Author Jean Duffy of Soccer Grannies: the South African women who inspire the world, Laura Beretsky of Seizing Control: managing epilepsy and others’ reactions to it and Bev Boisseau Stohl of Chomsky & Me: a memoir will be here to discuss their books, the power of writing groups, and publishing. Q&A to follow.

Laura Beretsky is an author and community activist, with published essays Health Story Collaborative and the National Library of Poetry, and WBUR’s Cognoscenti. She lives in Somerville with her husband, children, and two cats where she’s active on the local community preservation committee and high school parent-teacher-student association. Laura is a part- time grant writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science department. When she’s not working, spending time with family, or working on local issues, she collects material and writes stories for her All Things Epilepsy blog, with the goal of increasing awareness about epilepsy, its impacts on those who have it, and the need for expanded epilepsy funding and research. Seizing Control is her first book.

Bev Boisseau Stohl is a nonfiction writer with published essays in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the MIT Press, Stethoscopes and Pencils, Chomsky.info, etc.. She has interviewed with Reddit (AMA), Open Source radio, CounterPunch, Green and Red Podcast, and other social media. Chomsky and Me: A Memoir (OR Books, 2023) is the story of her 24 years as Noam Chomsky’s MIT assistant. Bev, Noam, and her dog Roxy have been featured in graphic novels, and animated in Michel Gondry’s 2013 film, Is the Man who is Tall Happy? Bev has performed stand-up comedy and appeared on TV news shows talking backward. She has dabbled in woodworking, and is mediocre at piano, guitar, dulcimer, and ukulele. You can find Bev online at www.facebook.com/ChomskyandMeAMemoir and www.instagram.com/ChomskyandMeAMemoir.

Jean Duffy is a nonfiction writer with essays appearing in the Boston Globe, Concord Monitor, PBS Next Avenue, WBUR Cognoscenti, and other publications. Published in May, Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) is her first book. Jean can be found on the soccer field in Lexington, Massachusetts where her team, the Lexpressas, have been playing for some twenty years. When she’s not attacking the keyboard or flubbing a shot on goal, she might be consulting with nonprofits, helping people downsize, or doing crossword puzzles with her husband at their home in Somerville, Massachusetts.