Monday, October 12, 2009
Books Here Comes Seattle Bookfest
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Less than two weeks before it begins, the Seattle Bookfest has finally listed its schedule of events. They have also put out a press release:
SEATTLE — Seattle Bookfest announces the recent addition of several new authors and poets to the upcoming two-day event. Acclaimed Bellingham author William Dietrich will read from his new book, The Dakota Cipher, the third in his Ethan Gage series, and National Book Award-winning writer Pete Dexter will read from Spooner, the coming-of-age story of a young man in the South. Also, poets Jason Whitmarsh and Mike Hickey, who was elected Seattle’s “Poet Populist” last November, will read from their most recent work at the event. They will join a lineup of over 120 local authors, including Garth Stein, Knute Berger, Jennie Shortridge, Karen Fisher, and poets like Sam Hamill and Judith Roche.Mystery, sci-fi, romance, literary and nonfiction writers are represented on three author stages sponsored by Third Place Books, Bookworm Exchange, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, and Fremont Place Books....
(Press release, with hours and directions, continues after the jump.)
I have to say: When Knute Berger is one of your headliners, you might have a problem wrangling talent. I'm doing a panel at this Bookfest, but I'm skeptical about how things will go. Major bookstores—Elliott Bay Book Company and University Book Store—aren't taking part, and aside from Pete Dexter, there isn't a single participant who doesn't read in Seattle all the freakin' time.
I have trouble believing that this slate of authors and panelists can even draw 9,000 people, which is the lowest number of attendees reported by the last Bookfest. (Also, Bookfest participants received an e-mail which read, in part, that "(w)e expect good turnout at the event, but it's your responsibility to get people to your reading/panel/workshop/booth. Send out emails to your fan clubs and listservs! List Seattle Bookfest in your "Upcoming Events" page on your website! Post announcements about it on your Facebook page! Do whatever it takes to get people to the event, specifically your presentation. ") In fact, I don't think that this Bookfest addresses any of the major problems that crushed the last Bookfest. (Christopher Frizzelle documented those problems in a great postmortem piece which you can find here.)
Maybe by lowering expectations and keeping the bottom line at its current bargain-sub-basement level, they'll manage to survive in the way the last Bookfest couldn't. But other organizations are currently working on a higher-profile Bookfest to debut in 2010 or 2011, and this town ain't big enough for the et cetera, et cetera. We'll find out in twelve days how this will work out.
. The Childen’s Stage, which is sponsored by The Secret Garden Bookshop, features over 30 authors of children’s and young adult books, including Sara Anderson, Sean Beaudoin, Bonny Becker, and Kevin Emerson. The fifth stage is devoted to poetry with over thirty well-known local poets participating. In addition to author readings, there are numerous panels, workshops and activities for the whole family. There will be a Grammar Bee, a bookmaking workshop, an interactive cooking demonstration, a musical performance by the band “The Board of Education,” and much, much more.In addition to the scheduled events, over 70 local presses, bookstores and literary organizations will have booths to display their books at Bookfest. Exhibitors include Black Heron Press, University of Washington Press, the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Fantagraphics Books, Revolution Books, the Seattle Times, and many others. Throughout the weekend, Friends of the Seattle Public Library will hold a Book Swap (swap a book or buy one for $1), and the Seattle Scrabble Club will offer Scrabble games in which attendees can “challenge a champ,” play each other, and win prizes.
Bookfest will be held October 24-25 from 10am to 6pm daily in the Columbia City Event Center, the former Columbia School, at 3528 S. Ferdinand. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5.00. For more information and an event schedule, see the Bookfest website at www.seattlebookfest.com.
1
Kind of like saying The Watchmen will never be as good as the graphic novel and that there's no way there are enough people who want to watch a movie adaptation of it.
3
Maybe they should merge with the Antiquarian Book Fair (held last weekend for the 22nd year), which appears to be doing OK, featuring real books and no Twilight discussion panels.
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And posters.
Heck, if they'd just say it's on the light rail line and someone will have R-71 donuts there, that would help.
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The short title of the reading is: "Why would I lie?" An essayist named Tim Elhajj and I both tell really short stories that seem/are true. Tim has an essay here: http://tinyurl.com/whywouldilie.
