Brooklyn Book Festival 2017
Brooklyn Book Fair 2017
I went to the Brooklyn Book Festival a week ago. I started early in the day, since I was volunteering at the Editorial Freelancers Association. It was a beautiful albeit muggy day. It all started out with thinking that I was going to be able to get a coffee quickly when I got to the book festival, but then it turned out the local deli was shut. I sprinted around, finally locating the Lavazza food truck, but they weren't selling coffee till later. It all worked out in the end, as one of the ladies manning the booth got coffee for me.
Jerome Walford, head of Forward Comix
In the midst of my coffee search, I located dear client Jerome Walford. I've worked with Jerome on many projects. He does graphic novels and comics through is own imprint, Forward Comix. Pictured, along with Jerome himself, are copies of his GWAN anthology, which I helped copyedit along with Eveline Chao. GWAN is an incredible collection of stories inspired by the immigrant experience. Buy it!
Molly Pisani strikes a pose.
Above is Molly Pisani, a freelance developmental editor like myself, who used to work at Simon and Schuster. Molly and I answered questions at the Editorial Freelancers Association and encouraged people to enter our raffle.
I texted my friend Emily, thinking this was an event she'd probably be into. She took this photo of me with fellow freelance editor Katherine Olstein at the booth just as our shift changed.
Emily and I wandered and then sat and chatted while eating delicious empanadas from a food truck. The booths at the festival were amazing. I saw so many imprints, houses, and periodicals I'm familiar with, ranging from the Other Press, home to my favorite book so far this year, Inheritance from Mother to the Time Literary Supplement, which my Dad subscribed to, and I devoured as a youth. I also ran into my first client as an agent, Alison Weaver, at her booth for her literary journal, H.O.W.
SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) booth.
"I would prefer not to," the immortal words of Bartleby the Scrivener, featured at the Melville House booth.
Lastly, I went to a talk that Emily wanted to attend on intersectionality, titled "Intersectionality." I'm not a natural gravitator towards talks; I've rebranded this perhaps flaw as being drawn only toward the written word. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this talk. Jennifer Baumgardner moderated, and Brittney Cooper, Daisy Hernandez, and Mychal Denzel Smith spoke. Intersectionality is about recognizing all of one's identities (sexual, racial, gender) and how they overlap with one another. I found the talk to be invigorating, inspiring, open, frank, and positive. I am really grateful to be alive in such interesting time, politically.
The speakers spoke with clarity even if this pictures does not. From L-R, Brittany Cooper, Daisy Hernandez, Mychal Denzel Smith, and Jennifer Baumgardner.