“Exit Wounds”: A Reading and Conversation with Ieva Jusionyte

The Morrill Memorial Library is honored to welcome author Ieva Jusionyte to talk about her recent book, Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border on Tuesday, March 24 starting at 7:00pm in the Simoni Room. Firearms play a double role in society: they are instruments of protection as well as sources of threat. Ieva Jusionyte’s new book, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border (2024), takes a narrative approach to present findings from a multi-sited ethnographic study on the impact of American firearms in Mexico. The book follows the journey of the gun through circuits of exchange—both licit and illicit—from retail shops and gun shows in Arizona and Texas, to the hands of violence workers, both licensed and criminalized, in Mexico, to gun buyback programs and public art installations. By tracing firearms across borders and contexts—their shifting cultural and economic value, discrepancies in legality and legitimacy, and their movement across civilian-military and state-crime divides—Jusionyte illuminates how legal regimes shape the production of violence. Braiding together the stories of people who live and work with guns on both sides of the border and both sides of the law, the book shows how U.S. guns harm not just individual people, but also the health and functioning of Mexico’s political and social systems. During tonight's program, Jusionyte will read selections from her book and speak about the process of researching and writing, then offer a Q&amp;A. Copies of her book will be available for purchase and signing after the program. Registration is required for this in-person program; register by visiting the website, or by visiting or calling the Reference Desk at 781-769-0200 x2. This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>. IEVA JUSIONYTE is an award-winning author, legal anthropologist, and a recipient of MacArthur “Genius” Award. She is the Watson Family University Professor of International Security and Anthropology and Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at Brown University. Born and raised in Lithuania, Jusionyte earned her B.A. degree in political science from Vilnius University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Brandeis University. Jusionyte studies borders, law, and violence, and is the author of three books; her newest book, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border, won the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America, PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences and R.R Hawkins Award from the Association of American Publishers, and Nonfiction Honors in the Massachusetts Book Awards. Apart from her scholarly pursuits, Jusionyte is a trained EMT, paramedic, and wildland firefighter, and she spent five years volunteering in fire and rescue departments in Massachusetts, Florida, and Arizona. She lives in Boston.

Morrill Memorial Library - Simoni Room

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

Join the Museum of African American History for an evening 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 and speak about the legacy of Phillis Wheatley alongside the landscape of contemporary Black women’s poetry in Boston and across Massachusetts before opening the floor for an audience Q&amp;A and book signing. 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 <a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a> and is presented in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.massbook.org/">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.

Museum of African American History, Boston

“Auguries & Divinations”: A Reading and Q&A with Heather Treseler

Join the Newton Free Library for an evening with Heather Treseler, author of Auguries &amp; Divinations, winner of the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry. Treseler will read from her award-winning collection and speak about the creative process behind her work. She will discuss the evolution of the book, the questions that shaped it, and the craft choices that guide her poetry, before opening the floor to an audience Q&amp;A. Auguries &amp; Divinations brings together poems written with an almost painterly attention to desire, longing, and grief. Treseler’s muscular diction and richly nuanced language convey a deep sense of emotional urgency, complicating what we think we know about the interior landscapes of women’s lives and relationships. Hinging on the carefully plain-spoken elegy at its center, Auguries &amp; Divinations’ intricately allusive, personal, and restrained poems sing with craft, beauty, and tenderness. This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>. This event is free and registration is required. Please <a href="https://newtonfreelibrary.libcal.com/event/15709482">register via the Newton Free Library website.</a> HEATHER TRESELER is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in The American Scholar, Harvard Review, The Iowa Review, and other literary journals. Her collection Auguries &amp; Divinations won the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry. She has received fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Treseler teaches at Worcester State University and lives in Massachusetts.

