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Brooklyn Book Festival
Sep. 27th, 2019 09:47 pmThis past weekend I made my return to the Brooklyn Book Festival for the first time in many years. I don't know why it has taken me so long! I had a truly fantastic time, taking in two great panels and meeting up with friends for lunch between. It was a great excuse to catch up with my friend Rosalind, who works at Books of Wonder and hear tales from inside the bookselling biz, as well as get to chat with two Outland Entertainment anthology contributors.
My train arrived early enough that I could wander a bit before my first panel. I had forgotten just how many presses, small and large, show up for this festival! There were so many books from so many walks of life. You could get lost just chatting with the vendors, meeting authors signing at their tents, and browsing through the thousands of titles available. Freelance unions are also present to help give advice to fellow freelance writers and editors, and I'm always glad to connect with others in the field.
Shortly before 11 I returned to the Center Stage, only to find that the seats, which had been empty not twenty minutes before, were packed! It shouldn't have surprised me that the panel that had gotten me into the city was the one so many people wanted to see. Moderated by Outland contributor teri.zin, who writes as Zin Rocklyn, the panel members were L. Penelope, author of the Earthsinger Chronicles, who is also a forthcoming Outland contributor; P. Djèlí Clark, author of Black Gods Drums and an indispensable blog; and multi-Hugo-Award-winner N.K. Jemisin (Broken Earth Trilogy and others). The discussion ranged fairly freely as the authors tackled the difficult questions of truth and fiction, and of how to use fiction to reach truth. The authors ranged in their ideas about taking readers out of their comfort zones—both Rocklyn and Jemisin delighted in doing so; Penelope mentioned being surprised by the things that readers reported back being uncomfortable, and how those never matched her expectations; and Clark admitted total bewilderment that some people were uncomfortable with his demythologizing George Washington in "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington." They discussed how they'd encountered some truths at a young age (for instance, the obvious connotations of George Washington as a slave owner that get glossed over in the hero-building myths of the beginning of the United States), and how stories told to make people comfortable only benefit those who are comforted. I'm still mulling over a lot of what was said because there was so very much to consider.
I also met a lovely aspiring author, Anjali Patel, in the signing line, and I'm eager to see her work out there in the future.
The second panel was a really interesting counterpoint to the first. At one point N. K. Jemisin suggested that it might be time to leave comforting myths behind in favor of more truth. The second panel was all about how myths of the past continue to reveal new truths. Moderated by Rob Spillman of Tin House, the panel featured Sharma Shields, whose new novel The Cassandra sets the Greek myth of Cassandra during World War II; Chigozie Obioma, whose An Orchestra of Minorities blends Igbo mythology with the story of Odysseus; and Daniel Mendelsohn, a nonfiction writer whose Ecstasy and Terror compares mythological figures to pop culture icons. All of these writers break down their myths while drawing on the familiar patterns. Cassandra is the woman cursed to see the truth and never be believed because she spurned Apollo; as Shields was writing, the #MeToo movement was gaining traction with the media. Everything old is new, as the saying goes.
What struck me most about the second panel, however, was the heartfelt reveal from Mendelsohn about how he came to love Greek mythology: as a gay teen in the 1970s, he had few chances to see himself in media representations, until he came upon this series of books set in Ancient Greece. The author, a lesbian herself, made room in the narrative to explore same-sex relationships, and Mendelsohn had a mirror for his own experience. With all the discussions of how books are mirrors and windows for readers, it really hit me how this has always been important, and how many people have longed for those mirrors their whole lives.
Even with only catching two panels, the day was hugely worthwhile, and I'm looking forward to returning to the Brooklyn Book Festival again soon!
My train arrived early enough that I could wander a bit before my first panel. I had forgotten just how many presses, small and large, show up for this festival! There were so many books from so many walks of life. You could get lost just chatting with the vendors, meeting authors signing at their tents, and browsing through the thousands of titles available. Freelance unions are also present to help give advice to fellow freelance writers and editors, and I'm always glad to connect with others in the field.
Shortly before 11 I returned to the Center Stage, only to find that the seats, which had been empty not twenty minutes before, were packed! It shouldn't have surprised me that the panel that had gotten me into the city was the one so many people wanted to see. Moderated by Outland contributor teri.zin, who writes as Zin Rocklyn, the panel members were L. Penelope, author of the Earthsinger Chronicles, who is also a forthcoming Outland contributor; P. Djèlí Clark, author of Black Gods Drums and an indispensable blog; and multi-Hugo-Award-winner N.K. Jemisin (Broken Earth Trilogy and others). The discussion ranged fairly freely as the authors tackled the difficult questions of truth and fiction, and of how to use fiction to reach truth. The authors ranged in their ideas about taking readers out of their comfort zones—both Rocklyn and Jemisin delighted in doing so; Penelope mentioned being surprised by the things that readers reported back being uncomfortable, and how those never matched her expectations; and Clark admitted total bewilderment that some people were uncomfortable with his demythologizing George Washington in "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington." They discussed how they'd encountered some truths at a young age (for instance, the obvious connotations of George Washington as a slave owner that get glossed over in the hero-building myths of the beginning of the United States), and how stories told to make people comfortable only benefit those who are comforted. I'm still mulling over a lot of what was said because there was so very much to consider.
I also met a lovely aspiring author, Anjali Patel, in the signing line, and I'm eager to see her work out there in the future.
The second panel was a really interesting counterpoint to the first. At one point N. K. Jemisin suggested that it might be time to leave comforting myths behind in favor of more truth. The second panel was all about how myths of the past continue to reveal new truths. Moderated by Rob Spillman of Tin House, the panel featured Sharma Shields, whose new novel The Cassandra sets the Greek myth of Cassandra during World War II; Chigozie Obioma, whose An Orchestra of Minorities blends Igbo mythology with the story of Odysseus; and Daniel Mendelsohn, a nonfiction writer whose Ecstasy and Terror compares mythological figures to pop culture icons. All of these writers break down their myths while drawing on the familiar patterns. Cassandra is the woman cursed to see the truth and never be believed because she spurned Apollo; as Shields was writing, the #MeToo movement was gaining traction with the media. Everything old is new, as the saying goes.
What struck me most about the second panel, however, was the heartfelt reveal from Mendelsohn about how he came to love Greek mythology: as a gay teen in the 1970s, he had few chances to see himself in media representations, until he came upon this series of books set in Ancient Greece. The author, a lesbian herself, made room in the narrative to explore same-sex relationships, and Mendelsohn had a mirror for his own experience. With all the discussions of how books are mirrors and windows for readers, it really hit me how this has always been important, and how many people have longed for those mirrors their whole lives.
Even with only catching two panels, the day was hugely worthwhile, and I'm looking forward to returning to the Brooklyn Book Festival again soon!
