Four Stories was an award-winning literary series founded in 2005 by the writer Tracy Slater to bridge Greater Boston’s nightlife and arts communities. Each event took place in a club, bar, or lounge, and featured some of the most acclaimed authors in the nation, all reading their work under a unified theme. In 2006, the series expanded to Japan, with events in both Tokyo and Osaka.

The idea: to bring writers and readers, intellectuals and club-goers, friends and interested people together in a more upscale environment than a bookstore, to think, drink, eat, talk, laugh, hear stories, trade tales. Each event was designed to be simple, amusing, thought-provoking, free for entry, and open to the public.

The experience: like a 19th-Century salon, only 150 years later―same socializing, same witty banter, corsets optional.

The Four Stories style of literary investigation: if you asked the best question, you won a free drink!

SELECT READINGS ON MP3

Lit Crawl/Four Stories, a special installment of the Boston Book Festival 2017 Lit Crawl | Salon Acote 132 Newbury Street 10/26/17

  • Olivia Kate Cerrone, author of The Hunger Saint, a historical novella about the child miners of Sicily (MP3)

  • E. Dolores Johnson, an essayist who focuses on inter-racialism (MP3)

  • Whitney Scharer, whose forthcoming debut novel, The Age of Light, is based on the life of pioneering photographer Lee Miller (MP3)

  • Courtney Sender, whose fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, AGNI, American Short Fiction, and The Georgia Review (MP3)
     

Four Stories Boston | Now You See It: Stories of Perception, Revelation, and Fascination 6/16/14

  • Margaret Zamos-Monteith, teacher and writer whose work has appeared in BOMB, Fugue, Gargoyle, Evergreen Review, and the podcast series Fiction for Driving Across America. (MP3)

  • Glenn Morris, author of the novel Obligation for Justice and the forthcoming Saving Angel, due this fall. (MP3)

  • Celeste Ng, winner of the Pushcart Prize and author of the novel Everything I Never Told You, forthcoming in June 2014 from Penguin Press. (MP3)

  • Tim Parrish, author of Fear and What Follows: The Violent Education of a Christian Racist, a Memoir; The Jumper, a novel; and Red Stick Men, short stories. (MP3)


Four Stories Boston 2014 Opening Night | Out of Bounds: Stories of displacement, exile, and alienation 1/13/14

  • Tova Mirvis, author of the three novels The Ladies Auxiliary, The Outside World, and Visible City (forthcoming March 2014). (MP3)

  • Henriette Lazaridis Power, author of the novel The Clover House and founding editor of The Drum, a literary magazine publishing exclusively in audio form. (MP3) 

  • Laura K. Warrell, author whose fiction and essays have appeared in Salon.com, Racialicious.com, The Boston Globe, and Numero Cinq Magazine. (MP3) (Read the rest of this story here.)

  • Steve Yarbrough, author of nine books, most recently the novel The Realm of Last Chances. (MP3)


A Four Stories Boston Most Special Event | Fundraiser for the Tohoku Region of Japan, benefiting the children who were orphaned in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.5/23/11

  • Andre Dubus III, author of The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and the new memoir, Townie; recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for fiction, and The Pushcart Prize; and Finalist for the Rome Prize Fellowship from the Academy of Arts and Letters (MP3)

  • Elyssa East, author of Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, winner of the 2010 L. L. Winship/P.E.N. New England Award in non-fiction, a Boston Globe Bestseller, an Editors' Choice selection from The New York Times Book Review, and a "Must-Read Book" by the Massachusetts Book Awards (MP3)

  • Elizabeth Searle, author of a new novel due put in the fall, Girl Held in Home, and three previous books of fiction : Celebrities in Disgrace, a novella which was produced as a short film in 2010; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an ALA book award; and a story collection, My Body to You, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize, as well as the theatrical work Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera (MP3)

  • Joan Wickersham, author of nonfiction book The Suicide Index, a National Book Award Finalist; the novel The Paper Anniversary; and fiction in Agni, Glimmer Train, The Hudson Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Story, and The Best American Short Stories  (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Stories from The Drum, a very cool new literary magazine...for your ears 11/15/10

  • Ethan Gilsdorf; poet, teacher, critic and journalist with travel, arts, and pop culture pieces regularly appearing in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and more; and author of the book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, named a "Must-Read"by the Massachusetts Book Awards (more @www.ethangilsdorf.com) (MP3)

  • Lynne Griffin, author of the novels Sea Escape and Life Without Summer, regular contributor to Boston's Fox Morning News's segment Family Life Stories, and teacher at Wheelock College and Grub Street (more @ lynnegriffin.com) (MP3)

  • Michelle Hoover; teacher of writing at Boston University and Grub Street; fiction writer with work in Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, and Best New American Voices, among others; former Bread Loaf Writer's Conference scholar, Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, and MacDowell fellow;  2005 the winner of the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction; and author of the new novel Quickening, which has been shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's 2010 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize (MP3)

  • Bret Anthony Johnston, author of the internationally acclaimed Corpus Christi: Stories and editor of the bestselling Naming the World and Other Exercises for Creative Writers, teacher in the Bennington Writing Seminar, and Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University (more @ www.bretanthonyjohnston.com) (MP3 1, 2, and 3)


Four Stories Boston Fall 2010 Opening Night! | The Forbidden: Tales of transgressions, secrets, and sins 9/20/10

  • Steven Beeber, author of the book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, editor of the anthology AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless, associate editor of the literary journal Conduit; and writer with work in The Paris Review, Fiction, The New York Times, Bridge, Spin, Maxim,  and others (more @ www.jewpunk.com) (MP3)

  • Jennifer Haigh, author of the novels The Condition, Baker Towers , Mrs. Kimbleand the forthcoming The Lost Gospel (August 2011); winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction and the PEN L.L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author; and writer with short fictionpublished in Granta, Ploughshares, The Atlantic, The Saturday Evening Post, and many others (MP3)

  • Carissa Halston, author of A Girl Named Charlie Lester (honorably mentioned in the New York Book Festival), contributing editor of apt, and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee (MP3)

  • Randy Ross, writer with articles published in the Boston Phoenix, the Boston Herald and more, and former executive editor at PC World magazine (MP3)

 

Four Stories BostonWinter/Spring 2010 Season Finale! | Me, Myself, and I: Stories of Solitude, Solipsism, and Individuality 5/17/10

  • Timothy Gager, author of eight books of poetry and fiction, host of the Dire Literary Series for the past nine years, and co-founder of The Somerville News Writers Festival (MP3)

  • Lauren Mackler, author of the international bestseller Solemate; co-author of the book Speaking of Success; writer with pieces in London ’s Daily Mail andWomen’s Business; and regular blogger for the Huffington Post (MP3)

  • Joanna Smith Rakoff, writer with work in the New York Times, Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and more; and author of the novel, A Fortunate Age, a Booklist Top Ten Debut Novel of 2009, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, winner of the Elle Readers’ Prize, an IndieNext Pick, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller, and a selection of Barnes and Noble’s First Look Book Club (MP3)

 

Four Stories Boston2010 Opening Night | Family Feuds: Stories of Troubled Tribes & Bizarre Bonds, a celebration of both the opening of the 2010 series & the launch of Post Road’s 18th issue 1/25/10

  • Elizabeth Gonzalez, freelance writer with short stories appearing or forthcoming in Greensboro Review, Sycamore Review, and Post Road (MP3)

  • Tom Perrotta, acclaimed author of the novels The Abstinence Teacher, Little Children, Election, Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, and Joe College (MP3)

 

Four Stories Boston event | The Long Goodbye: Stories of endings and loss 9/14/09

  • Lisa Borders, author of the novel Cloud Cuckoo Land andcontributor to the anthology Don't You Forget About Me; and teacher of writing at Grub Street (MP3)

  • Steven Brykman, author and comic with work published in Playboy.com, Cracked, Nerve, and Awake: a Reader for the Sleepless; former writing fellow at the University of Massachusetts; and winner of the Harvey Swados prize for fiction (MP3)

  • Tim Horvath, author of the novella Circulation and stories out or forthcoming in Conjunctions, Fiction, Puerto del Sol, Alimentum, and elsewhere; and teacher of creative writing at Chester College of New England and Grub Street Writers (more @ www.timhorvath.com) (MP3, also appearing in print in Conjunctions: Hybrid Histories, issue #53)

  • Sebastian Stuart, author of the just-released novel The Hour Between; the New York Times bestselling novel--and tie-in with the soap opera All My Children--Charm! by Kendall Hart; and the novel 24-Karat Kids (written with Dr. Judy Goldstein) (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Love and Madness: Tales of the things we'll do 4/13/09

  • Jamie Cat Callan, creator of The Writers Toolbox from Chronicle Books and author of the new book French Women Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love (MP3)

  • Chris Castellani, author of the novels A Kiss From Maddalena, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, and The Saint of Lost Things; and Artistic Director of Grub Street (MP3)

  • Diana Spechler, author of the novel Who By Fire and fiction in Glimmer Train Stories, Moment, Lilith, and elsewhere (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Body Parts: Tales of the head, the heart, and everything in between 1/26/09

  • Jaime Clarke, author of the novel We're So Famous,; editor of Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes; cofounder of Post Road, a national literary magazine based out of New York and Boston; host of Talk Show, a monthly writers' roundtable at Fanzine.com, and co-owner of Newtonville Books (MP3)

  • Jeannie Greeley, relationship and humor columnist for Boston's Stuff@Nightmagazine; writer with work in the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, Bay Windows, MTV's LOGO; and former guest on the Matty in the Morning Show and WFNX's 'One in Ten' program (MP3)

  • Ron Maclean, fiction writer with pieces in GQ, Greensboro Review, Prism International , Night Train and other quarterlies; recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short Fiction and recurring Pushcart Prize nominee; author of the novel Blue Winnetka Skies and the just-released short-story collection Why the Long Face?; and former executive director and current instructor at Grub Street (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Saints and Sinners: Stories of temptation, seduction, and redemption 11/3/08

  • Robin Lippincott, author of the novels In the Meantime, Our Arcadia, and Mr. Dalloway, and the story collection The Real, True Angel, as well as fiction/nonfiction in Paris Review, Fence, American Short Fiction, Memorious, The Literary Review, and others; recipient of fellowships to Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony; and teacher of writing in Spalding's brief-residency MFA Writing Program and at Harvard University. (MP3, with event intro)

  • Scott Pomfret, author of Since My Last Confession, the Romentics gay romance novels series, The Q Guide to Wine and Cocktails, and short stories in Post Road, New Orleans Review, Fiction International, and other places. More @ www.scottpomfret.com. (MP3)
     

