May 28 2009
BookExpo America started May 28 at New York's Javits Convention in a downsized version, one less day, fewer journalists, less junk given away.Show organizers also decided to hold it in NYC for the foreseeable future and how long is that? It's the publishing industry trade show and the first one I've skipped in maybe 16 years. Why? It's just not worth it anymore. Also, it was refreshing to visit various cities like LA, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas when the show bounced around.
Cleveland free-lance writer Carlo Wolff, occasional contributor to Post-Gazette book section, is covering the event for the Boston Globe, another commentary on newspapers since the Globe, a train ride away in Boston, is not sending a staffer to cover it. Here are my tips for Carlo:
You're probably at Javits Center right now, enjoying the "amenities" of the "press room," a prime example of how unimportant journalists are at BEA.
First tip: Avoid the press room. It's a disgrace and utterly worthless. Where's the Wi-Fi? Good luck with that. Also, those lanyards you can hang your badge from can be found at the general registration desk. The press room, of course, has none.
Tip 2: Restrict your time walking the show floor. It can be confusing, disorienting and hard on the feet.
Tip 3: Resist the freebies. They are for booksellers who can afford to ship boxes of them back home.
Tip 4: Galleys and catalogs. Tell the publisher to mail them to you. Travel light.
Tip 5: The most interesting events are the many seminars and programs going on off the floor in all those meeting rooms. Use PW daily to get the schedule. The National Book Critics Circle plans some self-serving programs where board members congratulate themselves on how prominent they are at the NY Times.
Tip 6: Try to set up author interviews away from the floor booths where "fans" will interrupt you and publicists will urge you to hurry up and finish.
Tip 7: Since this is New York, there's liable to be an overload of publicists. With fewer media in attendance to "service," they are likely to be bored or hung over, therefore of little use. Try to deal with the head flak.
Tip 8: If possible, avoid the Javits food service. The reason is obvious. Also, note the length of the Starbucks lines and plan accordingly.
Tip 9: Parties. Since you represent the Globe, you've probably got some primo invites. Unless you're a party animal, you might find yourself staring at your shoes. It's a very clubby, insider atmosphere. Wear your badge.
Tip 10: Get out, enjoy the city. A few blocks away is a bar owned by Jon Krakauer. Have a beer, relax.
May 27 2009
It’s the Good Olde Summertime for those college instructors of writing, both fiction and non, and that means they're now heading for the hundreds of conferences and workshops at campuses across the country to make more money teaching writing rather than actually writing themselves.
Before you sign up for one of those "creative non-fiction" sessions when the urge to tell your life story overwhelms you, take time to read this commentary on the subject in the March/April Poets and Writers:
It’s titled "Greenhaired Gumshoes or Hidebound Hacks: Creative nonfiction vs. journalism.
Click here:
May 16 2009
Bonjour from Paris where I am walking eagerly, guide book and camera at the ready like the generic American tourist, although not in plaid shorts, to find the many shrines to our Lost Generation of writers who found Paris an affordable place to write. If Hemingway came today, I'm afraid he'd need to have won the Power Ball to live decently and write. Quel prix!
First stop the reincarnated Shakespeare and Co. bookshop not far from the Seine and Notre Dame on a small street. Picture on left is the second floor where readings are held. The shot below shows the exterior.
The business was moved here in the late 1930s, so this is not where Papa, Joyce, Cowley, et al, hung out. That was nearly a half-mile away on Rue de L'Odeon where a haute couture shop now operates. The tres charmante clerks smiled at me as I snapped a few photos.
Yet, the present Shakespeare & Co., defines the term "literary charm." From the funky location to the crammed store, full of books, the place is a haven for those who believe in the printed word -- and I mean printed between covers on paper. My doughty companion had to drag me away by threatening to call the gendarmes.
May 12 2009
In the fall of 2001, the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University collaborated on a terrific exhibition of the 1955 Pittsburgh photo project of famed photographer Eugene Smith.
"Dream Street," the title taken from a Smith photo of that street sign above a Studebaker convertible, presented the city and its people in an unearthly, at times, nighmarish way. The exhibition's work is collected in a book from WW Norton with the same name.
After Pittsburgh, a physically and mentally broken Smith, now estranged from his family (his photo of his kids, "The Walk to Paradise Garden" will break your heart) wound up in Manhattan renting space in a rundown loft where he invited jazz players to jam while he recorded and photographed them.
Now, the documentary center has launched a project on Smith in NYC. It's all on the Web site:
http://cds.aas.duke.edu/jazzloft/index.html
May 08 2009
As often as is humanly possible, Danielle Steel publishes a novel. Every year since Gutenberg invented the printing press, it seems, Danielle delivers one, sometimes two a year. Her publisher says there are 580 million books with her name on them somewhere in the world. Her newest, and I'm writing quickly before she releases another is "Matters of the Heart." It's the always unique tale of a woman who has it all, then decides to get more. What's amazing is her introduction. She lists this as her 100th, including unpublished works, poetry, nonfiction and, for Pete's sake, childrens books. Danielle thanks her nine – nine? – kids "for seeing her through just about every minute of my adult life. So that’s who writes the books, eh?
May 07 2009
Everything is up to date in Kansas City, if the blogging of Alan Scherstuhl is any proof. Young Scherstuhl loves old stuff he unearths in thrift stores, yard sales and probably trash cans. A critic for the weekly The Pitch in KC, he has created the brilliant blog, Studies in Crap which includes excerpts of Bill O'Reilly reading his soft-core porn novel, "Those Who Trespass. "Take off those pants off," O'Reilly commands.
Hear it here:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/03/off_with_those.php
For more on the lousy literature found in the bargain bin:
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/05/the_tragic_failure_of_americas.php
and
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/05/a_splendid_prol.php