Book Launch: Names Have Been Changed By Yu-Mei Balasingamchow in conversation with Shubha Sunder

Join us at Eliot Hall as we celebrate the release of Names Have Been Changed by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, former Papercuts bookseller in conversation with Shubha Sunder! **One of Debutiful's Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2026** Catch Me If You Can meets Counterfeit in this thrilling debut novel about Ophir—not her real name—who starts a confessional podcast about her years on the run around the globe, in an unforgettable story about the costs of freedom and the inescapable pull of home Ophir’s tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond. Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she grapples with the shock of relentless dislocation, a painful reexamination of identity, and a deep yearning for home. She tries to find comfort in new lovers and ill-gotten luxury goods, but she can’t help attracting trouble, and she soon faces an unexpected, high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever. Names Have Been Changed is a stylish, fast-paced debut novel that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging—one unlike any you’ve seen before. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow was born in Singapore and moved to Boston, where she was a bookseller at Papercuts Bookshop and where she teaches writing workshops at GrubStreet. Her short fiction has received a Pushcart Prize special mention and been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. She has an MFA in creative writing from Boston University and has received grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Sewanee Writers Conference, and Singapore’s National Arts Council. Names Have Been Changed is her debut novel. Shubha Sunder is a 2025 Whiting Award winner and the author of Optional Practical Training, an immigrant novel in conversations that won the New American Voices Award and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her first book, Boomtown Girl, a short story collection set in her hometown of Bangalore, India, won the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award. She currently teaches in the creative writing MFA program at UMass Boston.

Eliot Hall

From Prisons to Palestine, Reproductive Justice Beyond Abortion: A Discussion Marking the Fourth Anniversary of the Dobbs Decision

Join us at Boston Public Library with Amy Littlefield, author of Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights, Dr. Rasha Khoury, Feyla McNamara of Tides for Reproductive Freedom, &amp; Sashi James of Families for Justice as Healing. Moderated by Laura Grattan, Co-Director of the Anti-Carceral Co+ Laboratory at Wellesley College. Sponsored by the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.&nbsp; Amy Littlefield has reported on abortion rights for more than a decade. She is the abortion access correspondent for The Nation. She's contributed to The New York Times Opinion section and wrote the Times’ Sunday Review cover story “Where the Pro-Choice Movement Went Wrong.” She is a frequent commentator on abortion for TV and radio news outlets and podcasts, including MSNBC and Democracy Now! Littlefield was a lead reporter and narrator on episodes for Reveal, the national investigative journalism show. She lives in Boston with her family.

Boston Public Library

Queer Horror Night with Zefyr Lisowski and Nicky Gonzalez

Join us for a reading and conversation with Zefyr Lisowski, author of Uncanny Valley Girls: Essays on Horror, Survival and Love (2026 Finalist for the Lambda Literary Prize in Transgender Nonfiction) and Nicky Gonzalez, author of Mayra: A Novel. We promise not to scare you too much as these two accomplished writers discuss all things spooky. Zefyr Lisowski is the author of Uncanny Valley Girls (Harper Perennial 2025), shortlisted for a 2026 Lambda Literary Award in Nonfiction. She’s also the author of two poetry collections, Girl Work (Noemi Press 2024), winner of the 2025 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry, and Blood Box (Black Lawrence 2019). Raised in the Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, she lives in Brooklyn and at zefyrlisowski.com. Nicky Gonzalez a writer from Hialeah, Florida. Her fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, BOMB, Kenyon Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and other publications. Her debut book, Mayra, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Papercuts Bookshop

