Elizabeth Searle
Legion of Lit Mags, 2nd Annual Reading and Magazine Fair
Galapagos Art Space, Williamsburg
Dec 2, 2006
This year’s Legion of Lit Mag fair was a night filled with fun. Nine literary magazines—Small Spiral Notebook, Ballyhoo Stories, BOMB, Pindeldyboz, Swink, Tin House, Quick Fiction, Opium and Post Road—united to showcase six exciting readers. The selection was a sprightly one, giving those in attendance a flavorful scoop of what these periodicals have been up to.
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Amiri Baraka
Matt Ashby writes: The room filled with about 60 people, some standing in the back, for the interview of Amiri Baraka by Colin Channer. Baraka, known for his poetry and activism, recently released a short story collection Tales of the Out and the Gone, published by Akashic Books, a Brooklyn-based independent house that also published a collection of Jamaican writers, Iron Balloons, as edited by Channer. Akashic’s publisher Johnny Temple introduced them.
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Richard Nash, publisher of Soft Skull (left)
Soft Skull’s FAQ informs that this indie press began as a guerilla operation out of Kinko’s when founder Sander Hicks was an employee there in 1992. Hicks has parted since, but with Richard Nash serving as the publisher beginning 2001, it has been printing over 40 titles a year. Its titles span a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, politics, translations, art and erotica. To give the readers a sample of the work it’s been putting out, here are some of the books that were published this year: Lynn Tillman’s American Genius: a Comedy, Kevin Powell’s Someday We’ll All Be Free, Jonathan Becker’s Bush and Putin as Leaders, Nikolai Maslov’s Sibera, David Griffith’s A Good War Is Hard to Find, Marck Swartz’s H2O, and Martin Millar’s The Good Fairies of New York.
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Francine Prose was at Strand to read and discuss her newest, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Loves Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them. The book demonstrates how careful reading of great writers is an effective way of learning to write, but it also appears to be her long-due tribute to these masters. Though Prose is a prolific author with 14 novels, 4 non-fiction titles, and several children’s books published to date, she does not hold an MFA; “Can Creative Writing Be Taught?” is the question with which she opens her book. She explains that though great line-editing skills can be picked up from a fiction workshop, as can the feeling of a community, a writing class was not where she learned to write; it was from reading books that she polished her craft, and it is this way of learning for which the book provides encouragement and guidance.
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Myla Goldberg
Matt Asbhy writes: The KGB bar is an all wooden, old-style East Village haunt, painted completely red and sporting portraits of Russian cultural figures like Lenin. It has long been the venue of choice for the reading series that benefits Behind the Book, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literacy and reading enjoyment with low-income kids throughout New York City.
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Jennifer Egan / photo: kashish
Matt Ashby writes: Amid torrential rain, Happy Ending’s innovative reading series still managed to fill the room. Somewhere around 50 people sat or stood wherever there was space, on the floor, in the hall, at glittery tables inside the red velvet partitions. It was the first time I’d been to Happy Ending and, from the looks of it, I was pretty certain it wasn’t a very good place for a reading. There wasn’t enough space and everyone was holed off in little divots about the room, unable to view the readers without wrenching his or her back. I sat on a small, cushioned stool and rolled myself against the end of a partition in the space between two tables. I had a good view of the podium.
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Colin Channer
The Park Slope Barnes & Noble reading of Akashic authors Colin Channer and K. E. Silva proceeded with perhaps 10 people in attendance. The corner tucked beside the religious texts in the lower level is a reading area for about 8 customers when it’s not rearranged with rows of chairs for author events. It’s not a space that intends to command a turnout like Upstairs at Union Square does, especially when the streets outside are glistening under a Friday night shower, but it offers the intimacy and informality fitting for readings.
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