Four Stories Boston | The Big Trip: Stories of growing up, messing up, and everything along the way 10/19/08

  • Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, an Oprah's Book Club selection and finalist for the National Book Award; Bluesman; The Cage Keeper and Other Stories; and more (MP3)

  • Margot Livesey, author of the novels Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona and The House on Fortune Street; recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts; and current distinguished writer in residence at Emerson College and the John F. and Dorothy H. Magee writer in residence at Bowdoin College (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Tales of appearing & disappearing 3/31/08

  • John Sedgwick, author of seven books, including two novels and, most recently, a multi-generational family memoir, In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family; and journalist with over 500 magazine stories for Newsweek, GQ, the Atlantic Monthly, and many others (MP3)

  • Laura Van den Berg, editor-in-chief of Redivider; Ploughshares staff member; writer with fiction published (or forthcoming) in The Indiana Review, The Literary Review, American Short Fiction, One Story, and StoryQuarterly, among others; andrecipient of the 2007 Dzanc Prize (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Friends, Family, and Foes:  Tales of the ties that bind 11/13/06

  • Elisabeth Brink, author of the comic novel Save Your Own, a Booksense Notable Book for July 2006, and teacher of writing and literature at Boston College, Tufts, and Harvard (Sorry, no MPS)

  • Jessica Berger Gross, editor of the forthcoming anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope (January 2007), columnist on theLiterary Mama online magazine, and teacher of writing at the Harvard Extension School (MP3)

  • Tracy McArdle, author of Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa, the forthcoming Real Women Eat Beef, and essays in Premiere and The Boston Globe (MP3)

  • Karen Propp, co-editor of bestselling anthology Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does The Dishes;  author of the memoirs In Sickness & In Health and The Pregnancy Project; writer of nonfiction in Prevention, Salon.com, and  LIlith; and fellowship winner from Massachusetts Cultural Center for the Arts (MP3)


Four Stories Boston: Crime and Punishment: Stories from the Big House | A Four Stories/PEN New England event honoring PEN's Freedom to Write Program 10/30/06

  • Helen Elaine Lee, associate professor in writing and humanities at MIT; graduate of Harvard Law School; writer of fiction from Callaloo, SAGE,  Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present and Ancestral House: The Black Story in the Americas and Europe; and author of the novels The Serpent's Gift, Water Marked, and the forthcoming Life Without, about the lives of inmates in American prisons (Sorry, no MP3)

  • T. J. Parsell, writer and human rights activist, president of the board of Stop Prisoner Rape, consultant to the US govt's Prison Rape Elimination Commission, and author of Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man’s Prison (forthcoming from Caroll & Graf, November 2006) (MP3)

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder, teacher of writing and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program, and author of essays from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, and Kansai Time Out (MP3 [including event intro])

  • Megan Sullivan, associate professor of writing at Boston University and author of numerous books, including the forthcoming The Embezzler's Daughter: A memoir, about her father's incarceration (MP3)

  • Jean Trounstine, author of Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, about her 10 years directing plays at Framingham Prison; co-author of Finding A Voice, about the internationally acclaimed program for offenders "Changing Lives through Literature"; and co-editor of the Boston best-seller Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out On Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Driving Solo: Four Stories presents Grub Street authors on loneliness and love unrequited 10/16/06

  • Stace Budzko, author of pieces in numerous literary journals and magazines, including works forthcoming in Norton's Flash Fiction Forward Anthology, Rose Metal Press' Brevity and Echo, and The Binnacle; writing instructor at Emerson College; and writer-in-residence at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (MP3 [including event intro])

  • Jamie Cat Callan, author of the forthcoming book Hooking Up or Holding Outand of essays from The Missouri Review, Best American Erotica, and Story (MP3)

  • Mike Heppner, author of Pike's Folly and The Egg Code, a Publishers Weeklyand Washington Post best book of the year, and the Philadelphia City Paper's "best novel of 2002" (MP3)

  • Ellen Litman, writer of fiction from Best New American Voices 2007, Best of Tin House, TriQuarterly, and Ontario Review; and author of the forthcomingshort story collection The Last Chicken in America (W. W. Norton, fall 2007)
    (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | A Place Apart II: Tales of exile and home, family and foreigners 9/11/06

  • Chris Castellani, author of The Saint of Lost Things and A Kiss from Maddalena, winner of Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction; and Artistic Director of Grub Street (MP3)

  • Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the forthcoming We Disappear; and winner of fellowships to the London Arts Board and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (MP3)

  • Lucy McCauley, author oftravel essays and other nonfiction appearing in The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Review, The Los Angeles Times, and Salon.com; and series editor for Best Women's Travel Writing (MP3)

  • Christine Palamidessi Moore, author of The Virgin Knows and the forthcoming Fiddle Case, winner of UrbanArts’ Art-on-the-Orange-Line award;  and teacher of writing at Boston University (MP3 [including event intro])


Four Stories Boston | Dark and Light: Stories of laughter and melancholy 4/3/06

  • Jacqueline Lalley, contributor to The Onion, Bitch Magazine, Harvard Review, and Secrets & Confidences: The Complicated Truth about Women's Friendships (Sorry, no MP3)

  • Don Lee, editor of Ploughshares  journal; acclaimed author of Country of Originand Yellow; and winner of an American Book Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction (MP3)

  • Stephen McCauley, author of five novels including The Object of My Affectionand, most recently, Alternatives to Sex; and teacher of Writing at Brandeis University (MP3)

  • Askold Melnyczuk, director of creative writing at UMASS Boston; author of the New York Times Notable Book Ambassador of the Dead; recipient of the Lila Wallace Readers’ Digest Award and the McGinnis Award in Fiction; and essayist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Partisan Review, Ploughshares, and The Boston Globe (MP3)

ALL PAST EVENTS

Four Stories Boston Spring 2018: The New Venue! | May 21, 2018 | The Burren, Sommerville, MA 

  • Emily Franklin, author of numerous books for adults and for teens. Her work has been published in the New York Times and The Boston Globe, read aloud on National Public Radio, named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries, and long-listed for the London Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.

  • Maria Pinto, former student of creative writing at Brandeis University and winner of fellowships by the Writers’ Room of Boston and The Mastheads. Her work has appeared in Necessary Fiction, Cleaver, and FriGG, among other journals. When she’s not reading fiction for FLAPPERHOUSE or walking dogs, she’s in the woods hunting mushrooms.

  • Shubha Sunder, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow, a Grub Street instructor, and an associate fiction editor of West Branch. Her writing has appeared in Lenny Letter, Crazyhorse, Narrative Magazine, and Michigan Quarterly Review. She recently completed her first novel, titled Boomtown Girl, set in her hometown of Bangalore, India.

  • Sam Witt, the author of three poetry collections, including Everlasting Quail, winner of the Katherine Nason Bakeless Prize, and 2018’s Little Domesday Clock. Witt has published widely, edited the poetry anthology Devouring the Green: Fear of a Human Planet, and has won the Red Hen Press Poetry Award, the Pitch Poetry Award and the Meridian Editors’ Prize. Witt is currently Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing at Framingham State University.
     

Lit Crawl/Four Stories, a special installment of the Boston Book Festival 2017 Lit Crawl | Salon Acote 132 Newbury Street 10/26/17

  • Olivia Kate Cerrone, author of The Hunger Saint, a historical novella about the child miners of Sicily (MP3)

  • E. Dolores Johnson, an essayist who focuses on inter-racialism (MP3)

  • Whitney Scharer, whose forthcoming debut novel, The Age of Light, is based on the life of pioneering photographer Lee Miller (MP3)

  • Courtney Sender, whose fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, AGNI, American Short Fiction, and The Georgia Review (MP3)
     

Four Stories Boston @ The Middle East 5/18/17

  • Suzanne Berne, author of four novels and a book of nonfiction, including A Crime in the Neighborhood, which won Great Britain’s Orange Prize. She teaches creative writing at Boston College

  • Sarah Colwill-Brown, whose creative work has appeared in Solstice literary magazine, The Conium Review, Poetry & Audience, and elsewhere. She is the marketing manager and an instructor at GrubStreet creative writing center, and an incoming Writer-in-Residence at Wellspring House

  • Jonathan Escoffery, winner of the 2016 Waasnode Fiction Prize, a 2017 Somerville Arts Council Artist Fellowship, and the 2017 Ivan Gold Fellowship from The Writers' Room of Boston. His writing has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Passages North, The Caribbean Writer, and elsewhere. Jonathan is currently a Writer-in-Residence at the Wellspring House in Ashfield, MA

  • Patrick Gabridge, whose novels include Steering to Freedom, Moving [a life in boxes], and Tornado Siren. He is a widely-produced playwright and currently has a play about quantum physics, Both/And, at the MIT Museum, and his site-specific historical play about the Boston Massacre, Blood on the Snow, opens at the Old State House on June 1st.

Hosted by Harvard shmarty-pants, Linda Schlossberg!


Four Stories Boston @ The Middle East | 1/26/17

  • Christopher Boucher, author of the novels Golden Delicious and How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, both from Melville House, and he’s also the managing editor of Post Road Magazine. Christopher teaches writing and literature at Boston College

  • Chip Cheek, whose stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Harvard Review, Washington Square, and other journals and anthologies. He's been awarded scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, and the Vermont Studio Center. He's the former head instructor at GrubStreet and is currently finishing his novel

  • Alison Murphy, writer, military brat, and Program Director at GrubStreet. A graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program, her first novel, Balagan, was the recipient of the 2016 James Jones First Novel Award. Her nonfiction can be found in Men's Journal, PyschologyToday.com, WBUR, and elsewhere

  • Laura van den Berg, whose debut novel, Find Me, was a Time Out New York and NPR Best Book of 2015, among others, and longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. She is also the author of two story collections, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth, which received the Bard Fiction Prize and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Laura is a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard University and teaches in the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College


Four Stories Boston @ The Middle East | 10/19/16

  • Sonya Larson, whose short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the American Literary Review, American Short Fiction, Poets & Writers, Audible.com, West Branch, Salamander, Del Sol Review, The Red Mountain Review, and The Hub. She has received honors and fellowships from Best American Short Stories 2015, the Vermont Studio Center, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. She is currently the Assistant Director of GrubStreet's Muse and the Marketplace conference, and is studying fiction in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College

  • Sara Majka, whose story collection Cities I've Never Lived In was published this year by Graywolf Press. Her stories have appeared in A Public Space, Brick, Guernica, American Short Fiction, and PEN America. A former fiction fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, she lives in Queens, New York

  • Anna Noyes, author of the debut story collection, Goodnight, Beautiful Women, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice (Grove Atlantic 2016). She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in Vice, A Public Space, and Guernica, among others. She has received the Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellowship, the James Merrill House Fellowship, and the Lighthouse Works Fellowship, and has served as writer-in-residence at the Polli Talu Arts Center in Estonia. Goodnight, Beautiful Women was awarded the 2013 Henfield Prize for Fiction and the 2016 Lotos Foundation Prize, and is a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Amazon Best Book of the Month (Literature and Fiction), and an Indie Next Great Readspick. Noyes was raised in Downeast Maine

  • William Pierce, whose fiction has appeared in Granta, Ecotone, and elsewhere. He is senior editor of AGNI and author of Reality Hunger: On Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle, forthcoming this December from Arrowsmith Press.
     

