Link-Mad Monday: Watch out when we get together...

* As the world of indie booksellers knows, this coming weekend is the eagerly awaited Fourth Annual Winter Institute! Due to the uncertainty of my own plans months ago during registration, I won't be there in person... but I'll be jealously following the schedule of every educational session, party and rep picks meal throughout the weekend. If anyone is live blogging, let me know...

* And if you're at WI and of the under-40 persuasion, don't miss the Emerging Leaders Reception, Friday night at 9 PM in the charmingly titled Deer Valley room. Your intrepid Emerging Leaders Council will be meeting throughout the weekend to plan upcoming projects and programming, but on Friday night they'll do what they do best: drinking. I mean, networking with fellow booksellers, of course. The event is hosted by Unbridled Books, an emerging up-and-coming publisher itself, and will feature two of their promising new authors. The winners of the Emerging Leaders scholarships from Ingram and the ABA will also be recognized and cheered, and I expect a good time will be had by all. Toss one back for me!

* The NEXT weekend, already, is the also eagerly awaited New York Comic Con! I managed to score the highest prize for a comics geek: a press pass to the Con, courtesy of Shelf Awareness (where I'll be reporting on the festivities) and the illustrious Lance Fensterman and his crack convention staffers. The ALP and I will be wandering the show floor, snapping pictures and reporting on the madness and excitement from the bookseller's perspective. I'm also going to try to catch some of the programming for Thursday's ICV2 conference, in between my bookstore work schedule. Let me know if you'll be there too -- maybe we can meet up and share stories of our favorite costume sightings.

* And on Saturday at 11:00 at NYCC, in Room 1A18 at the Javitz Center, I have the additional awesome privilege of moderating a panel of heroes of the medium, discussing nonfiction in comics. Here's the actual panel description from the NYCC website:

"Telling A Story With Imagined Pictures: How can there be non-fiction comics when every image drawn is representational? This panel examines the non-fiction comic, looking at photographs, non-fiction prose works, and non-fiction comics as each is uniquely able to portray different aspects of non-fiction. Four creators will discuss how the element of representation and construction continually present in non-fiction comics work impact the stories they tell."
The illustrious panelists are Mike Dawson, creator of the fantastic memoir of Queen and adolescence Freddie and Me; Sabrina Jones, creator of the forthcoming biography Isadora Duncan on the groundbreaking dancer; Dan Goldman, co-author of the Iraq war satire Shooting War and the forthcoming presidential campaign memLinkoir 08 (also, his webcomic on Obama and the singularity is fantastic); and George O'Connor, creator of Journey into Mohawk Country, using a 17th century traders' journals as text for his true adventure story. It's an amazing group of folks to talk about the potential and challenges of telling true stories with the comics medium, and I can't wait to hear what we talk about. Props are due to comics girl-about-town Gina Gagliano of First Second Books for bringing us all together. Check it out, along with the rest of NYCC's fascinating programming.


* And if you're not going to any of these gatherings, despair not: the illustrious Kelly Amabile of the Independent Bookstores of New York City has compiled a list of 25 fantastic happenings at bookstores throughout our fair city this month. Most of them are free, and all of them sound intriguing (Scott Pilgrim midnight party, anyone?) Check it out, and enjoy getting together with your fellow booklovers!

Comments

Michael Kindness said…
Just found out that I too will be at NYCC and I am very excited! I'll have my blackberry with me, so feel free to email me at my randomhouse.com address. Maybe we can meet up!
4:18 PM
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