Boston Book Festival Announces 2014 ‘One City One Story’ Pick
For five years, the Boston Book Festival has united the community through short stories by distributing free copies of a select work to the public. The stories are given out prior to the festival date, and the project concludes at the festival when readers are invited to meet and ask the author questions at a BBF session. Last year’s “One City One Story” story was “Karma” by Rishi Reddi.
The 2014 One City One Story selection, the BBF just announced, is “Sublimation” by Boston author Jennifer Haigh.
The story—which appears in the spring 2014 edition of Emerson College’s award-winning literary journal Ploughshares—is about the intergenerational dynamics of a family dealing with gender, nonconformity, aging, and other issues.
Haigh, a New York Times-bestselling author, has had her work appear in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Good Housekeeping, The Best American Short Stories, and other publications. She has written four novels: Baker Towers, The Condition, Faith, and Mrs. Kimble. This year, Haigh received the PEN/New England Award for her short story anthology News from Heaven.
About 30,000 copies of Haigh’s “Sublimation” will be printed and distributed for free starting in September. Keep an eye out for them at BPL branches (where pre-BBF discussions will take place), some MBTA stations, and other public events. In addition, copies will also be at Dunkin’ Donuts locations and will be distributed via Zipcar—both are supporters of 1C1S.
And of course, as usual, the story will also be available for free download at bostonbookfestival.org, where you’ll find Haigh’s story translated into several languages.
The Boston Book Festival takes place October 25, 2014.