Four Stories @ the Tokyo International Literary Festival |  3/4/2016

  • Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan; investigative journalist; and writer for the Los Angeles Times.

  • Marc Kaufman, assistant professor at Tokyo's Sophia University; fiction and nonfiction writer with work in Narrative Magazine and TYO Magazine; and two-time finalist for both Glimmer Train and Narrative Magazine short story contests.

  • Roland Kelts, author of the acclaimed best-seller Japanamerica; How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US; writer with work in the New Yorker, the Japan Times, the New York Times, and more; contributing editor to the Japanese literary journal Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan; and frequent commentator on Japan for National Public Radio and the BBC.

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder & author of The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self & Home on the Far Side of the World, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, National Geographic "great new read," and one of PopSugar's best books of 2015.

With guest MC & moderator Takami Nieda, translator of fiction works such as "Mummy," by Banana Yoshimoto, from the collection The Book of Tokyo: A City in Short Fiction; and 2015 winner of the PEN/Heim translation fund for her translation of Kazuki Kaneshiro's GO. 

Co-sponsored by Sophia University
 

Four Stories Tokyo Book Launch Bash |  "Married to the Mob: Four Writers on Love, Travel & Life as a Gaijin Wife," combining readings with a celebration of new books, including Four Stories founder Tracy Slater's The Good Shufu 9/27/15

  • Leza Lowitz, Yoga goddess, founder of Tokyo's Sun & Moon studio, & author of Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras (Stone Bridge Press)

  • Grace Buchele Mineta, Cartoonist, founder of the hit blog & You Tube channel Texan in Tokyo, & author of Confessions of a Texan in Tokyo.

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder & author of The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self & Home on the Far Side of the World (Putnam), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection & one of PopSugar's best books of the year.

  • Liane Wakabayashi, Founder of Genesis Arts Center of Tokyo & author of a memoir-in-progress about--you guessed it--life as a gaijin wife!

Plus guest host Barry Lancet, mystery writer & author of Tokyo Kill (Simon & Schuster), finalist for the Shamus Award!


A Most Special Four Stories Boston Event | Combining readings from all-star authors and festivities to celebrate the launch of Four Stories founder Tracy Slater's book The Good Shufu. 6/26/15

  • Alysia Abbott, author Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, named a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the best books of 2013 by The San Francisco Chronicle, Goodreads, and others.

  • Julia Glass author of the National Book Award-winning novel Three Junes and cofounder of the arts festival Twenty Summers.

  • Michael Lowenthal, author of novel The Paternity Test, an IndieNext selection and a Lambda Literary Award finalist.

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder and author of the memoir The Good Shufu, a Barnes & Nobles Discover Great New Writers Selection & National Geographic Great New Read.

With host-hottie Steven Beeber!

Four Stories Boston 2014 Winter Event | Crossing Over: Four Poets Do Prose 12/8/14

  • Stephen Burt, author of BELMONT, CLOSE CALLS WITH NONSENSE, and other collections of poetry and literary criticism.

  • Sam White, author of the poetry collection, THE GODDESS OF THE HUNT IS NOT HERSELF, the graphic novels, BABYCARE and MARION FALLS, and a novel-in-progress, REBUILD THE CAMP; also founder and director of the art carnival Wooly Fair, and director of operations at Aurora, a mixed use creative venue in downtown Providence.

  • Tanya Larkin, author of two collections of poetry, MY SCARLET WAYS, winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize, and HOTHOUSE ORPHAN, a chapbook published by Convulsive Editions.

  • Rob Arnold, cofounder of the online magazine MEMORIOUS.

With guest host Howie Axelrod!


Four Stories Boston | Girls Night Out: Four stories from four knockout women writers 9/15/14

  • Robin Black, author of the novel LIFE DRAWING and the story collection IF I LOVED YOU, I WOULD TELL YOU THIS.

  • Julia Fierro, author of the novel CUTTING TEETH and founder of Sackett Street Writers .

  • Jennifer Haigh, author of the novels MRS. KIMBLE, BAKER TOWERS, THE CONDITION, and FAITH, and the short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN, winner of the 2014 Massachusetts Book Award and the 2014 PEN/New England Award in fiction; Also recipient of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and the PEN/Winship Award for Fiction.

  • Joanna Rakoff, author of the memoir MY SALINGER YEAR and the novel A FORTUNATE AGE.

And introducing guest host Michelle Seaton!

Four Stories Boston | Now You See It: Stories of Perception, Revelation, and Fascination 6/16/14

  • Margaret Zamos-Monteith, teacher and writer whose work has appeared in BOMB, Fugue, Gargoyle, Evergreen Review, and the podcast series Fiction for Driving Across America. (MP3)

  • Glenn Morris, author of the novel Obligation for Justice and the forthcoming Saving Angel, due this fall. (MP3)

  • Celeste Ng, winner of the Pushcart Prize and author of the novel Everything I Never Told You, forthcoming in June 2014 from Penguin Press. (MP3)

  • Tim Parrish, author of Fear and What Follows: The Violent Education of a Christian Racist, a Memoir; The Jumper, a novel; and Red Stick Men, short stories. (MP3)

And introducing guest host Linda Schlossberg!

Four Stories Boston 2014 Opening Night | Out of Bounds: Stories of displacement, exile, and alienation 1/13/14

  • Tova Mirvis, author of the three novels The Ladies Auxiliary, The Outside World, and Visible City (forthcoming March 2014). (MP3)

  • Henriette Lazaridis Power, author of the novel The Clover House and founding editor of The Drum, a literary magazine publishing exclusively in audio form. (MP3) 

  • Laura K. Warrell, author whose fiction and essays have appeared in Salon.com, Racialicious.com, The Boston Globe, and Numero Cinq Magazine. (MP3) (Read the rest of this story here.)

  • Steve Yarbrough, author of nine books, most recently the novel The Realm of Last Chances. (MP3)

Plus a guest-host fave, hottie-pants Steve Beeber!

Four Stories Boston | Wait For It...Stories of Impatience, Suspense, and Delayed Gratification 9/10/13

  • Ethan Gilsdorf, author of the award-winning travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms; and frequent contributor to the New York Times, Boston Globe, wired.com, WBUR, BoingBoing, GeekDad and psychologytoday.com and others

  • Andrew Goldstein, author of the novel The Bookie's Son, publisher at SixOneSeven Books, and recipient of the Bread Loaf Fellowship 

  • Linda Schlossberg, Assistant Director of Studies for the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Harvard University, where she teaches courses in literature and creative writing, and author of the novel Life in Miniature(Kensington, 2010) 

  • Michelle Seaton, journalist and author whose fiction and essays have appeared in One Story, Harvard Review and Best American Nonrequired Reading, among others; longtime contributor to Robb Report and NPR's "Only a Game"; and co-author of The Way of Boys

Plus double the guest-host fun with both Steven Beeber and Steven Brykman!

Four Stories Japan | Double-Takes: Stories of Surprises, Mistakes, and Second Chances 6/29/13

  • Amy Chavez, columnist for The Japan Times since 1997 and author of the books Japan, Funny Side Up and Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage: 900 miles to enlightenment 

  • Marc Kaufman, lecturer at Tokyo's Sophia University and fiction and nonfiction writer with work in Narrative Magazine and more

  • Peter Mallett, university professor and freelance writer on classical music and the arts, former arts editor of Kansai Time Out, publisher and editor of Artspace, and author of the novel-in-process Appassionata 

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder and author of the book The Good Shufu: A Wife in Search of a Life Between East and West, forthcoming from Penguin's Putnam and Berkley imprints


Four Stories Boston | Revisionist History: Tales of Recollections, Misremembering, & the Past 6/11/13

  • Sari Boren, museum exhibit developer and writer, partner in the exhibit design firm Wondercabinet Interpretive Design, and author with a new essays in War, Literature & the Arts and Alimentum

  • Judah Leblang, author of the "Life in the Slow Lane" column for Bay Windows, the one-man show "One Man's Journey through the Middle Ages," and the memoir Finding My Place: One Man's Journey from Cleveland to Boston and Beyond

  • Tehila Lieberman, winner of the 2012 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction for her collection Venus in the Afternoon; recipient of the Stanley Elkin Memorial Prize and the Rick DeMarinis Short Fiction prize; and author of the forthcoming novel The Last Holy Man

  • Douglas Trevor, author of the novel Girls I Know (forthcoming from SixOneSeven Books, 2013) and the short story collection The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space (University of Iowa Press), winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award and finalist for the 2006 Hemingway Foundation/Pen Award for First Fiction; and Associate Professor of Renaissance Literature and Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Michigan.

With guest-host hottie and Adonis-esque mensch Steven Bieber

Four Stories Goes West! to Harvard, MA. | Beneath The Surface: Confessions, Guilt and Redemption 5/18/13

  • Dillon Bustin, playwright, folklorist, and singer/songwriter with work published through June Appal Recordings, Indiana University Press, International Journal of Folklore Research, and Encyclopedia of Appalachia; and Artistic Director of Hibernian Hall in Boston.

  • Linda Hoffman, author, poet, artist, sculptor, and founding editor of Wild Apples, A Journal of Nature, Art and Inquiry.

  • Pagan Kennedy, author of the novels Confessions of a Memory Eater and Spinsters, and of the non fiction books Black Livingston and The Dangerous Joy Of Doctor Sex and Other True Stories, among many others; winner of a National Endowments for The Arts Fellowship in fiction and a Massachusetts Cultural Counsel; finalist for the Orange Prize, and regular columnist for The New York Times Magazine.

