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L.A. Times Festival of Books

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books takes place this weekend on the UCLA campus. On the schedule are panel discussions, readings, and even writing seminars. I will be hosting a panel on Saturday:

April 26, 2008
2:30 PM
Fiction: Not So Ordinary People
Tony Earley, Dinaw Mengestu, Stewart O’Nan, Ann Packer and moderated by Laila Lalami
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Korn Convocation Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, California

Come on by and say hello.



L.A.T. Festival of Books

I will be moderating a panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which takes place on the UCLA campus in about a couple of weeks, so I have been busy reading the novels of Tony Earley, Dinaw Mengestu, Stewart O’Nan, and Ann Packer. Tickets will be available starting this Sunday, April 20, and they are free. (Wait–it says there’s a nominal fee of $.75. Must be because Ticketmaster is handling the ticketing.) Here are the details:

April 26, 2008
2:30 PM
Fiction: Not So Ordinary People
Tony Earley, Dinaw Mengestu, Stewart O’Nan, Ann Packer and moderated by Laila Lalami
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Korn Convocation Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, California

Anyway, come to the panel. It will be fun. Do check out the event listing on the website. Several of my colleagues and friends will be moderating or participating in readings or panels, and I hope to make it to as many of them as I can.



On Short Stories

Maud Newton has a wonderful review in Sunday’s NYTBR of Ellen Litman’s Last Chicken in America. Here’s how it opens:

That people won’t read story collections is an axiom at publishing houses and a common notion in newspaper idea pieces. Whether it was ever true I tend to doubt, but it certainly isn’t now. Evidence springs effortlessly to mind — Junot Díaz, ZZ Packer, Lorrie Moore and George Saunders are just a few of the youngish writers beloved first for the short fiction that started their careers — yet the distrust persists.

When a good novel fails to find an audience, it’s the fault of bad marketing, unappealing cover art or a public too dim to appreciate literary fiction. But if short stories don’t sell, publishers blame the form. The resulting skittishness may account for the rise of the “novel in stories,” a hybridized creature typically denoted, as in the case of Ellen Litman’s “Last Chicken in America,” by an italicized subtitle.

The worst of these books are chilly and labyrinthine. You follow dour characters down corridors of plot, theme or emotion that threaten to lead to some destination, but never actually do. Litman’s elegantly constructed web of stories about Russian-Jewish immigrants living in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh is the converse of such aimless solemnity. It’s warm, true and original, and packed with incisive, subtle one-liners.

More here.



Things I Learned Today

That I’m not a light packer, but it’s not entirely my fault. Bread Loaf package materials advised attendees to pack light clothes as well as warm, sunscreen and insect repellent as well as raincoats.

That I can’t sleep on planes no matter what precautions I take, including the ingestion of (legal) drugs.

That it’s easy to get dehydrated here at Bread Loaf because of the altitude. And that there are few water fountains on campus.

That Vermont law prohibits open containers of alcohol from all public areas. Drink indoors.

That, despite claims to the contrary, wireless access doesn’t really expand to the cottage where we’re staying. So I have to cut this short.