Session Details Announced for 2016 Boston Book Festival

Emma Donoghue photo by Nina Subin

The Boston Book Festival has released details on the sessions it’ll be offering next October. While information about presenters has been coming out for a few weeks, this is the first look at just what exactly those sessions will involve.

A few of the sessions follow the festival’s theme of “Life on the Margins,” but overall they cover a breadth of topics, including the experience of being a debut novelist, which industries we can expect to thrive in the future (which, notably, includes an appearance from a G.E. exec), and what it’s like to write about a real historical figure, with authors who wrote about figures including Georgia O’Keefe, George Eliot, and non-lady, non-George, John Steinbeck.

Of particular interest to Boston readers is the memoir keynote, from Cambridge’s own Susan Faludi, who will be talking about her memoir about her father’s late-in-life gender transition, In the Darkroom, a recent Kirkus Prize finalist. She’ll be in conversation with WBUR’s Christopher Lydon. To prep, be sure to check out our interview with her. The opening night session will appeal to aspiring screenwriters: It’s called “Storytelling for Page and Screen,” and includes local Tom Perrotta (The Leftovers, Little Children), Emma Donoghue (Room), and Maria Semple, who was a TV writer before becoming an author, and whose Where’d You Go, Bernadette is currently being developed as a film.

There are also special sessions for teens, romance novel fans, and writers, as well as activities for kids, live music and the usual outdoor festival. For additional details and a full schedule, visit the site. The festival takes place on October 14 and 15.