Concord, Massachusetts
Two weeks of talks, readings, and discussions celebrating the written and the spoken word.
Nathaniel Philbrick
Gish Jen
Andrew Bacevich
Pauline Maier
How You Can Participate
- Attend: Most events are free. All events are open to the public. Events that require a ticket are so indicated and include information about how and where to obtain tickets.
- Donate: The festival is produced by a non-profit foundation and depends greatly on individual support. Tax deductible donations in any amount are encouraged and can be made online.
- Sponsor: Corporate sponsorship is welcomed and is available. For information please .
Jessica Shattuck
Events: Breakfast with the Authors 2009 (Tickets $20)
Book: Perfect Life
Jessica Shattuck is the author of The Hazards of Good Breeding. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Wired, Mother Jones, and Glamour.
Her new novel, Perfect Life, is a uniquely modern chronicle of conception in the age of infinite possibility. Two years ago, Neil Banks walked into a bathroom in the Pacific Fertility Center to provide his former college girlfriend, Jenny Callahan, with the biological material needed to conceive a child. Becoming a father was not part of the deal. Adrift in his postmodern Los Angeles lifestyle, Neil signed away all paternity rights. But on the day of the baby’s christening, he turns up at the church. Neil’s unexpected — and unauthorized — return to Jenny’s privileged East Coast world sends a shockwave through the families of Jenny and her two college roommates, and sets off this deeply funny and keenly observed novel about fertility, love, and American excess.