Porter Square Books and GrubStreet are excited to welcome Jennifer Crystal for the release of her latest memoir One Tick Stopped the Clock! Annie Brewster will join Crystal in conversation, and the author talk will be followed by a signing line. 

This event will take place on Tuesday, September 24 at 7pm at Porter Square Books: Boston Edition (50 Liberty Drive, Boston, MA 02210).

This event is co-presented by GrubStreet and Porter Square Books

Bitten by a tick at age 19 but not diagnosed with Lyme disease and other chronic illness until her late twenties, Jennifer Crystal fell from the pinnacle of post-college momentum to the precipice of despair. Sidelined from her dream job as a ski instructor in the Rocky Mountains, Jennifer fought not only for her health but also for validation and support. She struggled with the identity loss that occurs when you can no longer fulfill expectations or do what you love. One Tick Stopped the Clock gives personal voice to the collective journey that millions of chronic illness patients experience. Through her narrative of resilience and perseverance, Jennifer demonstrates what it means to refocus broken dreams and create a new normal. Blending medical mystery with wit, sensitivity, and a sharp understanding of the human experience, One Tick Stopped the Clock offers hope and inspiration for anyone who can’t go back, but instead must move forward at a new pace.

Jennifer Crystal is a writer, teacher, and consultant who is passionate about the transformative power of personal narrative. She has been teaching non-fiction at GrubStreet since 2015 and is the creator of the Writing to Heal Immersive Program. For more than a decade, she has written about the chronic illness patient experience in a weekly column for The Global Lyme Alliance, which has received mention in The New Yorker and CQ researcher. Her work has appeared in or on Aeon’s Psyche, The Boston Globe, wbur.org, poetryandcovid.com, and many other outlets. Jennifer has also shared her story as part of webinars, podcasts, broadcasts, and anthologies. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. from Emerson College and has completed a summer of study at the Bread Loaf School of English and a Workshop in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University.

Annie Brewster, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, a writer and a storyteller. She is also a patient, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. In response to the disconnection she experienced in healthcare, both as a patient and a provider, and motivated by her belief in the power of stories, she started recording patient narratives in 2010. Integrating her personal experiences with the research supporting the health benefits of narrative, she founded Health Story Collaborative in 2013. She is widely published in the press and is author of The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss (2022).

Celebrating over 25 years as the nation's leading and largest independent center for creative writing, GrubStreet is the place where writers develop their craft – and themselves – through the power of writing and sharing their work. GrubStreet offers hundreds of creative writing programs and events for writers from all backgrounds and ages at its Center for Creative Writing in the Seaport, in many Boston neighborhoods, and online. Scholarships are available for all offerings, and many programs are free. At its center, GrubStreet also hosts a community lounge, a podcast studio, Porter Square Books: Boston Edition, and a Writers’ Stage. Learn more at www.grubstreet.org.

Jennifer Crystal, author of One Tick Stopped the Clock, in conversation with Annie Brewster