Tanzer 2Nite

Don’t forget…

Tonight, Baby Got Books is co-sponsoring a booktastic event at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur.

Ben Tanzer will be reading from his new novel, Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine.

The evening also features story-telling by Benji Carr and Will Young, who both performed to “applause and red-faced hilarity” at Tanzer’s last visit to Wordsmiths.  Musical guests The Extraordinary Contraptions round out the evening’s program with some tasty funk.

The evening begins at 7:30 @ Wordsmiths on the Decatur Square.  As usual, there is NO cost.

Coming Soon

Next Tuesday Baby Got Books is co-sponsoring a reading that you need to come down and check out. Consider it tapping into your cognitive surplus.  Once again we’re partnering with our podnahs at Wordsmiths Books, this time to bring you Ben Tanzer who will be reading from his new novel, Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine (which is also the name of a track on Bob Dylan’s 1966 LP Blonde on Blonde if you’re keeping score at home).  A brief overview of the novel goes something like this:

It is a story about fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, the value of friends, the reason its best to go out for coffee on first dates and what exactly defines being on the rebound. The characters riff on their favorite books, channel Yoda and Bob Dylan, deal with siblings and try to make sense of a world that shouldn’t be as confusing as it seems to be. They also seek greater self-awareness and debate why Dallas will always be superior to Knots Landing, even as they find love, lose it and find it again. 

I can get on board with that.  But wait…there’s more.

The evening will also feature story-telling by Benji Carr and Will Young, who both performed to “applause and red-faced hilarity” at Tanzer’s last visit to Wordsmiths. 

The evening will be capped off by a performance by local funksters The Extraordinary Contraptions.

Put that all together and you’ve got yourself a happenin’ Tuesday night.  As usual, there is NO cost.

Wordsmiths on NPR

Wordsmiths Books’ fight to keep serving their loyal customers made the national news last night in this story on NPR.  The interview features author Mark Sarvas, who featured an appeal for help on his own blog.

Awesome Fest 08

Wordsmiths Books is putting together a weekend of events to help raise the necessary cash to keep their doors open. The finishing touches have been put on the opening night’s festivities.  Here’s what’s on tap:

Jack Pendarvis will read from his new novel Awesome.  Pendarvis is awesome.  His short story collection, Your Body is Changing, won the prestigious Pushcart Prize.  I’m reading Awesome (the novel) now, and it is pretty special.  It’s not like anything I’ve read.  The synopsis on the back cover begins:

A giant strides this land.  A giant who builds robots, invents religions, and kisses like a dream…

Remember that “builds robots” bit.  It’s important later on.

Live music by Sealions will follow.  Awesome.

And handcrafted robots – see – by local artists and friends will be sold via silent auction.  Also awesome.

I would have called it Awesome Fest 08.  Instead Wordmsiths Russ decided to go with – ahem – “Saving Bookstores is Awesome!!! Night of Awesome!!!”  And he was fairly insistent on the punctuation.

The evening will be co-sponsored by Paste Magazine and BGB.  Here’s what the poster looks like:

You know what’s not awesome?  The sticky note that Russ decided serves as our logo.  We need a logo.

The Why

Wordsmiths Books owner Zach Steele answers the tough questions regarding why he’s asking for help, as a for-profit business, to keep Wordsmiths’ doors open.

Important: Read Me

Well this sucks.

Wordsmiths Books, our favorite independent bookstore here in the Atlanta area, is in trouble.  Owner Zach Steele describes the situation at the Wordsmiths site:

The fact is that Wordsmiths Books is, as an idea and in execution, a great bookstore and it can be so much more given the chance. We are not fighting declining sales, nor are we fighting customer apathy, or even a lagging book market. We are fighting only the debt created by starting in the wrong location.

Things appeared to be turning the corner for The ‘smiths gang until The Unfortunate Book Event upset the entire cash flow situation.  Now Wordsmiths is making a direct appeal for donations from the Atlanta literary community (and beyond) to help right the ship before it’s too late.

Wordsmiths, in business for less than two years, has been instrumental in helping to create the lit scene that we all deserve here in Atlanta.  No one in this town works harder to get authors in front of a crowd than the gang at Wordsmiths.  No one.  Their readings are always an event that may also feature local bands, national indie musicians, free hairpieces, local chefs, contests, prom backdrops, cupcakes, and – well, you never really know what else may happen.  You can rest assured that an evening at a Wordsmiths reading is never going be boring.  How good is Wordsmiths programming?  New York Times-worthy.  Don’t take my word for it.  Check out Wordsmiths’ Flickr photostream.  Then remind yourself that all of that action is taking place in a bookstore.

