Two local, esteemed authors come OUTSIDE next week!

(Both talks are Q&A with book signing.)

TUESDAY July 30^th   Countway Courtyard:  Local author and artistic director of GrubStreet, (the country’s largest and leading independent creative writing center) Christopher Castellani will discuss his latest novel “Leading Men,” an expansive yet intimate story of desire, artistic ambition, and fidelity, set in the glamorous literary and film circles of 1950s Italy. (See below for more thorough book description)

Castellani is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels, A Kiss from Maddalena (Algonquin Books, 2003)—winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in 2004—The Saint of Lost Things (Algonquin, 2005), a BookSense (IndieBound) Notable Book; and All This Talk of Love (Algonquin, 2013), a New York Times Editors’ Choice and finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award. In addition to his work with GrubStreet, Christopher is on the faculty and academic board of the Warren Wilson MFA program and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College, received his Master’s in English Literature from Tufts University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Boston University.

THURSDAY August 1^st 12:30 Countway Courtyard On August 1 at 12:30pm: Guy Crosby, PhD will present an informal talk on “How the Evolution of Science Transformed the Art of Cooking.”  Guy’s talk is based on his forthcoming book “Cook, Taste, Learn-How the Evolution of Science Transformed the Art of Cooking” to be published later this fall by Columbia University Press. Crosby, “The Cooking Science Guy” is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health where he is the primary instructor for Nutrition 209, Seminars in Food Science, Technology, and Sustainability. He is also science editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, which produces a popular cooking magazine, PBS television cooking show, and radio program. Until August 2017 Guy had been the science editor for America’s Test Kitchen for more than twelve years. Guy serves on the Food Task Force for the Boston Museum of Science, is an advisor for the New York City initiative to reduce added sugars in processed food, as well the advisory board for the culinary science program at the Culinary Institute of America.

Regular programming all week includes visiting animals, free YOGA, food trucks, game carts, roving musicians and more! www.longwoodoutside.org

Leading Men: In July of 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter all of their lives. 

Ten years later, Frank revisits the tempestuous events of that fateful summer from his deathbed in Manhattan, where he waits anxiously for Tennessee to visit him one final time. Anja, now legendary film icon Anja Bloom, lives as a recluse in the present-day U.S. until a young man connected to the events of 1953 lures her reluctantly back into the spotlight after he discovers she possesses the only copy of Williams’s unknown final play—written especially for her.

What keeps two people together and what breaks them apart? Can we save someone else if we can’t save ourselves? Like The Master and The Hours, Leading Men seamlessly weaves fact and fiction to navigate the tensions between public figures and their private lives. In an ultimately heartbreaking story about the burdens of fame and the complex negotiations of life in the shadows of greatness, Castellani creates an unforgettable leading lady in Anja Bloom and reveals the hidden machinery of one of the great literary love stories of the twentieth-century.