The Brooklyn Book Festival was held yesterday, Sunday September 23, at Borough Hall in Brooklyn. This was my first Brooklyn Book Festival, and did I ever love it! I can only imagine how busy and exciting Frankfurt is after this much, much smaller one-day book fair.
Clik here to view.
A small part of the crowd at the Brooklyn Book Festival
I wandered through the publishers’ booths looking for members of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) who were going to Frankfurt this year, and managed to talk to several people including Johanna Ingalls from Akashic Books, Bruce McPherson from McPherson & Company, Erika Goldman from Bellevue Literary Press, and Jill Schoolman from Archipelago Books.
I asked each of them a brief interview question, “What are you looking forward to the most about this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair?” Their answers were varied, but everyone was excited!
Johanna Ingalls is looking forward to having a home at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year thanks to Riky and the GBO, she says. However, she’s not looking forward to the plethora of meetings she will be hosting in her Frankfurt home! She has been going to the Fair for 10 years now.
Erika is excited about going to the Fair for the first time after many years of working in publishing, and says she cannot wait to meet her European counterparts.
Clik here to view.
Erika Goldman (far left, behind the table) stands at Bellevue Literary Press’s booth
Bruce McPherson has been going to the Fair for 25 years without a booth of his own until now, and always looks forward to “the unexpected,” and is looking forward to selling as many rights as he can.
Jill, who has been to the fair 5-6 times without a booth of her own, is looking forward to reconnecting with the editors whom she feels close to, and whom she only sees once a year. She says that the Fair is inspiring.
Clik here to view.
Jill Schoolman (right) and associate from Archipelago Books
You can meet them all (and more!) in Hall 8 #0 914 at 5pm on Thursday, October 11 for a reception at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The CLMP has also co-organized two events with the German Book Office during the Fair. Information for “The margins move to the middle: Small press publishers take the stage” can be found here, and information for “How Independent Literary Publishers are Successfully Reaching their Audience” can be found here.
