carolyn kellogg

paperhaus June 2nd, 2007

BEA is the Olympics of small talk. Everyone is witty and charming and has these fantastic little nugget-like stories that are on point and end with a laugh. Plus, the vocabulary is splendid. I feel like a JV tennis player from Trenton.

I know this because this year, my second at BEA, I’ve managed to shed my shyness and talk to people. Even two editors of the LA Times Book Review. At once.

Like many of the bloggers here, I’m too tired to do more than record a few impressions right now (note: Ed’s barest impressions still constitute serious posting). And if past experience is a guide, in a few days it will have all faded into one sepia-toned whirlwind. So this may be all there is.

- I don’t care if Christopher Hitchens’ latest book is a bestseller: he’s got to be heard to be fully appreciated. Definitely, if you can, see him speak in person.

- If you go to a panel that touches on short fiction, they will inevitably praise Kelly Link. Without noticing that she’s in the back of the room.

- Tell the publishing houses that you’re a litblogger and they smile and give you books and catalogs and their cards.*

- It takes a lot of guts to march up to someone and say “hi, I’m a litblogger.”

- Especially if that person happens to be Michael Dirda.

- Steve Wasserman, in post-white-suit mode, is still a natty dresser.

- Spotted early Saturday morning, Stephen Colbert was unshaven, posing with a full-sized standup of himself as if to prove that yes, he is indeed Stephen Colbert. It worked: his phalanx of fans prevented me from getting even a blurry cameraphone shot.

- Speaking of excrutiatingly funny men from the screen, yes, I’m sure that was Ricky Gervais standing in the shadow of the escalator, selfconsciously covering his nametag with his arm.

- John Leonard: will you adopt me?

- Ditto, Morgan Entrekin. Now that I google him I see he knows Chuck Kinder. Of course. Somehow, all roads lead back to Chuck Kinder.

- And my road leads away from this laptop right now. More, I hope, more soon, on book expo america 2007.

* Except for Penguin, who will tell you, “We don’t have any publicists at BEA.” Riiiiiiiiight.

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paperhaus June 1st, 2007

Ed Champion! With lovely ladies of publishing!

Mark Sarvas! With Keith Arsenault from PGW!

Jessica Stockton! And Richard Nash!

Budd Parr!

Megan!

James Marcus with C. Max Magee!

Levi Asher with Katharine Weber!

Now if only my camera hadn’t committed hari kari in the subway…

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paperhaus May 31st, 2007

But not for lack of trying. Today I found myself at the pre-BEA Javits Center, which, compared to what it’ll be tomorrow, was caverously empty. Upstairs there were just a handful of people scattered around the press room upstairs.

To my surprise, these few included David Kipen, who must be the nicest Director of Literature at the NEA. Ever. He jumped up to say hi, although he seemed to be in the middle of a meeting. With a guy who he said was his boss.

It was a while later that I realized that meant the man sitting with David must be Dana Gioia, Chairman of the NEA. Wow! Kodak moment! But every time I tried to surreptitiously get a shot of him, David’s ee caught my camera. Damn. Ah well. It would have only been the back of Chairman Gioia’s head, anyway.

Last semester we started a class with this Gioia essay on Longfellow, and a couple of Longfellow poems. Redemption of ryme. Gotta like it.

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paperhaus April 29th, 2007

The green room, LA Times Festival of Books: Nobel prizewinner Eric Kandell wears a red bowtie; Tim Gunn is immaculate in a navy suit. Michael Connoly sits shyly in a corner; Coe Booth takes a patio table in the sun. Reza Aslan is at the center of a large circle of admirers. James Ellroy is tall as always, but thinner than he used to be. Tina Louise has written a children’s book; her hair is red, but not as red as it used to be when she was Ginger.

With any luck, I’ll be able to blog today from the festival.

Meanwhile:
- YA stars
- first novels panel & more
- Charles Phoenix
- tips for surviving the festival
- a mystery fan reports
- a right-wing take on yesterday’s blogging panel
- a report with photos

And Dave Bullock is taking amazing photos of Coachella. Almost like being there.

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paperhaus February 28th, 2007

A podcast! Of Miss Jami Attenberg. Her debut book Instant Love hit shelves last summer; now it’s coming out in paperback in April. When we sat down in a noisy Williamsburg cafe, she talked about the characters in the book (her girls), making bad decisions, zines vs. blogs, making a living as a writer, scripting a documentary and not getting freaked out by anything.

