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Brooklyn’s best writers come out for the Bookfest
Rachel Markowitz | September 18, 2007
As a book nerd, I was happy to exit the subway at Borough Hall on Sunday and be surrounded by tents and tents of books. The tents belonged to publishers large and small, literary magazines, and booksellers galore. Our own Book Court had a tent selling books by all the authors present at the Second Annual Brooklyn Book Festival.
Among the authors present this year were Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer, Francine Prose, Chuck Klosterman, Mary Gaitskill (you know that movie Secretary? She wrote the short story it was based on), Jim Carroll, and A.M. Holmes. While I didn?t get a chance to attend any of the readings or discussions, word on the street is that the rooms of Borough Hall were packed with eager lit nerds.
One highlight for me this year was gushing to the man at the Small Beer Press (small book publisher) tent about how much I love the writer Kelly Link. He looked at me and nodded. Then the woman standing next to him said, “this is her husband.” Also, I got to meet Adrian Tomine, author of wonderful comic book series Optic Nerve, who sat unassumingly at his tent signing copies of his new book.
A tent I found particularly amusing was a tent that I assume was run by the author of the book Finally!: How to Stop Dating Losers Forever. The merchandise on sale here included both the hardcover and paperback editions of the book, as well as bags and t-shirts with the book’s logo sprawled across. Now why would someone want to advertise the fact that they read dating self-help books by wearing a t-shirt with the book’s title? Then again, it could be funny to wear such a t-shirt on a first date.
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