Memoir Event with Local Author Jennifer Crystal!

Name: Memoir Event with Local Author Jennifer Crystal!
Start: 2025-09-16T19:00:00-04:00
Location: 12 Spruce St., Acton, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01720

Schedule

Tue, 16 Sep, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

12 Spruce St., Acton, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01720 | Acton, MA

Join us a we host local author and educator Jennifer Crystal and celebrate Jennifer's memoir, One Tick Stopped the Clock.
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.
About Jennifer Crystal
A Boston-based writer and educator, Jennifer Crystal runs the Writing to Heal Immersive Program at Grub Street Creative Writing Center, where she also teaches other non-fiction classes. For more than a decade, she has written about the chronic illness patient experience for the Global Lyme Alliance, a column that has received mention in The New Yorker and CQ Researcher. She is a Senior Writer for Harvard Health Publishing, where she also served as the Patient Experience Representative for the Lyme Wellness Initiative. Jennifer has been interviewed for CBS News and for articles in Undark and Experience Life, and her story has been part of many anthologies, webinars, and podcasts. Her written work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Aeon’s Psyche, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, Harvard Health Blog, and many other outlets. Jennifer 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.