Writer-in-Residence Reading and Celebration

The Associates of the Boston Public Library is hosting a Writer-in-Residence Reading to welcome our 2025-26 writer, Zarlasht Niaz, and celebrate our 2024-25 writer, Yssis Cano-Santiago.

This year, we will also honor the recipient of our brand-new Illustrated Children's Book Fellowship.

Logistics

General Admission (in-person): Join us at the Boston Public Library's Rabb Hall, located on the lower level of the Boylston Street Building in Copley Square. Seating is first-come, first-served.

Virtual Ticket: This hybrid event will be held in-person and virtually on the video conference platform Zoom. Please click this URL to join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Android: URL to come.

For questions, contact the Associates of the Boston Public Library at aGVsbG8gfCBhc3NvY2lhdGVzYnBsICEgb3Jn or (617) 536-3886.

Yssis, a Puerto Rican and Mexican writer from Florida, holds a B.A. in Global Public Health and a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She works as a paralegal for the Boston Public Health Commission and is an advocate for increased healthcare access, a theme central to her writing. Her proposed book, A Hypochondriac’s Guide to Love, is a YA novel about two Latinx teens coming of age in 1990s Miami, grappling with mental illness, racism, gentrification, and loss. Yssis said, "I am incredibly honored and grateful that my writing resonated with the Associates.”

Zarlasht is an Afghan American writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She earned a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of Minnesota and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. She was an inaugural Mirrors and Windows Fellow, a PB Rising Stars Mentee, and her picture book manuscripts earned a Walter Dean Myers Grant from We Need Diverse Books. In her free time, she enjoys reviewing Afghan books on her website TheAfghanReview.com. Her proposed novel-in-verse, UNFURLING, is a double-perspective story about Afghan American teens Yasaman and Zubair, who navigate issues of identity, Islamophobia, and sibling violence in post-9/11 rural Wisconsin. Upon hearing the news, Zarlasht said, "When I got the call that I won, I couldn't believe it. It's a great reassurance to know that the stories we feel most afraid to tell can find such profound support in the world.” 

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