Author Event: You've Changed - Benoit Denizet-Lewis and Jabari Asim

Benoit Denizet-Lewis&nbsp;In Conversation with&nbsp;Jabari Asim&nbsp;discussing his newest book&nbsp;You've Changed: The Promise and Price of Self-Transformation “A blazingly smart, thoughtful, funny, and moving book about the endless hope—and the occasional limits—of human transformation.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and All the Way to the River From New York Times bestselling author&nbsp;Benoit Denizet-Lewis&nbsp;comes a timely, provocative, and deeply moving exploration of personal transformation in a period of roiling uncertainty.&nbsp;You’ve Changed&nbsp;investigates how we remake ourselves—and how identity, belief, and belonging shift in a world that won’t stop doing the same. We live in an age obsessed with reinvention. On Instagram, in recovery meetings, through name-change petitions, lifestyle pivots, deconversion blogs, and political conversion manifestos, we’re surrounded by stories of radical personal change. But what does it really mean to shed an old skin—and why do some transformations inspire us while others raise our hackles? Benoit Denizet-Lewis&nbsp;is an associate professor at Emerson College and a longtime contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has written three previous books, including America Anonymous and the New York Times bestseller Travels With Casey. A New America Fellow and NEH Public Scholar, he divides his time between Boston and Prague. Author and cultural critic&nbsp;Jabari Asim&nbsp;was born and raised in St. Louis. He earned a BA at Northwestern University. His writing engages themes of racism, social justice, and current events. “By the time of Mike Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer, I had already begun scribbling lines and addressing the idea of ‘The Talk’ that many African American parents give to their sons when they reach adolescence,” Asim said in a 2014 statement on the Emerson College website, on the publication of his poem “The Talk” in the Washington Post. “I consider the poem in the tradition of Langston Hughes’s ‘Mother to Son,’ and Dudley Randall’s ‘Ballad of Birmingham.

Independent Bookstore Day

Independent Bookstore Day has arrived once again! Make sure to stop by and join in on the festivities. We will have: Free cake from Odulce! A golden ticket hidden in the store- find it to claim free audiobook credits on Libro.fm! New wearable merch screenprinted by the great people at Speakeasy Printshop (10% off during IBD, with any purchase). Redeem a fully stamped IBD Passport (available for pickup instore any time) for entry into a raffle. Winner recieves a $40 Gift Card &amp; a Papercuts Shirt. Enter into a giveaway for a signed advance copy of Names Have Been Changed, the debut novel of former Papercuts Bookseller Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, along with a tote bag from the publisher, Tiny Reparations Books. Any day is a good day to come browse, but you don't want to miss this one :)

Poetry at Papercuts: All the Possible Bodies by Iain Haley Pollock

Join us for a night of engaging poetry in celebration of Iain Haley Pollock's latest collection All The Possible Bodies! Pollock will join fellow poet Quintin Collins for a reading, conversation, and Q&amp;A. Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, Spit Back a Boy (2011), Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James, 2018), and All the Possible Bodies (Alice James, 2025). His poems have appeared in publications ranging from American Poetry Review to The New York Times Magazine. Pollock has received several honors for his work including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Poetry, the Bim Ramke Prize for Poetry from Denver Quarterly, and a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. He serves as Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, NY. Quintin Collins (he/him) is a writer, editor, and associate director of the Solstice Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. His work appears in many print and online publications, such as Sidereal Magazine, Superstition Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Solstice Literary Magazine, and others. Winner of a Pushcart Prize and the 2019 Atlantis Award from the Poet's Billow, Quintin's publishing accolades include multiple Best of the Net Nominations, and he was a finalist for the 2020 Redivider Beacon Street Prize. Steeped in the myths we spin about self, family, and nation, All the Possible Bodies grounds itself in the physical world with evocative imagery and deft narratives that reach out to pose larger questions about violence, America, racial justice, and personal and national identity. Pollock’s third collection is an intimate portrait of an emotionally candid speaker asking himself and the reader to consider who we are in our complexities. These poems explore our varied identities as Americans: the ways we treat one another, the value we assign to each others’ lives, and the persistent internal conflict that tugs between our desires and greater duty. How do we make peace with our hypocrisy and complicity in the social order that harms others and ourselves? Can and should we? Singular in its telling and universal in feeling, All the Possible Bodies seeks to answer this question through its examination of the complicated emotional and spiritual states characteristic of contemporary American life. Resilience abounds here, along with clarity of story-telling, musicality of lyric, and crispness of language and image.

