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April 26, 2007
PEN World Voices
Last night, Brent and I went to New York City to the PEN festival of world writers called "Writing Home." The event took place at Town Hall and lasted for about two hours, I'd say, followed by book signings by the authors. The way we found out about the event was that I was playing around on Neil Gaiman's Blog trying to find a reading somewhere to take Brent to because he's his absolute favorite author. It just so happened that Neil Gaiman was doing a reading along with Salman Rushdie, who wrote The Satanic Verses which we just finished reading in our English class, and a number of other amazing authors. The complete lineup was: Don DeLillo, Kiran Desai, Neil Gaiman, Nadine Gordimer, Alain Mabanckou, Steve Martin, Salman Rushdie, Pia Tafdrup, Tatyana Tolstaya, and Saadi Youssef (but not in that order):
First, Salman Rushdie came on to do the introduction. For those of you who do not know, Rushdie received numerous death threats and Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him for The Satanic Verses, forcing him to go into hiding... and thus making his appearance even more amazing.
First up, though, was Steve Martin who is absolutely hilarious. Brent and I are in the middle of reading his book, The Pleasure Of My Company right now about a completely neurotic, OCD 30-ish guy living in Santa Monica. It's so funny and I recommend rushing out and buying it right away.
Steve Martin read from his memoir that he's working on that focuses on getting started in stand-up comedy. He definitely had us all laughing:
Especially when, in front of 1500 literary types, he did a napkin trick:
Next was Pia Tafdrup, from Denmark, who read some poetry:
Following Tafdrup was Don Delillo who read us part of his new book, Falling Man, which is being published in May:
Next was Tatyana Tolstaya, from Russia, who read a selection from a book she wrote on Moscow, if it had become a city lost in the woods 200 years ago:
Next was Saadi Youssef, from Iraq, who read from one of his books:
Following Youssef was Kiran Desai, from India, who read a very funny section from one of her new books:
Next was Alain Mabanckou, from Congo, who read a beautiful poem about his mother in French:
Someone else then read the English version to us. I really liked this picture:
Next up was Neil Gaiman. I thought Brent was going to leap out of his seat, he was so excited. He read the epilogue from American Gods and a poem called "Instructions" about what to do if you find yourself in a fairytale:
Brent owns pretty much everything he has ever written. I've read Good Omens (which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett) and Stardust which is going to be a movie!
Following Neil Gaiman was Nadine Gordimer, from South Africa, who read from one of her books:
Last was Salman Rushdie, who read from The Ground Beneath Her Feet:
And a couple black & whites:
Brent getting his book signed by Rushdie:
I got mine signed too and we mentioned that we had read it in Francisco Goldman's class. Our professor (Goldman) happens to be a friend of his, and fellow writer, and Rushdie told us to thank him because he's doing him a big favor getting us to read his book. Like he needs any extra publicity....
Brent getting his book signed by Neil Gaiman:
On the way back to Grand Central, I took a couple super-touristey pictures:
If it weren't 10:30pm on a Wednesday night, I would have been way too embarrassed to take these, too:
Salman Rushdie's signature:
Brent holding Fragile Things, which he got signed by Neil Gaiman with the line "dream dangerous" and a picture of a heart with veins...or cracks, I'm not sure which one:
Brent gave me his copy of Stardust (which he had previously let me borrow to read) so that I could get something signed for myself:
I got a moon and a star:
It was pouring rain in the city that night, and Brent hadn't brought an umbrella home so he had to borrow a really dorky one from my mom:
Anyway, it was a really fun night and I definitely recommend buying books by all these great authors!
Posted by lauren at April 26, 2007 03:16 PM
Comments
the bunny pix with Chloe are adorable G
Posted by: G at April 26, 2007 06:22 PM
Wow! What an incredible thing to do. When I was young and living in LA I used to go to these amazing poetry readings at the Chateau Marmont every Sunday. It inspired me to be a writer, a poet no less. Until I realized what an awful writer I was. But I have been known to come up with some brilliant prose with my magnetic refrigerator poetry kit. At the same time Paul & I used to throw monthly salon parties and invited everyone to write something and come over and drink wine and read poetry, sing or share some new art they created. Those were some of the best parties I have ever had. mmmm? Maybe I should resurrect them for the Ny crew?
Posted by: jocelyn at April 26, 2007 07:12 PM
i spy a hicky
Posted by: Cupcakes at April 26, 2007 09:57 PM
Cupcakes - I actually don't know what that is, but it's been there since like... November.
Posted by: Lauren at April 27, 2007 03:48 AM
I can't believe you got to talk to Rushdie! He's one of my top 3 favorite contemporary writers. Extremely envious.
Joce-
You need to reinstate the the salon. A bi-monthly BDL salon. I can only imagine what that group would come up with.
Posted by: Alexis at April 28, 2007 04:06 AM