Four Stories
The Bitter End: Stories of loss, endings, and final acts
Featuring Jeremiah Healey, Drew Johnson, Julia Glass, and Joan Wickersham
The Enormous Room
(567 Mass Ave,
Central Square)
Monday, December 3
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Free!
Four Stories is a unique reading series: Boston-based but also Japan-based, set in a bar, and featuring four writers instead of just one, the event proves that readings don’t have to be torture. The unorthodox setting and variety of readers make Four Stories suitable for even the most ADD, non-readerly types—it’s more like a party than a stereotypically stuffy literary event, and its fun atmosphere encourages engaged discussion rather than passive absorption of the readings.
Four Stories founder Tracy Slater is a key ingredient in the readings’ party-like atmosphere: her cheerful attitude and refreshing directness (not to mention the glitter eyeshadow) are welcome changes from the droning, overly tactful emcees that sometimes preside over other literary events. Tomorrow will be Four Stories’ last installment in Boston for the winter; the series re-launches in Japan on December 16.
We talked with Tracy Slater about Four Stories, and we hope her enthusiasm motivates you to check out the reading tomorrow night, which will feature Jeremiah Healy (creator of the John Francis Cuddy private-investigator series and Mairead O’Clare legal-thriller series), Drew Johnson (published in Harper's, Virginia Quarterly Review, and StoryQuarterly), Julia Glass (author of Three Junes and The Whole World Over), and Joan Wickersham (author of The Paper Anniversary and The Suicide Index). Read our talk with Tracy after the jump.
How did Four Stories get started?
I always wanted to have an event like Four Stories to go to, where it would feel like being in a Victorian salon, with mingling and great conversation and food and drinks, and I was disappointed there was nothing like that, especially in Boston, which has such a rich intellectual and creative community.
Then, when my husband (who was my boyfriend then) and I decided that he would move back to Japan (he lived with me in Boston for a year) and I would spend 1/2-2/3 of the year with him in Osaka and the rest of the time in Boston (a really hard decision, which I wrote about in an essay that's coming out in the anthology Best Women's Travel Writing 2008, this February, which is really exciting for me!), I realized I really needed some way to stay in touch with the intellectual and creative community here since I was going to be away so much. I lived in Boston all my life, went to grammar school, boarding school, college, and graduate school here, so it was really important to me to find some way to stay connected to the area and its culture. That really gave me the motivation to start Four Stories, because it would be something I could do on my own schedule. So I had one event, it went really well, and I just kept running them.
Really, I didn't expect it to draw such a great group of people to the events, but when it did, I decided to try holding them in Japan, too, which would also help me make new contacts in the expat writing community there.
What have been some of the biggest Four Stories highlights for you over the years?
On a personal level, one of the nicest parts of the series has been getting to feature my sister, Lauren Slater, who's a really well-published and award-winning writer, and finding some way to do something we could do together--like have her read at one of the events. I think she has just an incredible mind and gift, and it was a big kick for me to have her read (twice, actually) and see her on stage and appreciate her as a writer, as a writer reading at one of my events, and as my sister. It made me proud and happy, I suppose.
Otherwise, in Boston, getting the series written up four times (or maybe even five--another Globe reporter contacted me about writing up Monday night, too) in the Globe has been a huge thrill for me, especially when they very kindly reported that "everyone raves about Four Stories" and it's the "city's hippest reading series." (See Globe writeups here and here.)
And getting writeups in places like your blog, too, where people just hear about the events and take an interest in them and in writing about them--that's so exciting to me.
Finally, earlier this year in Japan, we made the front page of the national section of the Japan Times (Japan's main English-language newspaper), who reported on the importance of Four Stories in the cultural landscape of the Osaka region. That was really exciting for me, because I had only had a handful of events in Japan at that time, and I felt really good that the series was making such an impact even though it was so new.
And lastly, it's just enabled me to meet so many great writers, readers, and listeners, so that's always a highlight.
OK, one more: I love getting to wear my glitter eyeshadow on stage when I'm MC'ing the events!
Do you think it's the venue, the audience, the attitude, or a combination of these factors that makes Four Stories so different from other reading series? How do the venues and atmosphere compare in Boston vs. Japan?
A combination, I think, especially because together these factors have enabled the events to be interesting or intellectually stimulating but not at all pretentious--just like a fun night out.
The atmospheres in Japan and Boston are somewhat different. Japan is a little more restrained, because people tend to be less forward or outgoing in Japan with strangers, and that sort of subtle way of behaving makes an impact even on the expats living there, I think. (In Japan, we get some Japanese audience members but most are Western expats.)
Is this Boston season's end really bitter? Why?
No, not at all! My husband and his entire family came over to Boston from Japan for 2 weeks in October, which was the time when I was trying to finalize details for the Season Finale, like readers and a theme. I was so busy running around with all my Japanese-speaking relatives staying at different hotels and making sure they could get around the city OK (and, as a freelance writer, keeping up with my own work deadlines...), that I needed to come up with a theme quickly, so I just grabbed whatever popped into my head that 1) would relate to a season finale event and 2) would work with what the authors' I'm featuring tend to write about. And I ended up with "the bitter end..."
What are your plans for Four Stories Japan? What are you most excited about?
Our winter season opening is in Osaka on 12/16, and then our January event is in Tokyo. I love the Tokyo events because I get to go to Tokyo and see my expat friends who live there and who are great, and I love that city (although Osaka is a great--and huge--city too). Plus I get to take the bullet train to get there, and I LOVE the bullet train.
Do you have anything in mind for the Four Stories Boston spring series?
Yes. I'm hoping the series opening will be March 24, but I'm applying for my longterm visa while I'm in Japan this time (right now I've been traveling on a tourist visa, and a longterm visa, which I can get as the spouse of Japanese citizen, is much more convenient for going back and forth), and I need to wait for that to come through before I fly back to Boston. I'm supposed to fly back in the beginning of March, but I may have to extend the trip if the visa takes longer than expected.
But there will definitely be a Boston spring season with at least 3 events, and I'll post the dates well in advance on the site and through the mailing list.
How much time do you estimate that you spend on planes, what with your dual Boston/Japan lifestyle?
A LOT. And even more time on the phone with the airlines, trying to book tickets that will leave me enough money to continue to go shopping!
Check out Four Stories tomorrow night at 7:00--you'll be entertained, we guarantee it!
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