I don't know if I think (as Paul seems to be half-joking here in his post) if Seattle is too small for multiple bookfest. The fact is Seattle seems to have constant bookfests going on. On the Esoteric Book Conference was in mid-Sept. Last weekend was the Antiquarian Bookfest. Next weekend is the Anarchist Book Festival, and now there is the new Seattle Book Fest. I am glad the organizers of the festival were as ambitious as they were to attempt to pull of a festival in the monolithic spirit of Wordstock (in Portland) or the old, defunct NW Bookfest. But those events had sponsors, and in this case there is just two people in Columbia City who said they wanted to hold a book fest.
In many ways it is probably better they didn't achieve something on the scale of the NW Bookfest, which was a good thing to have (in theory) but kind of chilly in execution. It seemed too huge and unwieldy for its own good. People complained the first year about how cold (in temperature) it was in Pier 48, and then waxed nostalgic for Pier 48 every year thereafter.
As a matter of scale, there isn't a single out of town name such as Normal Mailer or John Updike who will read. [Although last week there was in Seattle Margaret Atwood, Annie Proulx, and Sherman Alexie.] Instead it is all local authors, but it is kind of handy to have them all on one bill, I think. I go to a lot of readings but there will be a lot of people I've never seen such as Staphanie Kallos, Eric Liu, Midge Raymond, Pete Dexter, and William Dietrich. And there are a lot of readers I have seen and would like to see again. It seems kind of okay to me that is local.
12
Comparisons to past Bookfests are irrelevant in all cases, except for one, as I see it. This iteration of the fest is LOCAL and GRASS ROOTS. There's no Dave Barry, or Marcia Brady (the main attraction at the recent Baltimore Bookfest.) It's a chance for local authors to see and meet other local authors and for small presses to create greater awareness of their books and authors. As the Bumbershoot Book Fair is now toast, there are not enough of these opportunities for local, small presses.
Furthermore, I'd prefer that the fest STAY grass roots. If it has a good audience this year, and people sell some books, Elliott Bay & others will come.
And Sam Hamill, whose work is translated into Spanish, Italian and other languages, whose work is known by poets around the world, rarely reads in Seattle. His participation as a reader and on the Sunday poetry panel IS SEATTLE HOSTILE TO LITERARY INNOVATION? is noteworthy. (Other panelists: Stranger Genius Award Winner John Olson, J.W. Marshall of Open Books, Judith Roche and Sarah Mangold.)
If I were The Stranger, I'd be interested in fostering this very debate. Why did San Francisco have a poetry renaissance, Vancouver, BC have the TISH group while Seattle settled for Roethke, Hugo and Nelson Bentley? Sure, they did their time in the poetry vineyard, but are not exactly innovators like in West Coast cities north and south of here.
Paul Nelson
(PS: I am a Bookfest Volunteer and Emcee of the poetry panel.)
13
Comparisons to past Bookfests are irrelevant in all cases, except for one, as I see it. This iteration of the fest is LOCAL and GRASS ROOTS. There's no Dave Barry, or Marcia Brady (the main attraction at the recent Baltimore Bookfest.) It's a chance for local authors to see and meet other local authors and for small presses to create greater awareness of their books and authors. As the Bumbershoot Book Fair is now toast, there are not enough of these opportunities for local, small presses.
Furthermore, I'd prefer that the fest STAY grass roots. If it has a good audience this year, and people sell some books, Elliott Bay & others will come.
And Sam Hamill, whose work is translated into Spanish, Italian and other languages, whose work is known by poets around the world, rarely reads in Seattle. His participation as a reader and on the Sunday poetry panel IS SEATTLE HOSTILE TO LITERARY INNOVATION? is noteworthy. (Other panelists: Stranger Genius Award Winner John Olson, J.W. Marshall of Open Books, Judith Roche and Sarah Mangold.)
If I were The Stranger, I'd be interested in fostering this very debate. Why did San Francisco have a poetry renaissance, Vancouver, BC have the TISH group while Seattle settled for Roethke, Hugo and Nelson Bentley? Sure, they did their time in the poetry vineyard, but are not exactly innovators like in West Coast cities north and south of here.
Paul Nelson
(PS: I am a Bookfest Volunteer and Emcee of the poetry panel.)
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Bookfest on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/seattlebookfest
We're trying, but I believe most everything is done by two people and a handful of volunteers.
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