It needs to be said: Wordsmiths takes creating and nurturing a local literary scene seriously.  For one thing, they’ve helped this blog tremendously.  After working together successfully on a few reading events (like Brock Clarke’s reading of An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England with musical guests Sealions – presented with co-hosts The Wren’s Nest),  Wordsmiths helped to get a Baby Got Books Reading Series off the ground.  Check this out:

Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 1:  Rob Sheffield author of Love is a Mix Tape with musical guests The Swear – bonus points for helping me to arrange an interview with Rob Sheffield

Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 2:  Hilary Jordan author of the Bellweather Prize-winning Mudbound with musical guests The Wayne Fishell Experiment AND Hope for Agoldensummer

Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 3:  Steven Hall author of the BGB favorite The Raw Shark Texts with musical guests Blue Screen Love Scene – this may be the high point of the blog, frankly…

Those are events, people.  None of those would have happened without Wordsmiths. They have helped to connect me with authors, publishers, and publicity folks that I would not have had access to otherwise.  Every once in while a book will show up in my mailbox with a note that says, “Russ from Wordsmiths said I had to mail you a copy of this. Enjoy.”   That’s full service.

In addition to bringing top shelf authors to town and helping out area bloggers, Wordsmiths has also helped to get musicians in front of new audiences.  For example, I don’t think that I would have heard any of the bands that I just mentioned had they not been playing in the bookstore. How often do you hear that sentence?

Wordsmiths has also brought in some noteworthy national musicians.  Last year the critically praised St. Vincent released her CD at Wordsmiths.  It went on to be named to many year-end “best of” lists.  A few months later, My Brightest Diamond graced the stage (there’s even video proof).  Canadian violin-pop virtuoso Final Fantasy also played to an enthusiastic audience at Wordsmiths.

Then there are the poetry groups, play-writing groups, book clubs, storytellers, open mic-ers, civic groups, etc. that Wordsmiths hosts with open arms.

I love what Wordsmiths is all about.  I think that they have hit upon the winning formula for selling books in the digital age while also creating a literary community.  They’ve made going to the bookstore cool again.  Bottom line: there is always something happening (or about to happen) at Wordsmiths.  I’m sure that we’ll all survive if Wordsmiths disappears from our landscape – but we’ll all be the poorer for it.

Go hit the Donate! button

High Concept Readings

Tuesday was a day of High Concept book readings around our fair city.  The day began with Eoin Colfer reading at the Decatur Public Library.  Mrs. Got Books and Lil’ Got Books went to check it out.  The author of the Artemis Fowl books receives rock star treatment and rolled up to the Library in his pimped out tour bus.  A separate van with Radio Disney staff was on hand to hand out prizes and direct games, etc.

The author's Rock Star tour bus

The reading included a video conference with the author’s son in Ireland via Mac laptop.  They exchanged greetings and knock knock jokes before the author began his presentation.  Rather than just read from the latest Artemis Fowl book, the author gave a multi-media presentation about his life and his books.  It was reportedly very interesting and very funny.

Knock Knock jokes direct from Ireland

Later, just down the street, Doug Crendell read from his novel Hairdos of the Mildly Depressed at Wordsmiths Books.  The evening began with the ladies (and later, a gentleman) from Salon Red presenting hairstyling tips and discussing how a change in your look can change how you feel about yourself – certainly a theme that hits home for the protagonist of Hairdos. The follicly challenged members of the audience (including the author and myself) shared laughs over advice to “change our look” every so often.  Great idea!

The ladies from Salon Red

The author read from an entertaining section of his novel that featured a Ton-Loc reference.  A quick show of hands revealed that not many of us remember the genius of Ton-Loc.

Doug Crendell reads about a "Wild Thing"-esque encounter

After the reading, a drawing was held for a free styling/cut at Salon Red.  That was all very interesting, but the real action for me came afterwards when the author handed out a few select hairpieces as trivia contest prizes.  I finally got to see what I’d look like as a blonde.

Not my real hair

Shindig Alert

Don’t forget, Wordsmiths Books will be celebrating their one year anniversary in grand style this weekend, June 13-15. Some of the highlights:

Friday: Live music from 7-11 PM. Four bands. All awesome.

Saturday:

• Poetry Atlanta takes the stage at 2 PM
• I will be boiling crawfish on Decatur Square, which I am told is entirely legal, starting in the early evening.  Hopefully it won’t be 97 degrees while I’m standing next to a giant cauldron of boiling water.
• At 7PM the Bobbie Faye Fais Do-Do Crawfish Boil and Author Shindig officially gets under way featuring Toni McGee Causey and three other top-shelf authors.  With luck, the crawfish will be ready.

Sunday:

• I’m not much of a reality show watcher, but I am told by those int he know that Richard Blais’ appearance to sign Top Chef: The Cookbook might be a bigger deal than me boiling crawfish. 2PM.
• Even more chefs descend on The ‘smiths to sign Atlanta Cooks at 4PM.

As a bonus, Wordsmiths’ Russ has declared that if 50 people tell him that they heard about the weekend’s events via Facebook, he will eat a crawfish.  Since Russ often waxes poetic about vegetarian crab cakes, this may be a big deal.  I say whether or not you have a Facebook account, find Russ and tell him that’s where you heard the news.

See Wordsmiths for more info on all of the events.  All are free. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you.

