Past Events
StoryWish is more than a program. It is a cause that engages the community in the power of storytelling and interdisciplinary work across the sciences and arts. We hold events with local museums, bookstores, schools, and more for this purpose.
Check out past events below, and we hope you can join us in the future.
09/23/21
Inspired by the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Children's book author Elizabeth Shreeve and postdoctoral researcher & cartoonist Caroline Hu spoke on a panel moderated by HCSCS President Felicia Ho to discuss the creative process and how the museum has inspired their work.
09/19/21
The Fossils are Talking!
Children's book author Elizabeth Shreeve shared the behind-the-scenes magic with children and families for her latest adventure, Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas. HCSCS President Felicia Ho later engaged Shreeve in conversation.
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11/11/21
Seeing Yourself: A Conversation on Beautiful Shades of Brown
A critical conversation about self-representation and impressions in art with author cohort member Nancy Churnin about the research process for her newly released book, Beautiful Shades of Brown, and Harvard History of Art & Architecture PhD student Kéla Jackson on her PhD work.
12/10/21
From Idea to Book: Electrify your Stories!
Author cohort member Azadeh Westergaard shared the inspiration and research process behind her debut children's book, A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla. We learned a lot about the relationship between writer and illustrator in the publishing process and Nikola's love for pigeons!
03/29/22
Dunster Author Panel
An illuminating conversation with four children's book authors — Elizabeth Shreeve, Nancy Churnin, Peter Lerangis, and Azadeh Westergaard — on the twists and turns of pursuing a writing career after Harvard. They offer tips and tricks of the trade for those who are interested in following their footsteps.
04/02/22
Pastries & Poetry with The Harvard Advocate
Thanks to an amazing partnership with the Harvard Advocate, we welcomed poet Justine Ramos to the Advocate space for our first in-person event, a casual poetry workshop where students brought in poems to discuss or learned how to get started in the process.
04/07/22
Digging Deep for the Story: How Archival Research and Story Writing Come Together
Partnering with the amazing team at Chesterwood, we had a lovely audience of over 50 attendees join our session that took us on a virtual tour of Chesterwood, shared valuable archival resources available at Chesterwood and beyond with us, and presented a behind-the-scenes look at writing and illustrating a story like Monument Maker. Thank you to our presenters from Chesterwood, Executive Director Donna Hassler and Curatorial Researcher Dana Pilson, and to our speakers, Linda Booth Sweeney and Shawn Fields.
04/12/22
Building a Vision with Local Ties: Tracing Daniel Chester French's Roots in Cambridge and Beyond
We partnered with the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site National Park Service team to bring an amazing program discussing Daniel Chester French's roots in Cambridge and beyond (thanks to rangers Elizabeth Wasson and Emily Levine for organizing this opportunity!). Speakers Linda Booth Sweeney and Shawn Fields then took the virtual Zoom stage in conversation with Sam to chat how they worked together to bring Monument Maker to life.
11/01/22
Painting a Picture of the Past: Writing and Illustrating Historical Fiction
Thank you to author Ilona Holland and illustrator Judy Love for an incredible conversation about how to get started writing and drawing powerful, moving historical fiction stories. We discussed the principles of tackling these stories, how to define and write to a specific audience, and how to build the skills and resources for embarking on this project.
11/06/22
Healing with Words: Mama's Year with Cancer
Shayna Vincent shared her incredibly powerful, moving experience facing stage IV breast cancer and finding new coping mechanisms in writing and leaning into expressing her feelings more openly with others. We had an insightful conversation with all of our attendees, and we want to thank Shayna and everyone for being so open, respectful, and thoughtful — we can't wait to see the book come out soon in September 2023!