Seminars and Classes

Learn more about Boston’s literary Past and Present

Winter/Spring 2026

New!

“Reading Boston’s Authors of the Past”

A 6-Week Seminar

Boston has such a rich literary history, and through my new literary walking tours, I’ve helped others discover that history at the locations where authors from the past gathered, lived, and wrote.

But they also light up when we read work together written by those authors on the streets where they lived.

There are many more stories to read — so let’s do English class together!

Join me for the inaugural six-week, in-person seminar class “Reading Boston’s Literary History” as we read and dig into the work of Boston authors of the past. We’ll learn about their lives here in Boston and discuss their work, then we’ll go on a walking tour of where the authors we read lived and wrote after the class’s completion.

Tentative syllabus includes writing by:

  • Anne Bradstreet

  • Phillis Wheatley

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  • Amy Lowell

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • Henry David Thoreau

  • Margaret Fuller

  • Louisa May Alcott

  • Sylvia Plath

  • Dorothy West

  • Kahlil Gibran

  • Mary Antin

Duration: Six weeks, with additional walking tour after conclusion.

Class length: Each class runs 1.5 to 2 hours.

Start date: Late January.

Location: Venue TBD, but I’m hoping to book a room at the BPL.

Cost: $300 (inaugural class rate)

Instructor: Jessica A. Kent, founder of Literary Boston (see my bio below!)

Who is this seminar for?: This seminar is for curious adults — readers, writers, educators, and history-minded Bostonians — who want to engage with classic literature, digging into themes, style, and literary devices (don’t worry, I’ll help guide you if you have no or little experience doing this). More intensive than a book club, but not as rigorous as an academic course. And no homework but the readings!

You’ll come away with a better understanding of Boston authors from the past and what they wrote, having read work that moves, challenges, and inspires you.

Registration opens in mid- to late-December. If you’re interested in the class or simply interested in learning more, fill out the interest form below! (This isn’t a commitment to the class yet — I’m simply gauging interest.)

Your Instructor

Hi! I’m Jessica, and I’m the founder of Literary Boston, a cultural initiative that promotes the local literary community, past and present. Other literary roles include literary history tour guide, library assistant, bookseller at both indies and Barnes & Noble, book festival director and social media manager, lit mag founder, lit org board member — and, of course, writer.

I hold a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and an MA in Literature from Harvard University (Extension), where my thesis on Moby-Dick and Calvinism won the Director’s Prize (yes, I wrote that for fun!). During my times in my master’s program, I tried to take as many classes in American Literature as I could, specifically 19th c. New England literature, and yes, there was a bit of literary theory in there, too.

My writing has appeared the North American Review, the Emerson Review, Writer’s Bone, and others, and my short story “Rose” received the Leah Lovenheim Award for Short Fiction. I’m also a freelance ghostwriter with over a hundred pieces published out there on the web. You can find my portfolio here.

I recently graduated from GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program, a year-long novel writing craft intensive, where I worked on a novel about paramedics in 1970s Boston (still in progress!).

Finally, my passion for “digging into the text” lead me to run a book club for a few years we called “English class over dinner,” as well as a nine-month informal “Moby-Dick Class” where I guided friends through the novel.