Author Event & Doggy Discussion: Lab Dog by Melanie D.G. Kaplan

Join us at The Footlight Club for a puppy love-filled book talk with&nbsp;Melanie Kaplan, author of&nbsp;Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research, in conversation with&nbsp;Andrew Ryan&nbsp;(of The Boston Globe) and&nbsp;four fabulous beagles! Lab Dog, praised as “remarkable” by the late Dr. Jane Goodall, is the story of a beagle’s past and the future of animal research. When journalist Melanie D.G. Kaplan adopted her beagle Hammy, all she knew was that he had spent nearly four years in a research lab. Curious to know more about this gentle creature’s past, as well as the broader world of animal research, Kaplan—with Hammy in tow—embarks on a quest for answers. How did Hammy end up in a research facility? Why are we still using millions of animals a year in experiments? What have we learned from them? Is there another way? In&nbsp;Lab Dog, Kaplan investigates the breeding and use of beagles for biomedical research, drug and product testing, and education. She takes readers on a journey, peeking behind laboratory doors and visiting with researchers, activists, ethicists, veterinarians, lawmakers, and innovators. Along the way, she finds thoughtful and caring humans on all sides of the debate, explores promising developments in nonanimal testing, and discovers puzzle pieces from Hammy’s past. Equal parts journalism and love story,&nbsp;Lab Dog&nbsp;offers a nuanced view on our relationship with a species that we both love and exploit, and a reason to hope for a better future for all. Melanie D. G. Kaplan&nbsp;is a longtime independent journalist whose travel and science writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and National Parks magazine. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, a 2021–2022 MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow, and a third-generation Washington, DC, native. Kaplan has lived most of her life with hounds. Andrew Ryan&nbsp;has been an investigative reporter at the Boston Globe for nearly a decade. He was part of the teams behind two of the Globe’s award-winning, investigative podcasts: “Murder in Boston” and “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.” As a member of the Spotlight Team, he was a 2018 Pulitzer finalist in Local Reporting for a series examining race in Boston. He previously worked for the Associated Press, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Day of New London, Conn., Highbridge Horizon in the Bronx, and tended bar at the Landor Pub in London and The Whisky River in Dubuque, IA.

Book Launch: What We Tried to Bury Grows Here Paperback Release - Julian Zabalbeascoa in conversation with Bill Pierce

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist A masterly crafted and haunting tale of survival, longing, and empathy, set during the Spanish Civil War, now in a new paperback edition. “Julian Zabalbeascoa is the real deal, a major talent, and the story he’s telling here is both riveting and terrifying.” —Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls In late 1936, eighteen-year-old Isidro Elejalde leaves his Basque village in Northern Spain, spurred to join the fight to preserve his country’s democracy from the insurrectionists by the rousing words of a political essayist. Months earlier, Spanish generals launched a military coup to overthrow Spain’s newly elected left-wing government. They assumed the population would welcome the coup, but throughout the country people like Isidro remained loyal to the ideals of democracy, and the Spanish Civil War began in bloody earnest. In Bilbao, Mariana raises her two young children while, with her writing, she decries the fascist-backed coup attempt and their German and Italian allies, imploring the world to support democracy. As the Nationalist forces assault the country, Mariana and Isidro’s lives intersect fleetingly, yet in meaningful and lasting ways.

Book Launch & Discussion: The Death and Life of Gentrification By Japonica Brown-Saracino

Join the Boston University Initiative on Cities for the launch of the Gentrification &amp; Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) – a new hub bringing together faculty, students, practitioners, and community partners committed to understanding urban change, culture, and inequality. At the center of the launch is a discussion of Professor Japonica Brown-Saracino’s important new book, The Death and Life of Gentrification. Brown-Saracino explores how the term “gentrification” has evolved far beyond Ruth Glass’s original meaning – shifting from a description of neighborhood change to a socially charged metaphor for cultural appropriation, upscaling, and the loss of authenticity. Drawing on film, literature, journalism, and art, the book illuminates how gentrification has become a lens through which we understand transformations in everyday life and popular culture. Ultimately, the book asks what gentrification means today and calls us to consider how scholarly debate about gentrification contributed to the term’s new life as a metaphor. Brown-Saracino will be joined by Karilyn Crockett (MIT), Lawrence Vale (MIT), and Stephanie Ternullo (Harvard) for a conversation on the book and its implications. Following the discussion, the program will feature lightning talks showcasing recent BU research on gentrification and displacement, and next steps for GUDL.

