ALA Annual 2007. Day 3. June 24: LIVE! Author reading stage.

For some reason, I was wide awake before 7, so I slid out to the convention center so that I could have reliable wireless and do final preparation for my LIVE! Author Stage emcee gig.   Around 9  went back to my room to shower and get all gussied up, and was back at the Convention Center by 10:30.  I grabbed some lunch and ran into Blake, then headed to the Public Programs booth around 11:30.  There was a low level of alarm as a someone had scheduled a tech panel on the LIVE! stage that was scheduled til noon. There were bunches of people there, and I think they would have stayed without vigorous encouragement to wrap it up.

I gave introductory remarks and thank-yous before the first reader, Lois Lowry was introduced by a YALSA member. Lowry is a favorite of librarians and drew a crowd almost as large as the tech panel, which I found heartening.  Even though she was introduced by a YALSA member, I got to meet her--she noticed my name tag and said that her father had grown up in La Crosse.  She read for awhile (The Giver, perhaps?)  and did some Q & A before ending her very busy ALA schedule.  Lowry's reading was our first clue that not all was right with the microphone. If we were not right up to the mic, we couldn't be heard, but if we got close enough to be heard, a lot of sounds came out as pops. It was finally resolved much later in the progam. 

Lowry was followed by poet and youth services librarian Nina Lindsay who read from Today's Special Dish, a wonderful volume with emphasis that makes the domestic and everyday, an intimate, lovely experience.  There's no way to predict or guarantee an audience, and I was pleased to see a very attentive group show up for Lindsay's reading and signing. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Lindsay before she read.

Next up was the author I was most looking forward to meeting--Steve Almond.  Almond is an essayist, novelist and humorist--an off-the-hook kind of writer who was instructed by his publisher to keep his selection at a PG level. Thing is, there's not much from Almond's upcoming title Not that You Asked, that is even close to PG.  The reading stage is also a difficult venue--it's on the exhibit floor, people come and go, and it's really noisy.  We'd all expected a much larger audience for him--Candyfreak was a big book, and humor is usually a draw.  But, confoundingly, he didn't draw much more of an audience than Lindsay. All that, combined with the increasing microphone problem made for a not-so-happy Almond.  He polled folks on what they wanted him to read about: pad thai or heavy metal.  Heavy metal won out and having read the piece beforehand, I knew there would be some squirmy, blushing librarians.  When he was done with the reading, folks appeared to not understand that he was done, and it took a few seconds for a brief round of insultingly polite applause.  "Thanks for your overwhelming response," he quipped.  He didn't exactly take it out on the audience, but let's just say that it was unsatisfying for all parties involved.  Sorry, Steve!

During one of the earlier readings, Penguin came by the booth with their two authors, John Shors and Dinaw Mengestu, just to say hi and to get a look at the stage. Both authors were very approachable and conversational and interested in hearing about the other readers. Shors read from Beneath a Marble Sky, a novel which imagines the story behind the building of the Taj Mahal. Shors does an amazing job of writing from a woman's perspective. I would loved to have heard him read in a more intimate setting. His prose is lush and written to be read aloud.

Chick lit author and force of nature Claire Cook arrived during Shors' reading, and appeared in support of her latest title, Life's a Beach. She wrote Must Love Dogs, which was turned into a film with John Cusack.  My god, did that woman know how to work a room!  As soon as Shors was off the stage, she was setting up the podium and her signing table, and greeting folks in the audience. Cook is a talker, and clearly, her fans adore her.  There was a line for her book signing that lasted through at least the next author and perhaps into the one after. 

First time novelist Jon Clinch, made me feel bad that I didn't like his book, Finn, more. I enjoyed talking with him through much of Cook's stage time. With a marketing background, Clinch understands the value of presentation. He was open and cordial to the PPO staff and me, and was a commanding reader.  Someone who stopped by the booth during his reading commented that writers must be the best readers of their own work.  I shared that it was my experience that writers are not necessarily the best, or even particularly good, readers. Finn, while a bit dark for my tastes, is an intense, engaging read, and focuses on the story of Huck's father, Pap Finn, "a strange sad monster."

My favorite author of the day was up next.  I had put off reading Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears until my flight to DC.  I was thinking that the title was too literary or sounded too much like an Oprah book.  In short, I was being lazy and avoiding a challenge. I didn't even look at it until I was on the plane.  I'm so glad I cracked the spine--it was an amazing book about the experiences of three African immigrants who have been in the states for 15 years. The three, who maintained their friendship despite their different paths,  were still, in many ways, outsiders.  The setting was in DC, and made me think about the Capital as more than the pictures and stories from textbooks, as a place where people live.  Beautiful Things is a book I intend to read again.  Mengestu was awesome to work with--friendly and engaged, and genuinely appreciative of the custom introduction I gave him. 

Keir Graff, a senior editor at Booklist, read from his first novel published under his real name, My Fellow Americans, a sort of dystopian noir with a post-9/11 spin, set in Chicago. I had the pleasure of talking to him a couple times during the day before he read, and he was just as gracious and friendly as everyone else. Also heartening to me was that two of the authors (Cook and Graff Clinch) did not publish their first novels until they were at least 45. All I need to do is write, and I might find that there's hope for me to grab hold of that long-held author dream. 

This is my favorite gig at conference, by far, and I hope to be invited back next year.  My work with the Public Programs Office is very satisfying.  PPO directly affects librarians and patrons, providing opportunity and support for a wide variety of programs.  They are also responsible for some of the most enjoyable and informative programming and  learning opportunities at conference. 

Comments

[Laura]

I've always thought that it would be very hard to do a reading from that stage in the middle of the exhibits--I guess some people manage the venue, but it can't be easy.