BEA has been excellent so far - with writers I've loved and finally met, publishers I've adored and finally met (I'm looking at you Richard Nash, you Dan Wickett) and attending panels of writerly friends and sending them text messages while they sit on the panel waiting for their turn to read. Good times.
I'm currently sitting in the Emerging Voices Panel which includes:
I'm told it's the 7th year of this panel - and it seems that all the writers are only going to read their work. Hardly a "panel" - when I think of panel, I think of discussion - but we'll sit here (I'm with Pinky) until Rachel Kushner and Mark Sarvas read and then we'll go back out for another beer. Yes, beer. It's a lot of books and there's only one way to get through it - low-rent Gordon Biersch beer. And then martinis with Tin House, then gin with Jules (Asner to you) and then off to Black Clock.
Surely I'm not the first to point out that books = drinking. Right?
I must also say that I'm thrilled to have met the folks at Europa (as translations are my passion) and I will officially urge you to seek out more translations on your own. I will also officially state that I plan to focus even more on small presses, independent publishers and translations here at Counterbalance. When you see the big booths of all the big publishers, and you see the all the amazing books that deserve attention and will never get it if we don't speak up, it can crush you.
I don't want to be crushed, nor do I want all these books to be crushed. So - I've resolved to do more. Is it the beer talking? Maybe - but...well...translations matter beers or no.
Keep checking my twitter feed at right - that is the best bet for your blow-by-blow at BEA.