  • Lauren Slater, author of eight books of both fiction and nonfiction, including The 60,000 Dog: My Life with Animals and Opening Skinner's Box: Great Great Psychological Experiments Of the 20th Century; recipient of a 2004 National Endowments for The Arts fellowship; finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for excellence in science writing; essayist with work regularly featured in The New York Times Magazine, Harpers, Elle, and Self and with eight inclusions in The Best American Essays series.

With guest hosts Laura Vilain and Sarah von Conta

Four Stories Boston 2013 Opening Night | Telling tales: Stories of secrets, lies, & true confessions 3/5/13

  • Jennifer Haigh, author of the short story collection News From Heaven and four critically acclaimed novels:  Faith, The Condition, Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble; recipient of the PEN/Hemingway and PEN/L.L. Winship awards; and writer with fiction in The Atlantic, Granta, The Best American Short Stories 2012, and many others

  • Michael Lowenthal, author of the novels The Paternity Test, Charity Girl, Avoidance, and The Same Embrace as well as short stories in Tin House, the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, Best New American Voices 2005, and more; writer with nonfiction in publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Boston Magazine, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Out; and recipient of the James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize.

  • Lauren Slater, author of the books Welcome to My Country, Prozac Diary, Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, Opening Skinner's Box, Blue Beyond Blue, and Love Works Like This; editor of the 2006 edition of Best American Essays; and recipient of 2004 National Endowments for the Arts Award, multiple inclusions in Best American Volumes, and A Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at The Massachusetts Institute For Technology

  • Kaitlin Solimine, winner of the Dzanc Books/Disquiet International Literary Program Award for her forthcoming novel Empire of Glass; former Fulbright fellow; and writer with work in Guernica, Cha, The Hairpin, The World of Chinese Magazine, and more

MC'd by Four Stories founder Tracy Slater.
 

A Four Stories Boston Most Special Event | Fundraiser for the Tohoku Region of Japan, benefiting the children who were orphaned in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.5/23/11

  • Andre Dubus III, author of The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and the new memoir, Townie; recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for fiction, and The Pushcart Prize; and Finalist for the Rome Prize Fellowship from the Academy of Arts and Letters (MP3)

  • Elyssa East, author of Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, winner of the 2010 L. L. Winship/P.E.N. New England Award in non-fiction, a Boston Globe Bestseller, an Editors' Choice selection from The New York Times Book Review, and a "Must-Read Book" by the Massachusetts Book Awards (MP3)

  • Elizabeth Searle, author of a new novel due put in the fall, Girl Held in Home, and three previous books of fiction : Celebrities in Disgrace, a novella which was produced as a short film in 2010; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an ALA book award; and a story collection, My Body to You, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize, as well as the theatrical work Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera (MP3)

  • Joan Wickersham, author of nonfiction book The Suicide Index, a National Book Award Finalist; the novel The Paper Anniversary; and fiction in Agni, Glimmer Train, The Hudson Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Story, and The Best American Short Stories  (MP3)


Four Stories Boston Special Fall 2010 Season Finale | Who Am I? Tales of Identity, Confusion, and Conflict, In partnership with and support of the New Center for Arts & Culture's Chanukah Festival.12/8/10

  • Charles Coe, author of the poetry volume Picnic on the Moon, as well as poems appearing in a wide variety of literary journals and magazines; and writer of essays, book reviews and magazine feature articles

  • Judah Leblang,  writer and storyteller whose column 'Life in the Slow Lane' appears regularly in Bay Windows, Boston's weekly gay newspaper, and has been featured on NPR stations around the US; and author of the book Finding My Place: One Man's Journey from Cleveland to Boston and Beyond (hear excerpts from the book at www.lakeeffectpress.com)

  • Michael Mack, writer with pieces published in America magazine, the Beloit Poetry Journal, New York Quarterly, and Journal of the American Medical Association, and twice anthologized in Best Catholic Writing; recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for New Theater Works; and performer whose work has been featured on NPR and in the Washington Post, Boston Sunday Globe, and Backstage magazine (more @ www.michaelmacklive.com)

  • Tracy McArdle, novelist screenwriter, and former entertainment publicist; author of humorous essays for The Boston Globe magazine and the comic novels Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa and Real Women Eat Beef; and regular contributor to the Carlisle Mosquito and the parenting blog Momlogic

With guest host-hottie Steve Brykman!
 

Four Stories Boston | Stories from The Drum, a very cool new literary magazine...for your ears 11/15/10

  • Ethan Gilsdorf; poet, teacher, critic and journalist with travel, arts, and pop culture pieces regularly appearing in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and more; and author of the book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, named a "Must-Read"by the Massachusetts Book Awards (more @www.ethangilsdorf.com) (MP3)

  • Lynne Griffin, author of the novels Sea Escape and Life Without Summer, regular contributor to Boston's Fox Morning News's segment Family Life Stories, and teacher at Wheelock College and Grub Street (more @ lynnegriffin.com) (MP3)

  • Michelle Hoover; teacher of writing at Boston University and Grub Street; fiction writer with work in Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, and Best New American Voices, among others; former Bread Loaf Writer's Conference scholar, Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, and MacDowell fellow;  2005 the winner of the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction; and author of the new novel Quickening, which has been shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's 2010 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize (MP3)

  • Bret Anthony Johnston, author of the internationally acclaimed Corpus Christi: Stories and editor of the bestselling Naming the World and Other Exercises for Creative Writers, teacher in the Bennington Writing Seminar, and Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University (more @ www.bretanthonyjohnston.com) (MP3 1, 2, and 3)

With guest host-hottie Faith Salie, writer, television producer, and Drum contributing editor.
 

Four Stories Boston | 'Til Death Do Us Part: Tales of love and expiration 10/18/10

  • Alex Beinstein; recent graduate from the University of Chicago; former radio host for the interview-based show Tomorrow with Alex Beinstein, featuring interviews with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, former UN Ambassador John Bolton, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, and more; and Border's Bookstore employee extraordinaire (more @ alexbeinstein.com)

  • Dave Dickerson, storyteller in the New York area; regular on NPR’s This American Life and at shows around New York City; author of House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions,; and video blogger with work @Greeting Card Emergency

  • Daniel Gewertz, longtime journalist with work in the Boston Herald, Harvard Magazine, The New York Times, and more; essayist with pieces in  Conclave Journal, North Shore Magazine, and The Boston Phoenix; writing instructor who has taught at Lesley University and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education; member of the performance group The Roving Raconteurs; and prize-winning storyteller from the "All-Star MassMouth Story Slam"

  • Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, recipient of a 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in nonfiction and the 2009 Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction; writer with essays and fiction in Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre, Southeast Review, Connecticut Review, and others; and creative writing instructor at Boston's Grub Street (more @ www.alexandria-marzano-lesnevich.com)

With guest host-hottie Steve Brykman, the 2nd funniest guy in the entire universe
 

Four Stories Boston Fall 2010 Opening Night! | The Forbidden: Tales of transgressions, secrets, and sins 9/20/10

  • Steven Beeber, author of the book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, editor of the anthology AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless, associate editor of the literary journal Conduit; and writer with work in The Paris Review, Fiction, The New York Times, Bridge, Spin, Maxim,  and others (more @ www.jewpunk.com) (MP3)

  • Jennifer Haigh, author of the novels The Condition, Baker Towers , Mrs. Kimbleand the forthcoming The Lost Gospel (August 2011); winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction and the PEN L.L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author; and writer with short fictionpublished in Granta, Ploughshares, The Atlantic, The Saturday Evening Post, and many others (MP3)

  • Carissa Halston, author of A Girl Named Charlie Lester (honorably mentioned in the New York Book Festival), contributing editor of apt, and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee (MP3)

  • Randy Ross, writer with articles published in the Boston Phoenix, the Boston Herald and more, and former executive editor at PC World magazine (MP3)

Hosted by Four Stories founder Tracy Slater

 

Four Stories OsakaSpecial Event & Book Party | Celebrating the Forthcoming, Award-Winning Book The Insomniac's Weather Report 6/27/10

  • Michael H. Fox, criminological researcher, social activist, and writer with essays and translations in the Japan Times, No. 1 Shimbun, Kansai Time Out, Asian Jewish Life, and the Asia-Pacific Journal

  • Jessica Goodfellow, author of The Insomniac's Weather Report, winner of the Three Candles Press First Book Award, and the award-winning poetry chapbook, A Pilgrim's Guide to Chaos in the Heartland; recipient of the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize from The Beloit Poetry Journal; and four-time Pushcart nominee

  • Joshua Lewis, award-winning editorial cartoon writer; former freelance writer, photographer, stand-up comedian, and radio comedy writer in America, including work as a contributing editor at Louisiana Life magazine; and technical editor of research papers in Japan

  • Elizabeth McKenzie, author of MacGregor Tells the World, a San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Stop That Girl, a Newsday and Library Journal Best Book of the Year; and articles in The New York Times, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Pushcart Prize XXV, and more; and 2010 Japan-US Friendship Commission and National Endowment for the Arts Creative Artists Exchange Fellow

 

Four Stories BostonWinter/Spring 2010 Season Finale! | Me, Myself, and I: Stories of Solitude, Solipsism, and Individuality 5/17/10

  • Timothy Gager, author of eight books of poetry and fiction, host of the Dire Literary Series for the past nine years, and co-founder of The Somerville News Writers Festival (MP3)

  • Lauren Mackler, author of the international bestseller Solemate; co-author of the book Speaking of Success; writer with pieces in London ’s Daily Mail andWomen’s Business; and regular blogger for the Huffington Post (MP3)

  • Joanna Smith Rakoff, writer with work in the New York Times, Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and more; and author of the novel, A Fortunate Age, a Booklist Top Ten Debut Novel of 2009, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, winner of the Elle Readers’ Prize, an IndieNext Pick, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller, and a selection of Barnes and Noble’s First Look Book Club (MP3)

  • Shankar Vedantam, author of The Hidden Brain; national reporter at The Washington Post; winner of the Templeton-Cambridge Fellowship on Science and Religion, the World Health Organization Journalism Fellowship, and the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship; and current Nieman Fellow at Harvard University

Plus guest-host-hottie, the funnier-than-anyone Steve Brykman!

