Join us for a very special event with author Isaac Fitzgerald! Fitzgerald's memoir-in-essays Dirtbag, Massachusetts begins with a childhood that moves at breakneck speed, recounting an extraordinary pilgrimage through trauma to self-understanding and, ultimately, acceptance. From growing up in a Boston homeless shelter to bartending in San Francisco, from smuggling medical supplies into Burma to his lifelong struggle to make peace with his body, Fitzgerald strives to take control of his own story: one that aims to put aside anger, isolation, and entitlement to embrace the idea that one can be generous to oneself by being generous to others.

Fitzgerald appears frequently on The Today Show and is also the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. He is Boston born, raised in Athol, and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The discussion will be moderated by Daniel Ford, host of The Writer's Bone Podcast.

This live online event will be held on the platform Crowdcast. To register, first create a Crowdcast account or sign in with Twitter, Facebook, or Google. After you have signed in, click the "Save My Spot" button and use the password below.

The registration link is here and the password is: ​dirtbagmass

The Reading Public Library is hosting this event with a coalition of libraries from throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.