The Boston Book Blog is back — with a new name! We are now Literary Boston and will pick up where we left off on our mission to elevate the local literary community, bringing you features on local authors and literary organizations, local author new releases, Boston literary news, local readings and events, Boston literary history, and more.

All She Wrote Books in Somerville is “an intersectional, inclusive feminist and queer bookstore” that came to fruition through the vision, hard work, hustle, and three-tiered IKEA cart of owner Christina Pascucci Ciampa. Find out more about her journey to create a bookselling experience where readers could find more representation and a safe space to gather.

Another communal reading initiative is coming to the Boston area, as the MetroWest Readers Fest launches their inaugural community-wide read called ONE. We connected with MetroWest Readers Fest founder and director Amy Wilson Sheldon and featured author Jennifer De Leon to learn more about the initiative, and to talk about the importance of providing opportunities for readers to engage with books, authors, and each other.

Holding on to Nothing is a novel full of music, well-rounded characters, and a plot that asks if someone can change their fate. We sat down with debut author Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne to find out how the novel originated, how it changed shape in the revision process, and how — like in most things — Dolly Parton played a role.

What context can literary works provide to Boston’s history? Guest author Kathleen Stone attempts to answer this question in “Pandemic Walks: Assessing Boston's Civil War Narratives, Part III,” where she investigates — and interrogates — the historical context of Mount Auburn Cemetery’s Sphinx through what local writers and publications were saying at the time about the Civil War, slavery, and the world at large.

What context can literary works provide to Boston’s history? Guest author Kathleen Stone attempts to answer this question in “Pandemic Walks: Assessing Boston's Civil War Narratives, Part II,” where she investigates — and interrogates — the historical context of Boston Common’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument through what local writers and publications were saying at the time about the Civil War, slavery, and the world at large.

You may have noticed short stories posted on the T if you were out-and-about this past year. That’s “Boston in 100 Words,” which features the stories of everyday people, lives, and places in Boston. As submissions for the second year’s contest open, we spoke with founder and director Jane De León Griffin about how “Boston in 100 Words” was founded, the way the submissions from last year evoke the sites, sounds, and memories of Boston residents, and how it’s connected to a global initiative of locally-focused storytelling.

What context can literary works provide to Boston’s history? Guest author Kathleen Stone attempts to answer this question in “Pandemic Walks: Assessing Boston's Civil War Narratives, Part I,” where she investigates — and interrogates — the historical context of the Roxbury Soldiers’ Monument through what local writers and publications were saying at the time about the Civil War, slavery, and the world at large.

Lit Crawl Boston will return in person on June 10, 2021 for an evening of literary fun, games, improv, and more. James Sullivan, Alysia Abbott, Carlin Carr, and Norah Piehl of the Lit Crawl planning committee gave us the story on how Lit Crawl came to Boston, how it evolved, what it’s like planning a live event during a pandemic, and what attendees can expect for June 10.

At the Boston Book Blog, we’ve been tracking the promotion of local literary events since 2012. Here are some best practices we’ve collected to help you better market your literary or author events.

We’re seeing unprecedented attendance as readings move online, and many of those newcomers are readers who have never attended a “literary event” before. But why? Guest author Amy Wilson Sheldon of A Lifely Read explores why we read, the role of readers in the broader literary community, and how we can rethink what a literary event is to create something more inclusive and community-focused.

It didn’t take long for the literary community to all but evaporate from Boston. As writers, I figured we’d be fine in isolation, ready to work on our projects. But now I know that a writer doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

We have plenty of historic literary tours of Boston - but what about a local writer’s everyday activities? Guest author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg takes us on a tour of her favorite writerly haunts around Back Bay and Beacon Hill: great places to write, or pick up some new journals, or take a writing class, or even get your laptop fixed.

With a slew of local events coming up for the paperback release of The Body Papers: A Memoir next week, we sat down with local author Grace Talusan to find out more about how her memoir – or collection of essays, or collage of a life – was put together.

Six years ago, Daniel Ford and Sean Tuohy started the Writer’s Bone podcast. With their 400th episode just released, we sat down with them to get the story behind the podcast, find out the nuts and bolts of the process - and learn how they’re deliberately building a community of like-minded writers here in Boston and beyond.

Local author Tracy Strauss published her memoir I Just Haven’t Met You Yet last May - though its publication almost never happened. Learn more the memoir’s reception and intricate origins, how to get trauma writing right, and Strauss’s love of Boston, in our newest article.

The biggest literary event in the area, the Boston Book Festival takes over Copley Square and a number of surrounding venues each year to provide a full day of literary programming. But how does such a massive event get planned, organized, and staged? We talked with Executive Director Norah Piehl to get a behind-the-scenes look.

In 1698, hand-picked books sailed across the Atlantic to Boston, a library of “useful and necessary” works to populate the libraries of the New World. The Boston Athenaeum’s newest exhibition, “Required Reading: Reimagining a Colonial Library” puts selections from this collection on display…but also asks the question, What would be your “required reading”?

Books on the T is a local volunteer literary organization intent on “sharing new titles for adults and youth on the MBTA, creat[ing] a traveling library that introduces books to the Greater Boston community.” Learn more about the Book Fairies, book drops, and their connection to the local literary scene.

What does it mean to be a good literary citizen? Is it simply a focus on how a writer can push their work forward? Or is there something broader to be understood, knowing that writers in fact live in community with one another, and that perhaps the greatest contribution to that community is selflessness and support. Local author L. M. Poplin draws on literary blogs, psychological research, French literature, and her own experience as both a writer and a literary non-profit leader, to explore that question in our newest article.