Today I’ll be moderating a panel on literary blogs at the first Arab-American writers’ conference, whose theme is “Kallimuna–Speak To Us.” Fellow bloggers Randa Jarrar and Leila Abu-Saba McLeod will participate, so I’m sure the discussion will be very lively. You have to register for the conference to be able to attend, but it should be fun. And there are lots of other panels going on as well. Details:
Saturday, June 4th at 11:15 am
Literary Blogs Panel
RAWI Conference
Hunter College
I’ve been invited to participate in the Emerging Voices Panel at this year’s BEA. So today I’ll be reading an excerpt from my debut book of fiction, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, forthcoming from Algonquin Books in October 2005. The event is intended mostly for booksellers, but if you’re interested, they may have tickets for the event on the BEA site. Details:
Friday, June 3rd at 1-2 pm
Emerging Voices Panel
Book Expo America
Jacob Javits Convention Center
The LBC is a new group formed by twenty-one literary blogs for the purpose of promoting good contemporary fiction. We pick one book to champion per season–a sort of online book club. Local and out of town lit bloggers will be meeting tonight for drinks and conversation. Details:
Thursday, June 2nd, 6-8 pm
Slipper Room
Corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets
So stop by and say hi!
I’ll be heading off to New York later this week, to visit with family and friends, and to attend RAWI’s first annual conference. RAWI is an Arab-American writers organization (the word ‘rawi’ means ‘storyteller’ in Arabic), and the theme for its first gathering is: “Kallimuna: Speak To Us.” The conference takes places June 3rd through the 5th at Hunter College in New York, and features workshops with the likes of Naomi Shihab Nye, Elmaz Abinader, and Hayan Charara, and panels on topics as diverse as “Sexuality, Gender, and Silence,” “The Global Hood,” and “Hybridity in Arab American Literature.” I will be moderating a panel on blogs on Saturday, with partners in crime Randa Jarrar (a.k.a. Rockslinga), and Leila Abu Saba (a.k.a. The Dove). I’ll post a reminder on this site at that time.
I’ll also be attending Book-Expo, which also takes place June 3-5, and which will be an entirely different sort of animal. It will be my first time at BEA, but the presence of a few familiar faces will help, I’m sure. I’ll be taking part in the Emerging Voices Panel on Friday, to read an excerpt from my first book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. (Don’t look for my name on the site, it’s not there. But I will be.) And then chilling out on the floor and trying to take it all in.
I’ve posted a bunch of things for you below, but I doubt I’ll get a chance to post anything tomorrow, as I pack up and head out to NYC. Posting should resume from there on Thursday.
Over at the Herald, Alastair Mabbot discusses first books and their importance in the artist’s career.
It’s the music business cliche known to everyone: an artist gets his whole life to write a first album, but a few months to write the second.
That’s usually true of books as well. There’s a unique quality to debut novels, most of which were written with as much passion, intensity and conviction as an author can hope to experience, but usually without any hope of being published.
“This is something they might well have been working on for as long as they can remember,” says Pru Rowlandson. “Whereas, the second book, most of them manage to get out in a couple of years. It is also likely to be the most autobiographical thing you ever write.”
I guess I went about it the wrong way, then. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits isn’t autobiographical in the traditional sense (I’ve never tried to cross the Mediterranean on a boat, never hustled for a job, etc.) while the novel I’m working on now is much more personal. One of the two main characters is a Moroccan woman who comes to the United States to study, for example, and the other is a man with a very conflicted relationship with his father.
I was away last weekend and couldn’t be at Wordstock, but Jeff Baker’s wrap-up of the book festival in the Oregonian gave me a flavor of what I’d missed. This part, though, made my jaw drop:
The consensus around the convention center was that Wordstock’s first year was a smashing success for the community and the community of writers that calls the Northwest home.
“I’m really, really glad Portland has a book fair again,” said Ursula K. Le Guin. “It’s something we really needed. Look at the turnout!”
Le Guin’s presentation demonstrated the challenges any first-ever event faces. A healthy crowd of about 80, including a dozen children, tried to listen to the 75-year-old Le Guin while a few feet away, almost 2,000 people laughed and applauded as Vowell read from her new book “Assassination Vacation.” The effect was somewhat jarring, but Le Guin shrugged it off.
Call your agent, Ursula. You need to get on NPR.