paper trail

Jun 3, 2010 @ 9:00:00 am

Maaza Mengiste. Photo by Miriam Berkley.

On Wednesday night, organizers of the Brooklyn Book Festival announced part of its 2010 line-up at a mingle that took place at stately Brooklyn Borough Hall. As publishing types mixed with writers such as Colson Whitehead, Chuck Klosterman, and others, Johnny Temple (the onetime Girls Against Boys bassist and editor of Akashic Books) introduced curators who named some of the writers confirmed for the fest. As always, it is a stellar bunch: Whitehead, Jonathan Lethem, Jennifer Egan, Mary Gaitskill, Joshua Clover, Rob Sheffield, Maaza Mengiste, Joyce Carol Oates, Dorothy Allison, Stephen Elliott and more. If you don't live in Brooklyn, book your flight now, if you do, clear your calendar for Sunday September 12th.

Though he decries the "relative ghettoization of non-paper technologies" at BEA, Brian Heater of PCMag says, "Let there be no doubt, the publishing industry is alive and well," noting the booming attendance at this year's conference. Scott McLemee pretty much agrees after returning from visiting another embattled faction at the BEA—university presses. 

What do thieves who prowl bookstore aisles like to heist? In the US it has long been standard protocol to stash Beat writers, Charles Bukowski, and, of course, Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book behind the counter, but what about in the UK, where Morrissey once sang "Shoplifters of the World Unite" (then later disavowed the practice)?