 

Four Stories Boston | The Places We Go: Tales of voyage and discovery 3/22/10

  • Ethan Gilsdorf, journalist, teacher, poet and critic; writer for the New York Times, Boston Globe and National Geographic Traveler; author ofFantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms

  • Tara L. Masih, freelance book editor, author of several chapbooks and Where the Dog Star Never Glows: Stories, and editor of the acclaimed Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction

  • Ladette Randolph, author of the novel A Sandhills Ballad and the short story collection This Is Not the Tropics; Editor-in-chief of the journal Ploughshares ; and faculty member in Emerson College's Writing, Literature, and Publishing department

  • Jeff Talarigo, author ofthe novels The Pearl Diver and The Ginseng Hunter as well as a novel-in-progress set in Gaza, where he lived on two occasions. More @ www.jefftalarigo.com 

Plus the luminous Elizabeth Searle as guest-host-hottie!

 

Four Stories Boston2010 Opening Night | Family Feuds: Stories of Troubled Tribes & Bizarre Bonds, a celebration of both the opening of the 2010 series & the launch of Post Road’s 18th issue 1/25/10

  • Nicole Fix, contributor to Pear Noir! and Thieves Jargon; recipient of awards and fellowships from Elizabeth George Foundation, Summer Literary Seminars-Kenya, and the Drisha Institute; author of the screenplay Toy Fair and short story "Fish," finalists for The Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project Fellowship (sorry, no MP3)

  • Elizabeth Gonzalez, freelance writer with short stories appearing or forthcoming in Greensboro Review, Sycamore Review, and Post Road (MP3)

  • Natasha Lvovich, Professor of English at the City University of New York, Kingsborough Community College; author of the autobiographical essay collection, The Multilingual Self; and writer with work appearing in Life Writing, Big.City.Lit, and WHL Review (sorry, no MP3)

  • Tom Perrotta, acclaimed author of the novels The Abstinence Teacher, Little Children, Election, Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, and Joe College (MP3)


 

Four Stories Boston | Accidents Will Happen: Stories of Mistakes, Mishaps, & Screw-Ups 11/16/09

  • Suzanne Guillette, author of Much to Your Chagrin: A Memoir of Embarrassment, and essayist with writing in Time Out New York, Publisher's Weekly, Self, and Tin House

  • Michelle Hoover, author with work in Prairie Schooner, Massachusetts Review, Confrontation, and Best New American Voices 2004, and more; former Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell; and recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction; nominee for the Pushcart Prize; and author of the forthcoming novel, The Quickening (Spring 2010)

  • Allan Reeder, former assistant to novelist John Irving, editor at The Atlantic Monthly, and fiction editor at DoubleTake Magazine; teacher of young writers in the Writing & Publishing Program at Walnut Hill; and recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Vermont Studio Center

  • Susan Tepper,  author of Deer & Other Stories and the chapbook Blue Edge, and five-time Pushcart Prize nominee

Plus guest host Tracy McArdle!

 

Four Stories Osaka | As the World Turns: Tales of Changes & Transformations 11/8/09

  • Thersa Matsuura, author of the short story collection A Robe of Feathers and Other Stories

  • Rebecca Otowa, contributor to Kansai Time Out magazine and Kyoto Journal, and author of At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman's Journey of Discovery

  • Ian Richards, associate professor at Osaka City University; reviewer of fiction in his own country, New Zealand; and author of the collection of short stories Everyday Life in Paradise and the biography To Bed at Noon: The Life and Art of Maurice Duggan, which was nominated for NZ book of the year

  • Tracy Slater, author of essays from Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Kansai Time Out, and more; and the Gourmet Girl columnist for Kansai Scene
     

Four Stories Boston | Theme: Conspicuous Consumption: Stories of eating, shopping, spending, taking 10/5/09

  • Erica Ferencik, award winning writer, screenwriter, filmmaker and standup comedian; former featured guest on NPR’s Morning Stories; and author of the novel Cracks in the Foundation

  • Ru Freeman, creative and political writer with work appearing internationally, and author of the novel A Disobedient Girl 

  • Tracy McArdle, author of Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa, Real Women Eat Beef, and essays in Premiere, The Boston Globe, and more; regular contributor to Momlogic.com and her own blog, Getting Some; and teacher of fiction at Grub Street

  • Amy Yelin, writer with work in the Boston Globe Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Gettysburg Review, and Literary Mama; and recipient of a notable essay mention in the Best American Essays 2007 and an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University.

Plus guest host Jaime Clarke!

 

Four Stories Boston event | The Long Goodbye: Stories of endings and loss 9/14/09

  • Lisa Borders, author of the novel Cloud Cuckoo Land andcontributor to the anthology Don't You Forget About Me; and teacher of writing at Grub Street (MP3)

  • Steven Brykman, author and comic with work published in Playboy.com, Cracked, Nerve, and Awake: a Reader for the Sleepless; former writing fellow at the University of Massachusetts; and winner of the Harvey Swados prize for fiction (MP3)

  • Tim Horvath, author of the novella Circulation and stories out or forthcoming in Conjunctions, Fiction, Puerto del Sol, Alimentum, and elsewhere; and teacher of creative writing at Chester College of New England and Grub Street Writers (more @ www.timhorvath.com) (MP3, also appearing in print in Conjunctions: Hybrid Histories, issue #53)

  • Sebastian Stuart, author of the just-released novel The Hour Between; the New York Times bestselling novel--and tie-in with the soap opera All My Children--Charm! by Kendall Hart; and the novel 24-Karat Kids (written with Dr. Judy Goldstein) (MP3)

Four Stories Osaka | Dazed and Confused: Stories of uncertainty 5/24/09

  • Sally McLaren, Kyoto-based writer, editor, translator and media researcher with pieces in both domestic and international media, including The Japan Times, The Independent, Kyoto Journal, Kansai Time Out, Brutus, and The Rough Guide to Japan

  • Paul Morrison, widely published author, visiting scholar in American Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, and chair of the English & American Literature Department at Brandeis University

  • Jane Singer, contributor to the Asahi International Herald Tribune, Kansai Time Out, and other English-language publications
     

Four Stories Boston | Love and Madness: Tales of the things we'll do 4/13/09

  • Jamie Cat Callan, creator of The Writers Toolbox from Chronicle Books and author of the new book French Women Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love (MP3)

  • Chris Castellani, author of the novels A Kiss From Maddalena, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, and The Saint of Lost Things; and Artistic Director of Grub Street (MP3)

  • Diana Spechler, author of the novel Who By Fire and fiction in Glimmer Train Stories, Moment, Lilith, and elsewhere (MP3)

  • Patrick Tracey, author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia, named to the Indie Next list and by Slate magazine as one of "the best books of 2008," and winner of the Ken Book Award (TBA) from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the PEN New England L.L. Winship Non-fiction prize(sorry, no MP3)

Plus the lovely Terri Trespicio as guest host!
 

Four Stories Tokyo | Love and Lust: Tales of the ties that bind 3/5/09

  • Elaine Lies, 20-year resident of Japan; correspondent at Thomson Reuters News agency; fiction writer with stories in the anthology ofexpat literature Faces in the Crowd and the magazine Wingspan; and three-time award winner of the Wingspan/ANA fiction contest 

  • Karen McGee, poet and writer with an MA in creative writing and work in Jabberwocky Review, Earth's Daughters and Sleepy Tree, Book II; and author with online work from Blade Publishing (written under the pen name Vera Lane)

  • Shogo Oketani, former Tokyo-based journalist; author of the poetry collection Cold River and a collection of linked stories, J-Boys,(translated by Avery Udagawa); and recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation
    of Japanese Literature 

  • Ann Slater, longtime Tokyo resident and Associate Professor of American Literature at Japan Women's University; author whose stories have appeared in journals and in American Dragons, an anthology of work by Asian-American writers; translator of a novella by Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, published in Old Rosa: A Novel in Two Stories
     

Four Stories Boston | Body Parts: Tales of the head, the heart, and everything in between 1/26/09

  • Jaime Clarke, author of the novel We're So Famous,; editor of Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes; cofounder of Post Road, a national literary magazine based out of New York and Boston; host of Talk Show, a monthly writers' roundtable at Fanzine.com, and co-owner of Newtonville Books (MP3)

  • Jeannie Greeley, relationship and humor columnist for Boston's Stuff@Nightmagazine; writer with work in the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, Bay Windows, MTV's LOGO; and former guest on the Matty in the Morning Show and WFNX's 'One in Ten' program (MP3)

  • Ron Maclean, fiction writer with pieces in GQ, Greensboro Review, Prism International , Night Train and other quarterlies; recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short Fiction and recurring Pushcart Prize nominee; author of the novel Blue Winnetka Skies and the just-released short-story collection Why the Long Face?; and former executive director and current instructor at Grub Street (MP3)

  • Terri Trespicio , senior editor at Body+Soul magazine; regular contributor to the Coupling column in the Boston Globe magazine and other local and national media; and essayist with work in Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. More @trespicio.com. (Sorry, no MP3)
     

Four Stories Osaka | Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Stories of being lost or found 12/7/08

  • Peter Mallett, Longtime Japan resident and essayist widely published in newspapers and magazines in Japan, the UK and US; former Arts Editor of Kansai Time Out; founder and former editor for the journal Artspace; and recipient of an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Bath Spa

  • Wendy Jones Nakanishi, Professor of English Literature at Shikoku Gakuin University; author of essays from Kyoto Journal, Tales from a Small Planet, and more; and recipient of a PhD in English from Edinburgh University 

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder and writer who divides her time between Boston and Osaka; lecturer in writing at Boston University; author of essays from Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Kansai Time Out, and more; columnist for the Asahi Weekly and Kansai Scene; and recipient of a PhD in English and American literature from Brandeis University

  • Ted Taylor, Writer and musician living in Kyoto, whose work has appeared in Kyoto Journal and more; and winner of the 1999 Kyoto International Cultural Association Essay Contest
     

Four Stories Boston | Saints and Sinners: Stories of temptation, seduction, and redemption 11/3/08

  • Rebecca Goldstein, author of eight books, including the bestselling The Mind-Body Problem and the prize-winning Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity; and recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Prize (Sorry, no MP3)

  • Robin Lippincott, author of the novels In the Meantime, Our Arcadia, and Mr. Dalloway, and the story collection The Real, True Angel, as well as fiction/nonfiction in Paris Review, Fence, American Short Fiction, Memorious, The Literary Review, and others; recipient of fellowships to Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony; and teacher of writing in Spalding's brief-residency MFA Writing Program and at Harvard University. (MP3, with event intro)

  • Joseph Olshan, award-winning author of the novels Clara's Heart, The Conversion, Nightswimmer, Vanitas, The Waterline, A Warmer Season, The Sound of Heaven, and In Clara's Hands; and essayist with pieces in the New York Times,  the New York Times Magazine, The Times, The Guardian , The Independent , The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and more. (Sorry, no MP3)

