BEA - Friday

The day started nicely as I had a breakfast meeting with Diane Goettel.  She is the Editor of the Adirondack Review, the Managing Editor of Black Lawrence Press, and will be a Dzanc Writer in Residence next September through June 08 - a fact I'm even more pleased about after sitting and chatting with Diane for a couple of hours.

From there I cabbed over to the apartment of Tom Burke and his wife Mariya Gusev.  Tom is the Co-Director of the Kenya Program of the Summer Literary Seminars, as well as the Russia Program Assistant Director.  Mariya is the Assistant Editor of the St. Petersburg Review.  Just take a peek at the postcard on that link and tell me you're not gung ho to subscribe immediately!  This fine couple was where my good friend, Jeff Parker, was staying, and for the duration of my stay in NY, where I would reside as well (many, many thanks Tom and Mariya!).

After a nice Thai lunch, Jeff and I went to the Convention Center and went straight to the Tin House booth where we met Meg Storey, Georgie Lewis and Lee Montgomery (author of one of my favorite non-fiction works last year and winner of one of the Iowa Short Fiction prizes this year).  Tin House is publishing Jeff's book, Ovenman, in September and had galleys available.  They also had arranged for a martini party at 4 p.m. that afternoon for Jeff to sign copies at.  Just a quick aside, but I read this book on my way home Sunday - mostly in the airport and then on the plane.  As stated, Jeff is a good friend.  Ignore that you know that and believe this next sentence - pre-order the book.  From the first sentence Jeff captures the voice of protagonist When Thinfinger and never lets go (and it's a funny as hell voice at that).  It's certainly the most entertaining time I've had in an airport and/or plane ride.

Since I'd heard that many attendees liked to get their business out of the way on the Friday and pick up free books on Saturday and Sunday (less carrying around?) - I opted to do the opposite and go around and try to introduce myself to the many publicists I email with but had never seen in person, or in some rare cases, re-introduce myself to those I'd met at AWP (or the night before).

I started with some of my favorite people in the world - hitting the Unbridled Books booth.  Not only did I get to see Caitlin again, Fred Ramey and Greg Michalson were there as well.  These two are responsible for so many of the authors I love seeing publication for the first time (Steve Yarbrough, William Gay, Marc Estrin, Rick Collignon, Lise Haines, M. Allen Cunningham, Timothy Schaffert, Debra Earling, Masha Hamilton, and most recently Andrea Portes), and are just truly great guys to sneak a five minute chat with.  As a bonus, authors Timothy Schaffert and Andrea Portes happened to be at the booth.  It was my first meeting with Andrea, whom many of you might remember my recent review (Hick) and interview with - it was a treat meeting her in person.

I then hit the University of Georgia Press booth and met Stacey Sharer.  We discussed the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Series and some other nice things they've got going on.

I then found Milkweed Editions and talked to Emily S. Cook for a moment.  They have a new novel coming out from Matthew Eck in the fall well worth looking for (The Farthest Shore) and have just re-issued Susan Straight's Aquaboogie, which is both an excellent book, and now has a pretty stunning cover to go along with it!

I then checked in with the fine folks of Graywolf Press (Fiona Mccrae and Mary Matze) and admired the galleys of the new Everett and Percy!  Two more to be absolutely sure to pick up - I've read many of Benjamin Percy's stories and they're fantastic.  And, I've read everything Everett has written and unless he's suddenly completely lost his talent, this one will be well worth your time too.

Then I went back over to Tin House for the big party - Parker was swamped.  There were journal publishers over there, litbloggers, publicists from other publishers, distributors, booksellers, and others.  They plowed through a great many copies of the galley.

After that, a friend of Parker's, David Stromberg, showed up and the three of us wandered off in search of food, stopping at a nice Irish bar, Foley's where I had a half-pound burger that I'm pretty sure meant a half-pound AFTER cooking.  Friday's parties in another post.

Comments

[caitlin]

thanks for those kind words, Dan!!

[caitlin]

Thanks for that kind post, Dan!!