Raw Shark Week: The Recap

Friday: “My eyes slammed themselves capital O open…” Morning had come too soon. The previous evening, Thursday, Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts, read at Wordsmiths as part of the Baby Got Books Reading Series. The result: an incredible day an an evening that went fairly late for a school night, which resulted in at least one sleepy blogger who spent his Friday figuring out how to sneak in a nap. Here’s how it all went down:

Wordsmiths’ Russ and I picked up the author at the airport and immediately whisked him off to Little Five Points for burgers at The Vortex and a lap around Criminal Records. From L5P, we took it on down to Wordsmiths. Steven Hall and I had discussed these blog posts (1 and 2) from the Omnivoarcious blog in which authors discuss what beers best go with their books. He instantly replied “Amstel, of course”, because that’s what the characters in his book drink. However, we decided to collect additional data by ducking into the Brick Store Pub. If you’re keeping score at home, I spent most of Thursday going to my favorite places in Atlanta with one of my favorite authors and drinking beer. I’m still having a hard time believing that any of that actually happened – even after processing it all over the weekend. Eventually I had to take off to get ready for the evening and pick up Mrs. Got Books, etc.

Go time: Back at the store, Steven Hall began his reading with a selection from “Stories from a Phone Book”. Originally published as a short story in New Writing 13 , the piece will be included in a collection of stories that the author is working on now. The author then read several selections from The Raw Shark Texts, including part of this section that you can listen to Academy Award-winner Tilda Swinton read here. Following the reading, the author answered questions from the audience.

Steven Hall reads from Stories for a Phone Book

The evening’s Raw Shark moment: Just as the reading finished, a group of about 10-15 people walked through the front door all dressed in white shirts/blouses. They stood quietly and listened to the Q&A, then they filed out before the band started – without a word. Thanks for coming!

Following that bit of weirdness, Blue Screen Love Scene took to the stage while Steven Hall signed books and talked with the crowd. They opened with I Am a Scientist, my favorite BSLS tune, and finished strong with a cover of Siouxsie and The Banshees’ Hong Kong Garden (for you youngsters out there – that’s awesome).

Blue Screen Love Scene performs

While the band was playing and the author was signing books/chatting with the crowd, we continued the multi-tasking by celebrating BGB contributor Shaft’s 40th birthday. To mark the occasion, as well as the awesomeness of having Steven Hall in the house, Mrs. Got Books cooked up an amazing shark cake. I wish that I had had the presence of mind to get a picture of it when it was whole, but this is what it looked like after people had begun to dig in.

A partially devoured Raw Shark birthday cake

After BSLS wrapped up their set, the remaining crowd departed en masse for celebratory post event pints at the Brick Store. The mob quickly took over a large portion of the upstairs Belgian bar where everyone chatted with the author and enjoyed the company of other Raw Shark fans. A good time was had by all.

My hope is that our efforts will ensure that Mr. Hall will put Atlanta atop his list of cities to visit on his future book tours. Either way, it will surely be an event that those in attendance will be talking about for a long time. I know that I won’t be able to shut up about my day with Steven Hall for a long time.

Raw Shark Week: Game On

Tonight!

Steven Hall

reads from

The Raw Shark Texts

w/ Special musical guests

Blue Screen Love Scene

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Wordsmiths

***the fine print***

Brock Clarke: The Recap

Monday night was the big Brock Clarke reading (An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England) that we proudly co-hosted along with Wordsmiths and The Wren’s Nest.  You might have read something about that here over the past few weeks. If you weren’t there, you missed a great evening. Here’s a quick recap:

DJ Hacks from Resonator mag set the mood with lots of arson-themed music. Check out the caution tape decorating the reading/tune mixing stage.  It’s all about the details.  This was destined to be the finest arson-themed book reading in the southeast from the get-go.

Just before DJ Hacks started doing his thing, Amelia from The Wren’s Nest rolled in with falafels, humus, and other assorted treats.  If you could find fellow Nest-er Lain’s bottle opener key chain, there was also tasty cold beer.

Brock Clarke read from his book for a good 20-30 minutes (a big chunk of the Robert Frost home scene if you’ve read the book). Following the reading he did some Q&A.  Mr. Clarke revealed that he found the voice of Sam, the protagonist of Arsonist’s Guide, in Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King (which I Bookmooch-ed upon arriving home). He also said that he has been well received at the Emily Dickinson house and Amherst, MA, both of which featured prominently in the novel.  After taking questions, Mr. Clarke signed books for the assembled.

After signing books, Brock (we’re all on a first name basis now) mingled with the crowd, posed for pictures with the beautiful people, and took in the Wordsmiths vibe.  But wait!  There’s more!

Sealions brought the rock to finish up the evening. J Trav, the guitarist there on the left, is also the artist for the outstanding and very cool poster that we used to promote the evening.  I hadn’t seen Sealions live before, so that was a nice way to close out a Monday night.

If you missed it, be sure to catch us next time.