Newton Free Library

“The Naming Song”: A Reading and Conversation with Jedediah Berry

Join the Tewksbury Public Library and the Chelmsford Public Library for an evening with Jedediah Berry, author of The Naming Song, winner of the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction. Berry will read from his award-winning novel and discuss its imaginative landscape, before opening the floor to an audience Q&amp;A. Attendees may participate either in person or online. The Naming Song is a wildly imaginative speculative novel that explores the power and politics of language through the story of an unnamed courier working for an authoritarian Naming Committee. New words become tools of control, and resistance brews among silent radicals and forgotten ghosts in a society where naming is both salvation and erasure. The Naming Song is a thrilling, thought-provoking adventure that fully embraces the beauty and power of what cannot be Named. This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>. JEDEDIAH BERRY is the author of The Naming Song, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. His first novel, The Manual of Detection, won the Crawford Award and the Hammett Prize, and was adapted for broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Together with his partner, writer Emily Houk, he runs Ninepin Press, an independent publisher of fiction, poetry, and games in unusual shapes. He lives in Western Massachusetts.

Tewksbury Public Library

“Better Must Come”: A Conversation with Desmond Hall

Join the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers for a special community-wide event with Desmond Hall, author of the Massachusetts Book Awards–honored novel Better Must Come. In advance of the author’s visit, the novel will be featured in a book club open to the general public at the library, inviting readers to engage deeply with the book. The program will conclude with an in-person author talk at the library, where Hall will discuss the inspirations behind Better Must Come, his path as a writer, and the real-world issues that shaped the novel, followed by a Q&amp;A and book signing. Better Must Come follows two teens, Deja and Gabriel, who are searching for ways to lift themselves and their families out of difficult and often dangerous circumstances. Set against a backdrop of gang violence, familial abandonment, and the pressures of survival, the novel delivers an edge-of-your-seat story rooted in urgency and resilience. At its heart, it also offers a tender romance, showing how young love can take root and thrive even amid turmoil. Better Must Come is a powerful and timely exploration of perseverance, courage, and hope in the face of overwhelming odds. This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>. DESMOND HALL was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He is the author of the acclaimed young adult novels Your Corner Dark and Better Must Come, the latter a Massachusetts Book Awards Honors title. His work often draws on personal and historical contexts to create fast-paced, emotionally resonant stories for teen readers. He currently lives in the Boston area with his family.

Peabody Institute Library of Danvers

"Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed": An Author event with Kim McLarin

Join the Watertown Free Public Library for a special event with Mass Book Award-Honoree Kim McLarin! McLarin will read from and discuss her powerful essay collection,&nbsp;<a href="https://watertown.minlib.net/Record/.b42178010?searchId=42339756&amp;recordIndex=1&amp;page=1&amp;referred=resultIndex">Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed: Notes from Periracial America</a>. ﻿ With accumulated wisdom and sharp-eyed clarity, award-winning author Kim McLarin addresses the joys and hardships of being an older Black woman in contemporary America. Drawing from deeply personal experiences, these powerful essays illuminate the pain and power of aging, Blackness and feminism, and capture the endless cycle of progress and backlash that continues to shape race and gender. McLarin offers much needed insights into the troubled social landscape of today. This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book.</a> Kim McLarin is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels, several essay collections and the bibilomemoir&nbsp;<a href="https://watertown.minlib.net/GroupedWork/dc4be0eb-fb14-97af-2e55-969f1b505d65-eng/Home?searchId=42339834&amp;recordIndex=1&amp;page=1&amp;searchSource=local&amp;referred=resultIndex">James Baldwin’s Another Country: Bookmarked</a>. Her last essay collection,&nbsp;<a href="https://watertown.minlib.net/Record/.b38059769?searchId=42339858&amp;recordIndex=3&amp;page=1&amp;referred=resultIndex">Womanish</a>, was called “blisteringly honest, funny and vulnerable” by&nbsp;The New York Times, and was excerpted in&nbsp;The Washington Post. Her work has appeared in the&nbsp;New England Review, the&nbsp;Sewanee Review,&nbsp;The Sun Magazine,&nbsp;The Root,&nbsp;Slate,&nbsp;The Washington Post,&nbsp;The New York Times&nbsp;and many other publications. She is a former staff writer for&nbsp;The Associated Press,&nbsp;The Philadelphia Inquirer&nbsp;and&nbsp;The New York Times. She appears regularly on&nbsp;Basic Black, the longest running program on public television focusing on the interests of people of color, produced at WGBH. McLarin is Professor of Creative Writing at Emerson College.