  • Scott Pomfret, author of Since My Last Confession, the Romentics gay romance novels series, The Q Guide to Wine and Cocktails, and short stories in Post Road, New Orleans Review, Fiction International, and other places. More @ www.scottpomfret.com. (MP3)
     

Four Stories Boston | The Big Trip: Stories of growing up, messing up, and everything along the way 10/19/08

  • Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, an Oprah's Book Club selection and finalist for the National Book Award; Bluesman; The Cage Keeper and Other Stories; and more (MP3)

  • Margot Livesey, author of the novels Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona and The House on Fortune Street; recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts; and current distinguished writer in residence at Emerson College and the John F. and Dorothy H. Magee writer in residence at Bowdoin College (MP3)

  • Two writers-to-watch from Grub Street's YAWP Teen Writing Fellowship, Ali Dokus and Sarah Berman (Sorry, no MP3)

  • Two young up-and-coming authors from Beacon Academy, Myjah Snate and Cristina Hughes(Sorry, no MP3)
     

Four Stories Boston | Friends and Strangers: Stories of the people we meet 9/8/08

  • Steve Almond, Pushcart Prize winner, National Magazine Award finalist, writertwice featured in the Best American series; and author of the books Candy Freak and Not That You Asked . More @ www.stevenalmond.com

  • Ethan Gilsdorf, poet, journalist, critic and essayist for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and the Boston Globe, with poems published in Poetry, The Southern Review and Poetry London; author of the book Escape Artists: Travels through the Worlds of Role Playing Freaks, Online Gaming Geeks,  Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (forthcoming 2009)

  • Matt Gross, Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times

  • Felicia Sullivan, author of the new memoir The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here. More @ www.feliciasullivan.com
     

Four Stories Osaka | Life among the Locals: Tales of expat writers in Japan 6/15/08

  • Hans Brinckmann, Dutch-born ex-banker living in Tokyo and London, and the author of The Magatama Doodle, Noon Elusive, The Ballad of Hope Hill, and the forthcoming Showa Japan. 

  • Deborah Iwabuchi, translator, author and long-time Japan Resident who has translated Crossfire (with Anna Isozaki) and Devil’s Whisper by Miyabe Miyuki, Beyond the Blossoming Fields (with Anna Isozaki) by Junichi Watanabe, Translucent Tree by Nobuko Takagi, Love From the Depths (with Kazuko Enda) by Tomihiro Hoshino, and others. 

  • Sarah Mulvey, instructor at Nanzan University in Nagoya and candidate for a Masters in Creative Writing (U. of Lancaster), where her thesis is "One Way to Tokyo - Experiences of Western Women in Japan."

  • Owen Schaefer, Canadian writer living in Tokyo with work appearing in the expatriate anthology Jungle Crows, Dimsum Literary Journal, the Tokyo Advocate, and McGill Street Magazine; and winner of the New Brunswick Writers' Federation prize for poetry.

 

Four Stories Boston | On Your Marks, Get Set: Stories of going 5/19/08

  • Alden Jones, Bread Loaf Scholar, Emerson College faculty member, and recent visiting professor of English on Semester at Sea, whose short stories and essays have appeared in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, Time Out New York, Gulf Coast, Best American Travel Writing, and elsewhere

  • Michael Palmer, M.D., associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society's physician health program and author of The Fifth Vial, The Society, Fatal, The Patient, Miracle Cure, Critical Judgment, Silent Treatment, Natural Causes, Extreme Measures, Flashback, Side Effects, The Sisterhood, and the recent New York Times Best Seller, The First Patient

  • Jon Papernick, author of the novels The Ascent of Eli Israel and Who by Fire, Who by Blood, and teacher of fiction writing at Emerson College

  • Ted Weesner, Jr., author of fiction selected as a Best American Notable and published in Ploughshares, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere; andrecipient of the PEN/New England Discovery Award, a MacDowell Colony residency, and Somerville Arts Council grant
     

Four Stories Boston | Women on the road: Stories from Best Women's Travel Writing 2008 4/23/08

  • Jennifer Cook, assistant professor of English at Bentley College; author of Machine and Metaphor: The Ethics of Language in American Realism; and essayist with pieces in Best Women's Travel Writing 2007 and 2008

  • Susan Freireich, recipient of the 1998 Frances Shaw Fellowship from The Ragdale Foundation and the 2005 Mildren Sherrod Bissinger Memorial Endowed Fellowship at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program; and author with work in Poetic Voices Without Borders, The Best Women's Travel Writing 2007 and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008

  • Kathleen Spivack, author of Moments of Past Happiness and five other books of prose and poetry, as well as work appearingin over 300 magazines and anthologies, including Best Travel Writing, Best Women's Travel Writing, Atlantic Monthly, & the Harvard Review; and nominee for the Pulitzer Prize

  • Kate Wheeler, author of the novel When Mountains Walked and the short story collection Not Where I Started From; essayist with work in Best American Short Stories 1992 and Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008, among others; recipient of the Pushcart Prize and two O. Henry Awards
     

Four Stories Boston | Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Tales of appearing & disappearing 3/31/08

  • Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the forthcoming We Disappear; and winner of fellowships to the London Arts Board and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (Sorry, no MP3)

  • Alison Lobron, essayist and feature writer for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine (Sorry, no MP3)

  • John Sedgwick, author of seven books, including two novels and, most recently, a multi-generational family memoir, In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family; and journalist with over 500 magazine stories for Newsweek, GQ, the Atlantic Monthly, and many others (MP3)

  • Laura Van den Berg, editor-in-chief of Redivider; Ploughshares staff member; writer with fiction published (or forthcoming) in The Indiana Review, The Literary Review, American Short Fiction, One Story, and StoryQuarterly, among others; andrecipient of the 2007 Dzanc Prize (MP3)

Plus guest DJ smokin' Michael Borum of Etherweave!
 

Four Stories Tokyo | Sight, Taste, Touch: Tales of the senses 1/31/08

  • Leza Lowitz, author of over 12 books of fiction, poetry and translation; winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and PEN Josephine Miles Poetry Award; and NEA Fellowship recipient. More @ www.lezalowitz.com.

  • Mark Robinson, author of the book Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook; editor of the Japanese culinary magazine Eat; deputy editor and music editor of Tokyo Journal magazine; and food and culture contributor to publications such as Nest (U.S.), the Financial Times, The Times (U.K.), the Australian Financial Review Magazine, and others.

  • Ted Taylor, writer and musician living in Kyoto, whose work has appeared in Kyoto Journal and more; winner of the 1999 Kyoto International Cultural Association Essay Contest. More @ http://notesfromthenog.blogspot.com.

  • Hillel Wright, author of Rotary Sushi, a collection of stories, and two novels, All Worldly Pursuits and the recently released Border Town; winner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Best "Postcard" Story and Japanzine Magazine Best Short Story; and nominee for the Pushcart and Journey (Best Canadian Stories) prizes.


Four Stories Osaka | In/Out: Stories of being inside, outside, or somewhere in between 12/16/07

  • Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, author of Skin Museum and Aquiline; poet, essayist and associate professor at a national university in Japan, whose work has been featured in New American Writing, ACM, Tinfish, 580 Split, Otoliths, One Less,and numerous other literary journals, anthologies and zines.

  • Chris Page, editor of Kansai Scene  magazine; author of the novel Weed; and writer of short stories and articles in The London Magazine, The London News Review, and more

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories Japan founder; teacher of writing and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program; author of essays in or forthcoming from Best Women's Travel Writing 2008, The Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai Time Out; and  Asahi Weekly, and founder and writer of Kansai Scene's monthly "Gourmet Girl" column

  • Michael Vezzuto, columnist for Kansai Time Out magazine


Four Stories Boston | The Bitter End: Stories of loss, endings, and final acts 12/3/07

  • Jeremiah Healy, Harvard Law School graduate; creator of the John Francis Cuddy private-investigator series and (under the pseudonym “Terry Devane”) the Mairead O’Clare legal-thriller series; author of eighteen novels and over sixty short stories, sixteen of which works have won or been nominated for the Shamus Award; and past-president of the International Association of Crime Writers

  • Drew Johnson, author of stories from Harper's, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and StoryQuarterly

  • Julia Glass, author of the novels Three Junes, winner of the 2002 National Book Award, and The Whole World Over; as well as a forthcoming story collection (appearing Sept. '08)

  • Joan Wickersham, writer of fiction from The Hudson Review, Story, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, and The Best American Short Stories; and author of the novel The Paper Anniversary and the forthcoming memoir The Suicide Index
     

Four Stories Boston | Curious Stories: Tales of exploration, experimentation, and questioning 11/5/07

  • Steve Almond, Pushcart Prize winner, National Magazine Award finalist, writertwice featured in the Best American series; and author of the books Candy Freak and Not That You Asked  More @ www.stevenalmond.com

  • Lisa Genova, writer with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University; author of the book Still Alice; member of the Dementia Advocacy and Support Network International and DementiaUSA; and blogger for National Alzheimer's Association Voice Open Move blog. More @ www.stillalice.com.

  • Ken Shulman,  veteran journalist,  radio producer,  and frequent contributor to The New York Times, Newsweek, Metropolis, Surface, and National Public Radio

  • Grace Talusan, teacher of writing at the awesome Grub Street and Tufts University, and writer whose latest publication appears in Creative Nonfiction. More @ www.gracetalusan.com. 


