BEA Memories
Amanda Palmer and Brandon Stanton at BEA, May 2014
ReedPop has retired their big book events, including BookExpo America. BEA brought publishers, booksellers, authors, librarians, and readers from around the world to NYC for three action-packed days. I attended a couple when I ran the Talks program at Google’s Cambridge MA office, and again last year for fun. I had some amazing moments there, many of them pure serendipity, and I’m sad that there won’t be more.
My first one was In May 2014. The night before I left, I thought about who I most wished I could meet anywhere in the city, and realized it was Brandon Stanton. The next morning, I walked into the exhibition hall at the Javits Center right after it opened and started wandering around. As I looked at a map of exhibitors' booths a few minutes later, I heard a woman nearby talking to someone. It was clear from her words and tone that she was fangirling, and I looked up to see her talking to Brandon Stanton not ten feet away!
I swooped in as soon as she left and got right to my own fanboying. Brandon (who was just visiting the show; he wasn’t on the program) was very gracious, and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Afterwards I posted on Facebook about meeting him. Almost immediately, Death From Above cover artist Adam O'Day commented: "We went to the same high school! We were on the soccer team together." Small world!
A couple of hours later, I showed up at the publisher's booth where Amanda Palmer was scheduled to sign pre-pub proofs of her new book, and there was Brandon again! I reintroduced myself and mentioned Adam's name. Brandon remembered that they’d been teammates and that Adam spent a lot of time in the art room. "That worked out pretty well for him," I said, and explained that Adam was now a full-time artist.
When I got up to Amanda Palmer to have my book signed, I told her that my wife and I had a portrait of her in our bedroom, which got her attention. Well, kind of her portrait, I added, because the artist, Nicole Dunnebier, had painted something over it. That really got her attention:
Amanda Palmer, astonished
She was gobsmacked! Having no idea that the abandoned portrait still existed in any form. She recovered in time to talk with Brandon Stanton, as shown above.
That afternoon, I was walking by one of the long lines of people waiting to get a signed copy of a book from an author at a publisher's booth. Before I could get past it, one of the line minders grabbed me and said, "Don't you want to meet Lassie?" How could I resist? So I got in line, just in time to watch the hero dog have diarrhea behind the signing table. (The vendors' food at those events is terrible, you couldn't blame her.) A few minutes later, someone else asked me if I'd like to be interviewed for the NYT online, no doubt because I was the only person there who looked old enough to have seen the tv show in the '50s. Sure, why not? Which is how I wound up in this video for a half-minute or so.
Here we are, together for the first time:
I never expected to meet Lassie!
Meeting my idol, astonishing Amanda Palmer, and posing with Lassie — it was a great day! And that was in addition to meeting several authors I recruited to give talks, notably the great sequential artist, Joel Christian Gill.
The following year didn’t provide any dramatic moments, but I was fortunate to meet the great and supremely gracious Tess Gerritsen.
Last year (May 2019 feels like five years ago now) provided almost as many memorable moments as 2014. All the authors I met were people whose work I’ve greatly admired, and I was able to connect with them in the few seconds I had (most were signing hundreds of autographs).
I met one of the Supremes! Mary Wilson was signing booklets with photos from her book, Supreme Glamour. I waited in a long line to be able to tell her how much her work has meant to me. A peak moment!!
Wilson!and signs!
A treasure.
I stood in another long line to get a card signed by Lupita Nyong’o, there to promote her forthcoming book, and illustrator Vashti Harris. Nobody else had said anything to her except thanks, but I blurted out that I loved the characters she’s brought to life.
Later I met Candace Bushnell, who was signing copies of her newest book. I told her she'd been a major influence on a family friend who's now a best-selling author. She asked who it was, and I said Hannah Orenstein, and she said, "I know Hannah Orenstein. She's HUUGE!" Hannah was over the moon when she heard, and good journo that she is, later got an interview with Ms. Bushnell.
Another highlight was an authors’ breakfast talk hosted by Rachel Maddow. One of the speakers was thriller writer Karin Slaughter, who was absolutely hilarious. (I can’t find a video of that talk, but this one is similar.) That afternoon, when I got to the front of the line to get a signed copy of her newest book, I said, “I enjoyed your talk this morning.” She said thanks, not looking up from signing, and I added, “Wit so dry it’s desiccated.” That got her attention. 😃
And I got to meet two heroes from the MSNBC show, AM Joy. Karine Jean-Pierre was supportive when I told her I wanted to use my privilege to help make the world a better place, and Mariana Atencio proved to be possibly the nicest human being on the planet, making each of us feel as though we were the most special person in the world at that moment. (Not surprisingly, since that’s one of her superpowers.)
BEA, thanks for all these wonderful memories!
(Even including the time someone at the Scientology booth tried to chat me up as I passed. I should’ve just nodded politely and walked on, but I felt compelled to tell him that L. Ron Hubbard was a crap writer who founded a crap “religion”. He didn’t take that well, so I probably failed the personality test. Not a peak moment!)
-Jonathan