Watertown Public Library

“I Am Not Alone”: A Conversation with Award-winning YA author, Francisco X. Stork 

Join the Dedham Public Library for a conversation with Mass Book Award-Honoree Francisco X. Stork, who is the author of the acclaimed YA novel, I Am Not Alone! Stork’s page-turning thriller will appeal to anyone who has struggled to find their place in the world and offers insights into navigating mental health, love and community.&nbsp; &nbsp; Alberto's life isn't easy: He's an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who lives with his sister's abusive boyfriend―but he'd always accepted his place in the world. Until he starts hearing the voice of a man called Captain America, a voice that wants him to achieve more, no matter the cost. Grace has it all: She has a supportive boyfriend, she's on track to be valedictorian, and she's sure to go to the college of her dreams. Still, nothing feels right to her any more after the divorce of her parents, and feels she needs something more. When Alberto and Grace meet, they have an immediate and electric connection. But when Alberto is present at the scene of a terrible crime, he becomes a suspect. And with his developing schizophrenia, he's not even sure he believes in his own innocence. Can Grace find a way to prove Alberto's innocence to himself and the world? This program is sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau</a>&nbsp;and is presented in collaboration with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book</a>. Francisco X. Stork (he/him) emigrated from Mexico at the age of nine with his mother and his adoptive father. His novels include One Last Chance to Live (September 2024), Marcelo in the Real World, recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award; The Memory of Light, recipient of the Tomás Rivera Book Award; Disappeared, which was a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book, Illegal, recipient of the Texas Institute of Letters Young Adult Award; On the Hook, recipient of the International Latino Book Award and I Am Not Alone, a Massachusetts Book Honor Book. Visit him at <a href="https://franciscostork.com/">franciscostork.com</a>.

Dedham Public Library

“The Light of Seven Days”: An author event with Mass Book Award-Honoree River Adams

Join the Chelmsford Public Library for a special event with Mass Book Award-honoree River Adams! River will share their acclaimed and richly textured novel, The Light of Seven Days. Living with her Babby after her parents’ death, 10-year-old Dinah Ash is invited to train at Leningrad’s legendary Vaganova Ballet School. In the world of elite dance, she works hard, falls in love, and weathers the Soviet Union’s ubiquitous antisemitism, but despite an impressive talent, she quickly learns that dancers of her “profile” don’t make prima ballerinas. Love of Leningrad, ballet, friends, family, and books sustain Dinah until history intervenes. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, the rise of perestroika, and a re-emergence of Nazism leave her vulnerable and exposed. Realizing escape is her only option, she applies for refugee status in America. Dinah’s adjustment to life in the US is a test as much of her identity as of her perseverance. Is who she is something Dinah can forge on her own? Or is identity imposed by upbringing, public opinion, and the myths of our cultures? As Dinah struggles with the questions of religion, race, and worth, her choices and the people she encounters will determine whether the dream of a better life can survive the weight of the past. This program is sponsored by the <a href="https://www.massbook.org/mba-speakers-bureau">Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau </a>and is presented in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.massbook.org/">Massachusetts Center for the Book.</a> River Adams (they/them) grew up in late Soviet Russia, pursuing a career as a concert pianist, and came to America at the age of 19 as a Jewish refugee. They graduated from Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania, earned their BA at Rosemont College and their MTS at Harvard Divinity School, then returned to Philadelphia to teach religious studies and work as a medical interpreter for Russian-speaking patients. Today, having earned an MFA from Emerson College, they live in Massachusetts; care for their noisy family of eight humans, two dogs, and a cat; and write. They are the author of many published short stories and essays and a biography of Leonard Swidler, There Must Be YOU (Resource Publications, 2014). Their debut novel, The Light of Seven Days (Delphinium Books, 2023) was named finalist by the National Jewish Book Awards and an honor title by the Massachusetts Book Awards. For more information, visit their website: <a href="riveradamsauthor.weebly.com">riveradamsauthor.weebly.com</a>

Chelmsford Public Library

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S17: interest based

Your guide to everything free in and around Boston. From events, to fairs, to festivals, to outdoors. Joyraft has all the free events happening near you.

100+ free things to do in Boston and beyond

Free things to do in Boston

Free things to do

S19: interest based

Kid-friendly events in Boston

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.

Where

mcb

Experiences