Boston Favorite Dennis Lehane Presents at Boston Book Festival

If you are a fan of Boston, odds are you know who Dennis Lehane is.  This Boston author born in Dorchester will be one of the many presenters thrilling book and movie fans tomorrow at the 2012 Boston Book Festival.  We have covered the Boston Book Festival before and now find ourselves in year 4 of what appears to be an annual event.

Though the book festival may appear to be just for avid readers it is also a great way of fostering the love of reading in the newer generations that find eBooks commonplace.

The festival has 14 events/readings that are for Kids and Young Adults.  If you are a parent of a budding reader or writer this event will help excite your kids about reading and the writers who bring us such amazing stories.  Keep in mind though that planning your trip with younger children is very important so you know where to go and what event makes more sense for the age group.  Be sure to explore the official schedule of all the Book Festival Events that take place since some of them do overlap.

The changing landscape of both the publishing industry and the way that we “read” has put a lot of pressure on today’s writers.  Getting a chance to hear from authors that have been successful is great motivation for tomorrow’s up and coming writers.  Dennis Lehane will be on the forum about Time and Place, which is very appropriate given that his latest novel is set in the Prohibition era.  It is set in the 20’s in Boston, Tampa and Cuba.  If you hope to attend this event you definitely need to pre-register since Lehane is so well-known because of the Boston based books that have been made into movies (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island).

You also get a chance to hear them discuss topics that interest them.  Paul Grogan the head of the Boston Foundation will be on a discussion forum about cities(Triumph of the City).  Anita Hill will be on the panel on What’s Next for Women.  Thomas Foley, Dick Lehr and Dave Boeri will be discussing True Crime with a focus on none other than Whitey Bulger.  Local investigative reporter/author Hank Phillipi Ryan will be heading up the discussion on the topic of How to Write a Crime Novel.

If you are looking to get a glimpse into the future and in some cases the present of publishing there is a segment on the Future of Reading.  Embracing and being knowledgeable about the new “reading” experiences I believe will help us retain the magical aspect that reading has.  The Boston Book Festival added an Audio Adventure to the event this year called Books Actually.  You can listen to one of 10 stories read by their authors through the mobile app Movable.  I downloaded it to my iPad and it is supposed to use your location to enhance the experience.  If you have an IPhone you should try it out.  You can also catch a session with Blurb on Self-Publishing on their online platform.

These are just some of the events you can catch at tomorrow’s festival which takes place from 10 – 7pm(October 27).  Events are free except for the key note but registration may be required for limited seating events.  Visit BostonBookFest.org for even more details and the all important schedule.

Here is a recap from the first Boston Book Festival which started it all:

2012 Event is October 27th!