and radicalization.
1:30pm Shirley Chisholm: Her Biographer and Her Speechwriter in Conversation Anastasia Curwood, Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics & Bob Frishman, former Chisholm's speechwriter: Shirley Chisholm made history when she announced her bid for the presidency, not to mention the complete transformation of Democratic party politics, in1972. Chisholm biographer Anastasia Curwood and Bob Frishman, Chisholm's speechwriter in 1972, share their perspectives on the first Black woman to run for president.
3:00pm Queer 80s Teens, Past and Future Mike Albo, Another Dimension of Us & Tim Murphy, Speech Team: Tim Murphy and Mike Albo talk with each other about their novels. Both books concern queer teens in the 1980s, but one also has time travel!
4:30pm Banned Books, Banned People: In the last year, many more books have been challenged and banned in schools and libraries than ever before. At the same time, there have been numerous attacks on the legal rights of drag performers and trans people. In resistance to these attacks, a number of Provincetown's wonderful drag performers will read from recently banned books.