Tonight Jami Attenberg hosts The Class of 2007 Reading Series at Boxcar Lounge in NYC, featuring Joshua Ferris, Felicia Sullivan, Anna Choi and Min Jin Lee.

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paperhaus January 29th, 2007

I’m still trying to get a handle on literary events in Pittsburgh. We’ve got this Drue Heinz lecture series, which features bigname literary writers — Chabon, Lahiri, Sedaris. It costs money, though, and always seems to be on nights when I’ve got writing workshop. Which leaves me hoping for good bookstore appearances. I know there is at least one good bookshop I haven’t yet set foot in, so I don’t purport to really understand Pittsburgh’s literary landscape yet.

But I have made it to the regional chainstore Joseph-Beth Booksellers. They’re more like Barnes & Noble than my preferred type of independent bookstore, but they’re kinda huge and seem to have regular signings. More so than other locals I’ve found.

So it cracked me up today when I realized what they’ve got in store for Feburary. On the 3rd: a American Girl Victorian Tea. For Girls 7 and up! Dollies! Doilies! Followed just 6 days later by Ron Jeremy, signing his porn-and-tell, The Hardest (Working) Man in Show Business. Now wait, was that porn on Friday, little girls on Saturday, or the other way around?

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paperhaus July 16th, 2006

That’s Aaron Burch from the excellent lit journal Hobart and the tireless Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network (and the LitBlogCoop) on the street in Pittsburgh, unable to buy a Sacred Heart of Jesus because the store was closed. They drove four hours, from Michigan, for the Gist Street Reading Series — a few pictures here.

Since this was the Gist Street summer BBQ, it was held outdoors, in an overgrown oasis behind tall gates in a vacant/rundown part of Pittsburgh called Uptown. Pittsburgh has almost 200,000 fewer people now than it did in 1950, and there are dozens of areas like Uptown which make you imagine buying a rundown old building with a bunch of outdoor space and making an oasis of your own. Well, they do that to me.

In any event, the reading was very well attended, the BBQ was well consumed, and the homemade icecream was delicious with some brownies on top. The readers, all from Graywolf Press: noted poet Martha Collins and newcomer Joe Campana; poet-turned-novelist Susan Wheeler; and novelists Paul Lisicky and Robert Hill. I’d be most interested in getting my hands on a copy of Hill’s When All Is Said and Done, a midcentury family drama-farse with a memorable Jewish mother.

Since it was my first literary event in Pittsburgh, I ran around and met everyone I could! Um, no, I sat on the sidelines with a beer. Next time, I’m sitting up in the funky balcony area, tho — those people seemed to win all the raffle prizes.

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paperhaus July 11th, 2006

This Saturday is the annual Gist Street reading and BBQ here in Pittsburgh. It’ll feature Graywolf Press poets Martha Collins, Joe Campana and Susan Wheeler, and its fictioneers Robert Hill and Paul Lisicky. What all that means, I’m not sure, since I’ve never been to a reading in Pittsburgh before. Apparently, because it rains so often — some say the city is second only to Seattle for rainfall — people grill even when it’s raining. This is a phenomenal idea for an Angeleno. I swear, if people BBQ in the rain, I"m taking pictures.

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paperhaus May 24th, 2006

Two great things happened when I went to BEA.

1. I got to meet all kinds of wonderful litbloggers and writers. More about that in a minute.

2. I finally read Cloud Atlas.

For starters, without Mark’s encouragement, I never would have adventured to BEA. Without Ed’s uncanny sense of direction, I might never have found the convention center. And without Ron and Max keeping me company on the massive convention floor, I might have wilted away. It was cool to stop by the Melville House booth to meet Dennis and the Nightshade booth where Matt took charge when Jeremy charged off. I went to parties and wish I’d seen more of Wendi and Lauren and Megan and Kassia and Lizzie and Sarah and Budd, who returned to Brooklyn in the very midst of things. Gwenda and Gavin and I look like we’re talking but it was all just a pose for the camera at the sauerkraut-smelling bar/restaurant Madam’s Organ. There were more parties. I caved and picked up tons of books (close to literally), including an advance of the wowee Only Revolutions by Mark Danielewski; when I tried to check my bag to come home they told me it was too heavy. No shit, I’d been dragging it around. Oh well, a little redistribution and no books were lost in the return to LA.

And damn, Cloud Atlas is good.

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paperhaus May 22nd, 2006

Punk Planet rocking at their BEA booth.

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