 Rajen Kilachand Center

Papercuts Presents: Palestinian Authors Sahar Mustafah and Hannah Moushabeck, The Slightest Green

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting a conversation between award-winning Palestinian-American authors, Sahar Mustafah, and Hannah Moushabeck to celebrate the launch of The Slightest Green. A moving multigenerational novel by the celebrated Palestinian American author of The Beauty of Your Face Powerfully etched in Sahar Mustafah’s honest and lyrical prose, The Slightest Green explores the place—and people—we call home and how far we will go to reach them. “How each member of the family finds his or her footing is worthy of an entire series of books, but Afaf’s particular strain of determination and optimism is what propels you to the end of this one … A story of survival and hope, forgiveness and connection.” -Elisabeth Egan, New York Times Book Review Sahar Mustafah is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, an inheritance she explores in her fiction. Her debut novel The Beauty of Your Face was named a 2020 Notable Book and Editor’s Choice by New York Times Book Review and one of Marie Claire Magazine’s 2020 Best Fiction by Women. It was long-listed for the Center for Fiction 2020 First Novel Prize, and was a finalist for the Palestine Book Awards. Her short story “Star of Bethlehem” was awarded the Lawrence Prize for Best Fiction in 2022, and “Tree of Life” won the 2023 Robert J. DeMott Prize. Her recent fiction is featured in Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction and 'The View from Gaza' published in The Massachusetts Review. She was awarded a 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship from New Literary Project and an Illinois Arts Council Grant. Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago.

Papercuts 11th Anniversary Celebration!

You are Invited to celebrate Papercuts' 11th birthday!  We'll have special deals, cake, and most importantly cozy bookstore cheer! Come join the fun!

This Unruly Witness: June Jordan's Legacy

Becky Thompson discusses This Unruly Witness: June Jordan’s Legacy, a tender anthology of poems, essays, letters and interviews honoring the evergreen impact of Black feminist literary ancestor June Jordan. Thompson will be in conversation with Massachusetts Poet Laureate Regie Gibson, Former Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola, and Priya Vulchi, author of Good Friends: Bonds That Change Us and the World. Hosted by Imani Davis.

Loring Greenough House

Papercuts Presents: Author Event with Atash Yaghmaian featuring her new book, My Name Means Fire

Author Event at Papercuts Bookshop: Atash Yaghmaian reads from My Name Means Fire, her touching memoir on living with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), surviving intimate abuse, and searching for true safety while navigating the throes of war in Iran. Published by Beacon Press “I was riveted by this searing ode to the resiliency of the human psyche, rich in beauty and devastation.” —Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood

Papercuts Presents: Tom Toro in conversation with Karl Stevens featuring his debut collection: And to Think We Started as a Book Club...

Author Event at Papercuts Bookshop: Tom Toro reads from And to Think We Started as a Book Club, an engaging collection of work from his incredible career at The New Yorker Come on down to Papercuts to meet not one, but TWO wildly talented artists: New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro, whose debut collection AND TO THINK WE STARTED AS A BOOK CLUB... is fresh off the press, and Boston's own Karl Stevens' whose "Penny is a major literary figure--right up there with Madame Bovary." -- David Sedaris. The two will be in conversation with each other, you will not want to miss out!

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 ⭐️

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

World Cup Watch Parties 🎉⚽️

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 📈

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

papercutsbookshop

Experiences

From Prisons to Palestine, Reproductive Justice Beyond Abortion: A Discussion Marking the Fourth Anniversary of the Dobbs Decision

Book Launch: Names Have Been Changed By Yu-Mei Balasingamchow in conversation with Shubha Sunder

Queer Horror Night with Zefyr Lisowski and Nicky Gonzalez

Author Event: You've Changed - Benoit Denizet-Lewis and Jabari Asim

Independent Bookstore Day

Poetry at Papercuts: All the Possible Bodies by Iain Haley Pollock

Author Event & Doggy Discussion: Lab Dog by Melanie D.G. Kaplan

Author Event & Doggy Discussion: Lab Dog by Melanie D.G. Kaplan

Book Launch: What We Tried to Bury Grows Here Paperback Release - Julian Zabalbeascoa in conversation with Bill Pierce

Book Launch & Discussion: The Death and Life of Gentrification By Japonica Brown-Saracino

Papercuts Presents: Palestinian Authors Sahar Mustafah and Hannah Moushabeck, The Slightest Green

Papercuts 11th Anniversary Celebration!

This Unruly Witness: June Jordan's Legacy

Papercuts Presents: Author Event with Atash Yaghmaian featuring her new book, My Name Means Fire

Papercuts Presents: Tom Toro in conversation with Karl Stevens featuring his debut collection: And to Think We Started as a Book Club...