Four Stories Boston | Love and Money: Tales of making it, having it, and losing it 10/1/07

  • Kris Frieswick, former senior writer at CFO magazine and humor writer for the Phoenix newspapers; and author with essays in the  Economist, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and MSN Money  

  • Michael Lowenthal,  writernamed one of "Best New American Voices" of 2005, and author of the critically acclaimed novel Charity Girl, among others.  More @www.MichaelLowenthal.com  

  • Hank Phillippi Ryan, investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate; winner of 24 EMMYs and dozens of other regional, national and international honors for her hard-hitting investigations; and author of the Boston Globe best-selling mystery novel Prime Time, and Face Time (forthcoming Oct. 9 '07). More @ www.hankphillippiryan.com 


Four Stories Boston | Emails from the Edge: 21st Century Tales of Far-Away Places 9/10/07

  • Ethan Gilsdorf, travel writer, poet, journalist and essayist with work in The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, The Washington Post, Boston Globe and Fodor’s; poems in Poetry, The Southern Review,Exquisite Corpse, and anthologies Future Welcome, Short Fuse and Outsiders; and teacher at Boston's Grub Street. More @ www.ethangilsdorf.com 

  • Michelle Hoover, a Best New American Voices author and winner of Pen-New England's Emerging Writer Award 

  • Roland Kelts, Lecturer at the University of Tokyo; co-editor of the New York-based literary journal A Public Space; author of JapanAmerica; and writer with work in  Zoetrope, Playboy, Doubletake, Salon, The Village Voice, Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and The Japan Times

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories Japan founder; teacher of writing and literature at Boston University; and author of essays and reviews from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai Time Out, Asahi Weekly, and more


Four Stories Osaka | Living on the Edge: Tales of tempting fate, taking risks, and breaking boundaries 7/29/07

  • Tom Bradley, author of seven novels, including Acting Alone (Browntrout Books, San Franciscio), Fission Among the Fanatics (Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC) and Lemur (Raw Dog Screaming Press); Essayist with pieces in Salon.com, Poets & Writers Magazine and elsewhere. More at http://tombradley.org

  • Daniel Davis, writer for Kansai Scene magazine

  • Johannes Schonherr, author Trashfilm Roadshows: Off the Beaten Track with Subversive Movies (Headpress, 2002) and Permanent State of War: A Short History of North Korean Cinema, from the anthology Film Out of Bounds(McFarland, July 2007);  and freelance writer living in Beppu, Kyushu 

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories Japan founder; teacher of writing and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program; and author of essays and reviews from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai TimeOut,, Asahi Weekly, and more 


Four Stories Osaka | East and West: Tales fromtwo hemispheres 6/17/07

  • Juliet Winters Carpenter, Kyoto professor; acclaimed translator of Ryotaro Shiba's The Last Shogun, Kobo Abe's Beyond the Curve, and Miyuki Miyabe's Shadow Family; and author of Seeing Kyoto

  • Jessica Goodfellow, author of A Pilgrim’s Guide to Chaos in the Heartland; recipient of the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize from The Beloit Poetry Journal and three-time Pushcart nominee, with work featured in Best New Poets 2006 and on Garrison Keillor’s NPR program The Writer’s Almanac

  • Roland Kelts, Lecturer at the University of Tokyo; co-editor of the New York-based literary journal A Public Space; author of JapanAmerica; and writer with work in  Zoetrope, Playboy, Doubletake, Salon, The Village Voice, Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and The Japan Times

  • Lou Rowan, author of the story collection Sweet Potatoes and critical essays in The English Studies Forum and The Review of Contemporary Fiction, and editor of the Seattle-based journal Golden Handcuffs Review


Four Stories Boston | Personal Space: Stories of distance, collision, and place 5/14/07

  • Tim Horvath,  MFA recipient in Fiction from University of New Hampshire 2007; winner of the Raymond Carver Award and the Prize of the Society for the Study of the Short Story; nominee for the 2007 Pushcart Prize; writer with work published or forthcoming in Carve, pacificREVIEW, Sein und Werden, Seventh Quark, The Abiko Annual, Cranky, Eclectica, Drumlummon Views, and SleepingFish, and poetry editor for Entelechy.  More at www.timhorvath.com

  • Tehila Lieberman, author of fiction and non fiction published in Salon.com, Nimrod, the Colorado Review, and Salamander; winner of the Stanley Elkin Memorial and Rick Dimarinis Prizes for Fiction; and nominee for the Pushcart Prize

  • Jean Trounstine, author of Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, about her 10 years directing plays at Framingham Prison; co-author of Finding A Voice, about the internationally acclaimed program for offenders "Changing Lives through Literature"; and co-editor of the Boston best-seller Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out On Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes

  • David Wildman, Arts Editor and chief film critic for Boston's coolest and funniest paper, the Weekly Dig,  and author of the The Book of Enemy

 

Four Stories Boston in partnership with the Cambridge Science Festival | Dark Matter: Stories of science, discovery, and the unknown 4/23/07

  • Allegra Goodman, author of the books Total Immersion, The Family Markowitz, Kaaterskill Fall,  Paradise Park, and Intuition; recipient of a Whiting Award and the Salon magazine award for fiction; and named one of 20 best writers under 40 by New Yorker magazine

  • Perri Klass, practicing pediatrician; acclaimed author of fiction and nonfiction such as Love and Modern Medicine and Recombinations; prize-winning journalist; andmedical director of the national literacy program Reach Out and Read

  • Alan Lightman, PhD recipient in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology; Adjunct Professor of Humanities at MIT; writer of essays in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, Granta, Harper's, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Story, and more;  award-winning author of Einstein's Dreams, The Good Benito, Dance for Two, and The Diagnosis; and founder of the Harpswell Foundation 

  • Sven Birkerts (event moderator), Editor of AGNI; author of six books, including An Artificial Wilderness: Essays on 20th Century Literature, The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, and My Sky Blue Trades: Growing Up Counter in a Contrary Time; and recipient of a PENSpielvogel-Diamonstein Award and a Guggenheim Foundation grant


Four Stories Boston Spring '07 Season Opening Night | The Seven Deadly Sins: Stories of vice and scandal 4/9/07

  • Lawrence Douglas, author of the novel The Catastrophist, named one of the 25 best books of 2006 by Kirkus; essayist with work in the New Yorker, the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Tikkun, and more; expert on international war crimes trials; and Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College 

  • Hank Phillippi Ryan, investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate; winner of 24 EMMYs and dozens of other regional, national and international honors for her hard-hitting investigations; and author of the mystery novel Prime Time(forthcoming June '07) and Face Time (forthcoming Oct. '07)  More @ www.hankphillippiryan.com

  • Andrew McAleer, Professor of Crime Fiction and Espionage at Boston College, andauthor of Appearance of Counsel, Double Endorsement, Bait and Switch, and the number 1 best-seller, Mystery Writing in a Nutshell (www.Crimestalkers.com)

  • Luke Salisbury, Professor of English at Bunker Hill Community College; co-director of the Commonwealth Honors Program; and author of The Answer Is Baseball–called the best baseball book of 1989 by the Chicago Tribune–and three works of fiction, The Cleveland Indian, Blue Eden and the multiple award-winning Hollywood & Sunset
     

Four Stories Osaka | Striking out: Stories of failure, desperation, and loss 3/18/07

  • Jerry Gordon, co-founder of Reading Words Osaka; author of Language Unfitting, Armageddon's Garden, Fully Formed Failure (CD) and, most recently, Milagro and You; and producer of the spoken-word CD Kansai Poets Vol. 1 

  • Suzanne Kamata, editor of anthology The Broken Bridge and the journal Yomimono; author of River of Dolls and the forthcoming novel Losing Kei; and writer of fiction and nonfiction appearing in Utne Reader, Kyoto Journal, and more 

  • Chris Page, editor of Kansai Scene ; author of the novel Weed; and writer of short stories and articles in The London Magazine, The London News Review, and more 

  • Holly Thompson, professor of creative writing at Yokohama City University; Regional Advisor of the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; and author of the novel Ash and articles and short stories from Wingspan, The Broken Bridge, and more


Four Stories Tokyo Opening Night | Growing Pains: Stories of adolescence, growing up, and breaking all the rules 2/15/07

  • Leza Lowitz, author of over 12 books of fiction and poetry; winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and PEN Josephine Miles Poetry Award; and NEA Fellowship recipient (www.lezalowitz.com)

  • Donald Richie, author of over 30 books, including the acclaimed The Inland Seaand The Donald Richie Reader; ex-curator of film at the New York Museum of Modern Art; andleading Western authority on Japanese film

  • Eric Shade, author of Eyesores and winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (www.ericshade.net)

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories Boston and Four Stories Japan founder, teacher of writing and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program, and author of essays from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, Kansai Time Out, and more

 

Four Stories Osaka | Wanderlust: Tales of expat life 1/14/07

  • John Eidswick, author of stories in Adirondack Review, Amarillo Bay, and Babel, as well asthe novel-in-process The Language of Bears

  • Jessica Goodfellow, prose writer and poet with work featured in The Beloit Poetry Journal, DIAGRAM, RATTLE, Best New Poets 2006, and other journals; recipient of the 2004 Chad Walsh Poetry Prize from The Beloit Poetry Journal and the Linda Julian Essay Award from the Emrys Foundation; three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize; and author of the new chapbook A Pilgrim’s Guide to Chaos in the Heartland

  • Michael Hoffman, author of 4 books of fiction, most recently Nectar Fragmentsand The Coat that Covers Him; co-author of Tabloid Tokyo; freelance journalist and translator; and contributor to the Japan Times' weekly Tokyo Confidential feature (www.michaelhoffman.squarespace.com) 

  • Hillel Wright, author of Rotary Sushi, a collection of stories, and two novels, All Worldly Pursuits and the recently released Border Town; winner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Best "Postcard" Story and Japanzine Magazine Best Short Story; and nominee for the Pushcart and Journey (Best Canadian Stories) prizes


Four Stories Boston | Power Plays: Tales of love, war, and politics 12/11/06

  • Peter Brown, author of work from Harvard Review, Post Road, Salamander, The new renaissance and elsewhere; 2006 recipient of the Mass. Cultural Council Artist's Fellowship Grant and finalist for the Bakeless Prize; and 2003 nominee for the Pushcart Prize

  • Jennifer M. Ivers, essayist and editor; instructor of English at Brandeis University's Transitional Year Program; and author of the book Information and Meaning and the memoir-in-process Welcome to the Desert

  • Bret Anthony Johnston, Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard; author of the internationally acclaimed Corpus Christie: Stories, as well as work from The Paris Review, Oxford American, Tin House, and numerous anthologies; and winner of the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Christopher Isherwood Prize, and the Southern Review's Annual Short Fiction Award (www.bretanthonyjohnston.com)

  • Katherine Vaz, Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in creative writing at Harvard University; 2006-7 Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute; and author of the critically acclaimed novel Saudade—a Barnes & Nobles Discover Great New Writers series, Mariana—a U.S. Library of Congress Top 30 International Books of 1998 pick, and Fado & Other Stories—winner of the 1997 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

Four Stories Boston | Friends, Family, and Foes:  Tales of the ties that bind 11/13/06

  • Elisabeth Brink, author of the comic novel Save Your Own, a Booksense Notable Book for July 2006, and teacher of writing and literature at Boston College, Tufts, and Harvard (Sorry, no MPS)

  • Jessica Berger Gross, editor of the forthcoming anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope (January 2007), columnist on theLiterary Mama online magazine, and teacher of writing at the Harvard Extension School (MP3)

