April 16, 2024: Go Outside

For the first time ever in the show’s history, we are venturing outside the four counties of western Massachusetts. But the ties of the 413 are still strong in the places to which we’re headed. Restless Books in Amherst will release “The Book Censor’s Library” on April 30th; a speculative fiction novel that wrestles with a wealth of issues relevant to any democracy in crisis. Author Bothanya Al-Essa speaks with us about this, the only book of hers that has not been banned in her home country of Kuwait, about the real life parallels to the book, how opening a bookstore in a nation with only-recently-lessened censorship has been, and the love of literature that has lead to each. And we head south to the home of the author of one of the most well-known pieces of abolitionist fiction. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT is about to launch a new summer series with it’s event “Garden of Literacy” this weekend. So we chat with executive director, Karen Fisk, director of collections & public programs Cat White, and newly appointed director of interpretation & visitor experience Erika Slocumb, all of whom currently or very recently lived in the 413, about the center’s mission of literary activism, how engaging their community in history can invigorate an area’s civic base, and all the fun things they’ll be getting up to this Saturday in their new event series.