East End Books Ptown, 389 Commercial St., will host a virtual and live book event with Joe Okonkwo on Saturday, Aug. 28, 6 p.m. Okonkwo’s latest short story collection, Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck, explores being Black and gay in America. Register ($5 suggested donation) at eastendbooksptown.com.
East End Books Ptown
Virtual Romance (Mon.)
East End Books Ptown, 389 Commercial St., presents a live and virtual book event with Tom Roach, author of Screen Love, on Monday, Aug. 23, 6 p.m. Roach, a professor of philosophy and cultural studies at Bryant University, will discuss social media and online hookups during the pandemic as a new norm-breaking social paradigm. Registration is $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Home Sweet Home (Wed.)
“Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart” is a live and virtual book event and cookout hosted by East End Books Ptown, 398 Commercial St., on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 6:30 p.m. It will feature readings by Miah Jeffra, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, and other queer writers and artists. Registration is $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Secret Sibling
Jill Richter will appear in conversation with her brother Dan Richter in a live and virtual book event at East End Books Ptown, 389 Commercial St., on Sunday, July 18th, at 6 p.m. Her book, The Burmese Sister, chronicles the story of Eva Swanson in search of her half-sister in Burma following the death of her father. Registration with $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Vice and Virtue
East End Books Ptown, 389 Commercial St., hosts a virtual and in-person event for Anna Lvovsky’s Vice Patrol: Cops, Courts, and the Struggle Over Urban Gay Life Before Stonewall on Tuesday, July 13th, at 6 p.m. The book chronicles the suppression and criminalization of gay life in America between the 1930s and 1960s. Registration with $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Here and Queer
East End Books Ptown, 389 Commercial St., will host a Zoom and in-person event for Aaron S. Lecklider’s book Love’s Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture on Tuesday, June 29th, at 6 p.m. Lecklider, a cultural critic and professor of American studies at UMass Boston, will talk about how queer culture and radical politics intersected between 1920 and 1960, years before Stonewall. Registration with $5 suggested donation is at eastendbooksptown.com.
In the Heights Book Launch
East End Books Ptown is hosting a virtual book launch for In the Heights: Finding Home on Tuesday, June 15th at 8 p.m. The book gives a behind-the-scenes look at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway debut, now a feature film (which you can see on Wednesday, June 16th as part of the Provincetown International Film Festival). The virtual event will include co-authors Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Jeremy McCarter in conversation with America Ferrera. Tickets, which include a hardcover copy of the book, are $45 to $55 at eastendbooksptown.com.
Sell Your Film, and Build a Canoe
East End Books Ptown continues its virtual book series with two events this week.
Behind every film’s success, there’s a business model that helped get it there. On Monday, June 7th at 6 p.m., producer Alec Trachtenberg presents his pragmatic guide to filmmakers and producers, Lights, Camera, Sell. Trachtenburg will be in conversation with successful indie film producer Christine Kunewa Walker, former CEO of the Provincetown International Film Festival, whose production credits include the Todd Solondz film Life During Wartime; the Allen Ginsberg biopic Howl, starring James Franco; and Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion.
The second event, on Wednesday, June 9th at 6 p.m., concerns Little and Often: A Memoir, Trent Preszler’s account of love and loss. It describes how Preszler came to terms with his grief after losing his estranged father — he built a wooden canoe which, in the book, serves as a metaphor for the healing power of creativity. Registration for either event is $5 minimum donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Loving and Claiming Space at East End Books
There are two virtual book events at East End Books Ptown this week.
The first, on Thursday, May 20th, at 7 p.m., will feature Eliza VanCort, author of A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space, in conversation with Alma Derricks. The book is about how to use one’s voice and posture to project confidence and power. “Having a mother with schizophrenia forced VanCort to learn to be small and invisible at an early age,” says the description, “and suffering a traumatic brain injury as an adult required her to rethink communication from the ground up.”
The second event, on Wednesday, May 26th, at 6 p.m., concerns Loving before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White. Author Joan Steinau Lester will appear in conversation with Jewelle Gomez and Maxine Wolfe. The memoir touches on political activism, interracial marriage, and coming out in mid-life. Registration for either event is $5 minimum donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Pier Corpse
Jeannette de Beauvoir reads from her latest Provincetown mystery, Dead in the Water, in a virtual event at East End Books Ptown on Tuesday, May 4th, at 6 p.m. In the book, amateur sleuth Sydney Riley’s respite between theme weeks is cut short when the body of a kidnapped businessman washes up under MacMillan Wharf. Registration is $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com. The book costs $13.99.
Latovich to Reveal The Girl in the Boston Box
Author Chuck Latovich will read from and discuss his new novel, The Girl in the Boston Box: A Mystery Times Two, in a Zoom event presented by East End Books Ptown on Tuesday, March 16th at 6 p.m. Discover how two unrelated narratives are linked by the urban legend of the “Boston Box.” The book was published by Way We Live Publishers in October; Latovich is a frequent visitor to Provincetown.
Admission to the event is free, but you must register with Eventbrite via eastendbooksptown.com to join in.
Part of the Equation
East End Books Ptown is hosting a virtual event with poet Elizabeth Bradfield and artist Antonia Contro discussing their collaboration on the book Theorem, on Tuesday, December 15th, at 6 p.m. It was first published as an art book in 2019, but is being re-released by Poetry Northwest Editions. Registration with a $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Timothy Jay Smith Discusses Fire on the Island
East End Books Ptown is hosting a virtual book event with Timothy Jay Smith, author of Fire on the Island, on Tuesday, December 8th, at 1 p.m.
The book is a romantic thriller set in contemporary Greece. The protagonist, Nick Damigos, is a gay FBI agent who has been sent to investigate a series of mysterious fires on the Greek islands. While searching for the arsonist, however, he ends up unintentionally having an affair with a major suspect.
The book paints a beautiful picture of Greece, while portraying the very real problems of poverty, declining tourism, and the refugee crisis. Registration is $5, a suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com, where you can also purchase the book for $25.
Double Booked
East End Books Ptown is hosting a virtual book event with Sarah Anne Johnson, author of The Last Sailor, and Alden Jones, author of The Wanting Was a Wilderness, on Thursday, December 3rd, at 6 p.m. Registration with $5 suggested donation at eastendbooksptown.com.
Rules for Being Dead Author Does Virtual Book Event
Lambda Literary Award finalist Kim Powers, author of the novel Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story and the memoir The History of Swimming, will read from his new novel, Rules for Being Dead, at a virtual book event via Zoom on Wednesday, November 4th at 6 p.m., hosted by East End Books Ptown.
Rules for Being Dead is a coming-of-age thriller that tells the story of 10-year-old Clarke, a small-town movie-mad Texas boy in the 1960s, whose mom suddenly and mysteriously dies. No one will tell him how it happened, and his father may have been involved.
The Zoom link is free and available at eastendbooksptown.com.