  • Tracy McArdle, author of Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa, the forthcoming Real Women Eat Beef, and essays in Premiere and The Boston Globe (MP3)

  • Karen Propp, co-editor of bestselling anthology Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does The Dishes;  author of the memoirs In Sickness & In Health and The Pregnancy Project; writer of nonfiction in Prevention, Salon.com, and  LIlith; and fellowship winner from Massachusetts Cultural Center for the Arts (MP3)

Four Stories Boston: Crime and Punishment: Stories from the Big House | A Four Stories/PEN New England event honoring PEN's Freedom to Write Program 10/30/06

  • Helen Elaine Lee, associate professor in writing and humanities at MIT; graduate of Harvard Law School; writer of fiction from Callaloo, SAGE,  Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present and Ancestral House: The Black Story in the Americas and Europe; and author of the novels The Serpent's Gift, Water Marked, and the forthcoming Life Without, about the lives of inmates in American prisons (Sorry, no MP3)

  • T. J. Parsell, writer and human rights activist, president of the board of Stop Prisoner Rape, consultant to the US govt's Prison Rape Elimination Commission, and author of Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man’s Prison (forthcoming from Caroll & Graf, November 2006) (MP3)

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder, teacher of writing and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program, and author of essays from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, and Kansai Time Out (MP3 [including event intro])

  • Megan Sullivan, associate professor of writing at Boston University and author of numerous books, including the forthcoming The Embezzler's Daughter: A memoir, about her father's incarceration (MP3)

  • Jean Trounstine, author of Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, about her 10 years directing plays at Framingham Prison; co-author of Finding A Voice, about the internationally acclaimed program for offenders "Changing Lives through Literature"; and co-editor of the Boston best-seller Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out On Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Driving Solo: Four Stories presents Grub Street authors on loneliness and love unrequited 10/16/06

  • Stace Budzko, author of pieces in numerous literary journals and magazines, including works forthcoming in Norton's Flash Fiction Forward Anthology, Rose Metal Press' Brevity and Echo, and The Binnacle; writing instructor at Emerson College; and writer-in-residence at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (MP3 [including event intro])

  • Jamie Cat Callan, author of the forthcoming book Hooking Up or Holding Outand of essays from The Missouri Review, Best American Erotica, and Story (MP3)

  • Mike Heppner, author of Pike's Folly and The Egg Code, a Publishers Weeklyand Washington Post best book of the year, and the Philadelphia City Paper's "best novel of 2002" (MP3)

  • Ellen Litman, writer of fiction from Best New American Voices 2007, Best of Tin House, TriQuarterly, and Ontario Review; and author of the forthcomingshort story collection The Last Chicken in America (W. W. Norton, fall 2007)
    (MP3)


Four Stories Boston | Hitting the Road: Four Stories features Post Road writers 9/25/06

  • Lise Haines, author of the novels Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (forthcoming September '06) and In My Sister's Country , and 06-07 Visiting Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard University 

  • Richard Hoffman, author of the award-winning Half the House: a Memoir, and Without Paradise: Poems, as well as prose and poetry in Agni, Ascent, Harvard Review, Hudson Review, Poetry, and Witness; recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in fiction and The Literary Review’s Charles Angoff Prize; and teacher of writing at Emerson College and the Stonecoast MFA Program

  • Randi Triant, author of short stories and essays from Post Road, the Writer's Chronicle, and Fingernails Across the Blackboard: An Anthology of HIV/AIDS;  and winner of The Salt Flats Emerging Writer's Fiction Contest

  • Paul Yoon, author of fiction from Salamander, One Story, Post Road, Glimmer Train, and the Best American Short Stories 2006


Four Stories Boston | A Place Apart II: Tales of exile and home, family and foreigners 9/11/06

  • Chris Castellani, author of The Saint of Lost Things and A Kiss from Maddalena, winner of Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction; and Artistic Director of Grub Street (MP3)

  • Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the forthcoming We Disappear; and winner of fellowships to the London Arts Board and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (MP3)

  • Lucy McCauley, author oftravel essays and other nonfiction appearing in The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Review, The Los Angeles Times, and Salon.com; and series editor for Best Women's Travel Writing (MP3)

  • Christine Palamidessi Moore, author of The Virgin Knows and the forthcoming Fiddle Case, winner of UrbanArts’ Art-on-the-Orange-Line award;  and teacher of writing at Boston University (MP3 [including event intro])

 

Four Stories Japan Opening Night | A Place Apart: Four Stories goes global with tales of travel, adventure, and exploration 7/2/06

  • Juliet Winters Carpenter, Kyoto professor; acclaimed translator of Ryotaro Shiba's The Last Shogun, Kobo Abe's Beyond the Curve, and Miyuki Miyabe's Shadow Family; and author of Seeing Kyoto

  • Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, poet, essayist, and associate professor at a national university in Japan, whose work has been featured in New American Writing, ACM, Aught, How2, Tinfish, One Less, Moria, Milk, Free Verse, and others

  • Suzanne Kamata, editor of The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan and the journal Yomimono; author of River of Dolls; and writer of fiction and nonfiction appearing in Poesie Yaponesia, The Utne Reader, Kyoto Journal,  and Calyx

  • Tracy Slater, Four Stories founder, teacher of writing and literature in Boston University's Prison Education Program, and author of essays from The Chronicle Review, Post Road, and Kansai Time Out


Four Stories Boston | Dark and Light: Stories of laughter and melancholy 4/3/06

  • Jacqueline Lalley, contributor to The Onion, Bitch Magazine, Harvard Review, and Secrets & Confidences: The Complicated Truth about Women's Friendships (Sorry, no MP3)

  • Don Lee, editor of Ploughshares  journal; acclaimed author of Country of Originand Yellow; and winner of an American Book Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction (MP3)

  • Stephen McCauley, author of five novels including The Object of My Affectionand, most recently, Alternatives to Sex; and teacher of Writing at Brandeis University (MP3)

  • Askold Melnyczuk, director of creative writing at UMASS Boston; author of the New York Times Notable Book Ambassador of the Dead; recipient of the Lila Wallace Readers’ Digest Award and the McGinnis Award in Fiction; and essayist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Partisan Review, Ploughshares, and The Boston Globe (MP3)

Four Stories Boston | Down and out in Chestnut Hill: Stories of suburban angst 3/13/06

  • Daphne Kalotay, author of Calamity and Other Stories and teacher of writing at Boston University

  • Susan Orlean, author of the New York Times best-selling The Orchid Thief, and The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People

  • Mike Rosovsky, fiction writer, teacher of creating writing at Emerson, and co-founder of the journal Post Road

  • Lauren Slater, author of five books, including Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th Century, winner of the Bild Der Wissenshaft award in Germany for the most groundbreaking science book of the year and finalist for the LA Book Prize in science writing; recipient of many prizes and awards; and 2006 editor for Best American Essays


Four Stories Boston | Tall Tales: Stories of deception and intrigue 2/13/06

  • Kate Benson, author of Two Harbors, called by Booklist a "haunting, lush, lyrical, [and] sublimely atmospheric debut novel"

  • Tehila Lieberman, author of fiction and non fiction published in Salon.com, Nimrod, the Colorado Review, and Salamander; winner of the Stanley Elkin Memorial and Rick Dimarinis Prizes for Fiction; and nominee for the Pushcart Prize

  • Jon Papernick, author of The Ascent of Eli Israel and Who by Fire, Who by Blood (www.jonpapernick.com)

  • Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time, Good With Their Hands, and articles and essays in the Washington Post Magazine, The American Scholar, Harper's, and The Best American Essays

Four Stories Boston:

Lost in Translation: Stories of alienation and misunderstanding 1/23/06

  • Thalassa Ali, acclaimed novelist and author of A Singular Hostage, A Beggar at the Gate, and The Companions of Paradise

  • Jake Halpern, author of Braving Home, a Borders' "Original Voices" book, Amazon.com "Breakout Book," and pick for the "Book of the Month Club" by Bill Bryson

  • Pagan Kennedy, magazine journalist and author of Black Livingstone, a New York Times Notable Book and Boston Phoenix's ten best non-fiction works of 2002; The Exes; Zine: A Memoir; and Spinsters, shortlisted for the Orange Prize and winner of Barnes and Noble's Discover Award

  • Alison Lobron, essayist and columnist for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine's popular "Coupling" column


Four Stories Boston | Cain and Abel: Stories of family on the edge 12/5/05

  • Elizabeth Benedict, National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize finalist, and author of The Practice of Deceit, a Book Sense Pick, Book of the Month Club selection, and All Things Considered (NPR) recommended novel (www.elizabethbenedict.com)

  • Jaime Clarke, author of the novel We're So Famous, co-founder of Post Road Magazine, and teacher of writing at Emerson College whose work has appeared in The Mississippi Review, AGNI, and Chelsea

  • Tom Perrotta, acclaimed author of the novels Little Children, Election, Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, and Joe College

  • Megan Sullivan, associate professor of writing at Boston University and author of Women in Northern Ireland, Irish Women and Film: 1980-1990, and The Embezzler's Daughter: A memoir


Four Stories Boston | Feast or Famine: Stories of appetite and longing 11/7/05

  • Steve Almond, Pushcart Prize winner, National Magazine Award finalist, and author twice featured in the Best American series

  • Julia Glass, National Book Award winner and author of Three Junes

  • Michelle Hoover, named one of the 2004 Best New American Voices and winner of 2005 Pen-New England Emerging Writer Award

  • Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, teacher of writing at Boston College and author of fiction and nonfiction from The North American Review, The Boston Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and Take Out


Four Stories Boston | The Green Monster: Stories of envy, greed, lust 10/24/05

  • Alden Jones, professor of writing and literature at Emerson College whose work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, AGNI, The Iowa Review, and The Best American Travel Writing

  • Ben Mezrich, New York Times best-selling author of Bringing Down the House, Ugly Americans, and Busting Vegas

  • Elizabeth Searle, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize, and author of the acclaimed Celebrities in Disgrace and the much-anticipated "Nancy and Tonya: The Opera "

  • Jen Trynin, author of Everything I’m Cracked Up to Be, a memoir of her days as an almost-rock star, coming this February from Harcourt.


Four Stories Boston Opening Night | Love's Labors Lost: Stories of love going nowhere 9/19/05

  • John Fulton, winner of the Pushcart Prize

  • Elizabeth Graver, New York Times notable author

  • Michael Lowenthal, critically acclaimed novelist named one of "Best New American Voices" of 2005

  • Lauren Slater, award-winning writer whose work has appeared five times in the Best American series