Desmond Hall, author of Better Must Come, in conversation with Michelle Hoover

Porter Square Books&nbsp;and&nbsp;GrubStreet&nbsp;are thrilled to welcome&nbsp;Desmond Hall&nbsp;for the release of his novel&nbsp;<a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9781534460744" target="_blank">Better Must Come</a>! Author&nbsp;Michelle Hoover&nbsp;will join Hall in conversation. This event will take place on&nbsp;Thursday, June 13 at 7pm&nbsp;at&nbsp;Porter Square Books: Boston Edition&nbsp;(50 Liberty Drive, Boston, MA 02210). We're partnering with author Desmond Hall and 826 Boston to raise donated copies of his book&nbsp;Better Must Come&nbsp;for students at Boston Public Schools!&nbsp;We're hoping, with your help, to donate copies to students who will have the opportunity to hear from Desmond and take home their own copy of the book. You can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/product/donate-better-must-come-student" target="_blank">donate a copy for a BPS student&nbsp;here</a>, or at the bottom of this page. (No need to pick up or ship your donation - we'll take care of getting books to 826 Boston!) RSVP below to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This event is co-presented by&nbsp;<a href="https://grubstreet.org/" target="_blank">GrubStreet</a>&nbsp;and Porter Square Books ABOUT&nbsp;BETTER MUST COME Barely Missing Everything&nbsp;meets&nbsp;American Street&nbsp;in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate. Deja is a “barrel girl”—one of the Jamaican kids who get barrels full of clothes, food, and treats shipped to them from parents who have moved to the US or Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life and wonders if they could be a part of each other’s futures. Then, one day while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks, smeared with blood. Inside, a badly wounded man thrusts a knapsack at her, begging her to deliver it to his original destination, and to not say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send for help and make good on her promise…not realizing that the bag is stuffed with $500,000 American. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in will stop at nothing to get their hands on this bag—or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in ways neither ever imagined, as they both are forced to make split-second choices to keep the ones they love most alive. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Desmond Hall&nbsp;was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He has worked as a high school biology and English teacher in East New York, Brooklyn; counseled teenage ex-cons after their release from Rikers Island; and served as Spike Lee’s creative director at Spike DDB. Desmond has served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the Advertising Council and judged the One Show, the American Advertising Awards, and the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival. He’s also been named one of Variety magazine’s Top 50 Creatives to Watch. He’s the author of&nbsp;Your Corner Dark&nbsp;and&nbsp;Better Must Come. Desmond lives outside of Boston with his wife and two daughters. Michelle Hoover&nbsp;has taught writing for more than 25 years and currently leads the GrubStreet Novel Incubator program, which she co-founded in 2011. Her students have signed 50+ book contracts. She is a 2014 NEA Fellow and has been a Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University, a fellow at MacDowell, Bread Loaf, and Sewanee Writers Conferences, and a winner of the PEN/New England Discovery Award. Her debut,&nbsp;The Quickening, was a 2010 Massachusetts Book Award "Must Read," a finalist for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and one of Susan Straight's 1001 "Library of America" Novels featured in the L.A. Times. Her second novel,&nbsp;Bottomland, was the 2017 All Iowa Reads selection and a 2016 Mass Book "Must Read." She is the creator of The 7am Novelist, the popular podcast and webinar series for writers. She is a native of Iowa and lives in Cyprus and Boston. ABOUT GRUBSTREET Celebrating over 25 years as the nation's leading and largest independent center for creative writing, GrubStreet is the place where writers develop their craft – and themselves – through the power of writing and sharing their work. GrubStreet offers hundreds of creative writing programs and events for writers from all backgrounds and ages at its Center for Creative Writing in the Seaport, in many Boston neighborhoods, and online. Scholarships are available for all offerings, and many programs are free. At its center, GrubStreet also hosts a community lounge, a podcast studio, Porter Square Books: Boston Edition, and a Writers’ Stage. Learn more at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.grubstreet.org/" target="_blank">www.grubstreet.org</a>. Event date:&nbsp; Thursday, June 13, 2024 - 7:00pm Event address:&nbsp; Porter Square Books: Boston Edition 50 Liberty Drive Boston,&nbsp;MA&nbsp;02210 RSVP Form:&nbsp; <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/rsvp-attend-our-event-desmond-hall" target="_blank">RSVP to attend our event with Desmond Hall!</a>

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Desmond Hall, author of Better Must Come, in conversation with Michelle Hoover

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