Being a Rule Breaker at Book Expo America 2015

Gloria Steinem's latest!

It's been so long since I've blogged over here. It's not that I wanted to abandon NYLF, but life got busy, teaching got busy, family got busy, and I had mixed feelings about spending tons of time over here when I should be pitching essays or crafting longer projects. I've done both, and continue to work on a collection of essays that I hope will grow into something substantial and cohesive. So welcome back if you've stumbled over; I'm going to obsess less and write more and hope to keep this up in the spirit of its original intention: a love of NYC, parenting, words, the publishing industry, the creative process.

I spent a very fun and very exhausting week last week pounding around the Javitz Center covering the Book Expo America for Publishing Perspectives. I love writing for PP because it connects me with all sorts of people who feel so familiar to me. When I was growing up in Santa Fe, my mom subscribed to Publisher's Weekly and I have such strong memories of its crinkled pages next to the bathtub, piled up with my mom's guilty pleasure People Magazine. Remember "Picks and Pans"?

So the three topics I covered this time around were Jonathan Franzen's interview with Salon's book critic Laura Miller; China, and what it's going to take to open up the bridge between the superpowers; Translations and their champions (the translators, of course)...

I also spent some time thinking about Middle Grade and YA titles, and am particularly interested to read Alex Gino's George, and Ali Benjamin's The Thing About Jellyfish. Also, I was reminded time and time again, standing in long lines for books, that my favorite people are librarians.

My favorite mini moment was standing inline for Gloria Steinem's My Life On the Road, without a ticket, a big no-no. I stood for a long, aching time, hoping to get a copy but not expecting it to be signed. The line went around a few walls and had many line keepers holding up signs, being rather bossy. I got to her desk and was asked for my ticket. "I don't have one, so sorry!" You need to have a ticket,  blah blah blah. Oh, okay, go ahead. "I guess I'm a rule breaker," I said. Gloria Steinem looks up, looks me straight in the eyes, gives me the biggest smile and says "I'm glad you're a rule breaker." She signs my book and I float away, mulling that over for a long while.