20 Must-See Events at the Brooklyn Book Festival!
16) Apparently, it’s super easy to get published these days. But, uh, how do you make money from it? Anyone? Anyone? No? Hmmm.
4:00 P.M. So, You Want to Publish a Book?
It’s never been so easy to publish your own book. Many thousands of writers have done it and some successfully. But before you hit “upload,” come listen to four of the book industry’s top editors and publishers discuss the issues facing authors in 2012. Reagan Arthur (Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown), Pamela Dorman (Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin), Sean McDonald (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and Jane Friedman (Open Road Integrated Media) will discuss what goes into the making of a successful book. Moderated by Ann Rittenberg. St. Francis McCardle (180 Remsen Street)”
17) Why are women such bitches? That’s the point of this panel, I think. My answer? Because it’s fun and it gets you stuff. Let’s see if any of the authors here feel the same way!
5:00 P.M. Enduring Unlikable Women.
Elissa Schappell (Blue Print), Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets) and Dana Spiotta (Stone Arabia) write difficult, complex female characters. Join these authors in a reading and discussion that looks at the bad boy and the unlikable woman in literature and how they are reviled or celebrated by their audience and creators. Moderated by Meredith Walters, Brooklyn Public Library. St. Francis Screening Room (180 Remsen Street)”
18) New York is a big city. Lots of people live here. What are their lives like? Find out!
5:00 Here in New York.
Cecily von Ziegesar (Gossip Girl) chronicles the lives of the Upper East Side’s elite; Charles Rice-Gonzalez (Chulito) tells the coming-of-age story of a group of South Bronx teenagers discovering their sexual orientation, and Nathan Larson (The Dewey Decimal System) deals with the collapse of Wall Street and its effect on a dirty lawyer. One city, many lives. Moderated by Philip Leventhal. Main Stage (Borough Hall Plaza)”
19) Something I learned in middle school was that poetic prose is a good thing and prosaic poetry is a bad thing. I bet this discussion will be much more in-depth that what I learned from my middle-school English teacher. Check it out!
5:00 P.M. The Poet Novelist.
Poets and novelists Ben Lerner (Leaving the Atocha Station), Eileen Myles (Inferno: A Poet’s Novel) and Sapphire (The Kid) explore the boundaries, possibilities, divergences and intersections of poetry and prose. Moderated by Camille Rankine, Manhattanville College. St. Francis McCardle (180 Remsen Street)”
20) Marriage and Sex. Do these two things go together? Sure they do! They must! Or else all hope is lost. Or something.
5:00 P.M. Marriage and Monogamy.
With marriage equality on everyone’s lips, it still seems valid to ask the question, “Why marriage?” and “Why monogamy?” Our authors weigh monogamy, marriage, its alternatives, and what it all means for how we live today. Syndicated sex columnist and author of The Commitment, Dan Savage has advocated “monogam-ish” relationships; anthropologist Christopher Ryan, Ph.D. (Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality), argues that monogamy isn’t inherent to humans; Kristin Davis (The Manhattan Madam’s Guide to Sex), aka “The Manhattan Madam,” will provide her insights into the tangled web of sex and commitment; and Eric Klinenberg (Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone) examine what these changing attitudes look like at a societal level. Moderated by Kate Bolick (upcoming Among the Suitors: Single Women I Have Loved). Saint Ann and the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague Street)”