Events and Programs

For the past three decades, we have hosted this spectacular dinner honoring distinguished authors from the Northeast — celebrating their contributions to literature and the written word. Proceeds from Literary Lights support the David McCullough Conservation Fund and our conservation work.

Are books that were popular a hundred years ago still relevant today? That’s the question we ask every year at the Hundred-Year Book Debate, where three distinguished panelists are each charged with making a strong case for one of three bestselling books from a hundred years ago. The audience chooses the winner!

The Associates’ Writer-in-Residence program makes a profound impact on the lives of emerging writers. Funded by an anonymous investor, the Writer-in-Residence program provides financial support, editorial assistance, and office space needed to complete a literary work for children or young adults. To date, program alumni have published, or have forthcoming, more than eighty books.

The Pierce Performance Series was launched to raise the visibility of the Boston Public Library’s Special Collections through free public performances and lectures. For our inaugural event we commemorated the 150th anniversary of the National Peace Jubilee. Subsequent performances have honored the historic words of the abolitionists, celebrated women's right to vote, and examined the life of one of America's first rebels, Thomas Paine.