Saturday, September 16, 2006

The First-Ever Brooklyn Book Festival

For more than two decades Manhattan hosted New York is Book Country which grew to become one of the nation's largest, busiest and most beloved book fairs. Every autumn, starting in 1979, a long section of Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic while hundreds of thousands of readers spent the day strolling among exhibit booths, buying books, and attending panel discussions and author signings.

In 2004, New York is Book Country was moved from midtown Manhattan to Greenwich Village, the date shifted from September to October and the program expanded from one day to two. The following year the book fair disappeared entirely. Devoted readers waited for the posters and announcements that would proclaim the location and featured speakers for 2005, but they never arrived. The nonprofit organization that ran the event shut down. That, it seemed, was that. Booklovers mourned.

Today New Yorkers rejoiced at the introduction of new literary fair: The first annual Brooklyn Book Festival.

Held at Borough Hall, the fair featured approximately 100 exhibitors, including two outdoor stages, a children's pavilion and booths for bookstores, publishers and literary journals and organizations set up alongside the Greenmarket. Inside, the rotunda was dedicated to author signings while panel discussions and readings were held in the Courtroom and Community Room. Admission to all events was free on a first-come-first-served basis.

Most of the participating authors and poets have strong connections to Brooklyn, either by birth, residence or subject matter. Among those appearing at the Festival: Pete Hamill, Jonathan Ames, Colson Whitehead, Paula Fox, Jonathan Lethem, Jhumpa Lahiri, Philip Lopate, Rick Moody, Jennifer Egan, Kate Pollit, Edmund White, Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Ames, Simcha Weinstein, Nelly Rosario, Ann Brashares, Colin Channer, Phil Levine, Nicole Krauss and Myla Goldberg.

Of course, the Brooklyn Festival was a bit different than the version that used to be held in Manhattan. There was less emphasis on bestsellers and antiquarian books and more on new and emerging talents. The crowd was smaller and more diverse, the presses and magazines represented tended to be more experimental, and everyone and everything (with the exception of a few painfully out of place, hipper-than-thou poseurs) was friendly, open and accessible.


Small presses and literary journals  Posted by Picasa


Listening to readings on the steps of Borough Hall  Posted by Picasa


Brooklyn-based publisher Akashic Books  Posted by Picasa


Bank Street Bookstore  Posted by Picasa


Authors Betsy and Ted Lewin reading in the children's pavilion  Posted by Picasa


Authors Jonathan Ames and Gary Shteyngart  Posted by Picasa


Author Ben Greenman  Posted by Picasa


Author Colson Whitehead  Posted by Picasa


Author Rabbi Simcha Weinstein  Posted by Picasa


Graphic novelist Matt Madden  Posted by Picasa


Sorting through stacks of books  Posted by Picasa


"Artist" Tillington Cheese & her biographer, F. Bowman Hastie III  Posted by Picasa


The Target dog at the children's pavilion  Posted by Picasa

  • New York Public Library: New York is Book Country 2004

  • Brooklyn Book Festival

  • Press Release: Brooklyn Book Festival

  • NY Times:A Literary Voice With a Pronounced Brooklyn Accent

  • Publishers Weekly: A Book Fair Sprouts in Brooklyn

  • New York Writers Coalition

  • Portrait of the Dog as a Young Artist by F. Bowman Hastie III

  • Ben Greenman

  • Jonathan Ames

  • Gary Shteyngart

  • Colson Whitehead

  • Rabbi Simcha Weinstein

  • Matt Madden

  • Betsy Lewin

  • Ted Lewin

  • Akashic Books

  • Bank Street Bookstore

  • Target
  • 1 Comments:

    At 9/22/2006 04:59:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Nice!
    Thank you for posting this (I've been actually waiting to see if you were going to do it)... Now I know how it was :)

     

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