I attended my first
Decatur Book Festival this weekend, and I had a blast. The festival is impressive for its size and scope, the talent that it brings, and also for the fact that it is entirely free and open to the public. There was a lot going on, and when I looked at the schedule before the festival, I was a bit overwhelmed. However, I think I attended the right amount of events for me, though I feel bad about missing out on a few things.
On Saturday morning, N & I attended the Bruce Covey & Michelle Bitting reading. This seemed like an odd pairing of authors since their writing is so different from each other. Bitting read first, reading from her 2007 book
Good Friday Kiss and then some newer poems, ranging from elegiac pieces to more light-hearted pieces with a pop culture focus (for example, a poem for Johnny Depp, a poem for Patti Smith, and a poem that claimed David Lynch as inspiration--though as an avid David Lynch fan, I wasn't able to pick up on his influence; perhaps it would have been more obvious to me if I had been reading the poem instead of listening). Bruce's reading was incredible, as usual--he's an amazing reader of his work. He started out with a piece (or was it two?) from
Ten Pins Ten Frames, which I had never heard him read from before. He then read from
Elapsing Speedway Organism and
Glass is Really a Liquid, including such hit poems as "Uncertainties," "Declaration Distilled," "Unicorn Poem for Jessica," "Self Help," and "100 Hottest" to name a few. I hadn't really thought about it before, but while listening to poems like "Nine Ball: A Love Poem" and a few others, I realized Bruce writes really well about food, which is something that I have never tried to write about and don't think I could do very well. For anyone who has not had the opportunity to see Bruce read before, definitely check him out if you get the chance. N said it was the highlight of the festival for him.
After the reading, we walked around the book tables for awhile before settling in for a bit with Laura Straub at the
Vouched ATL table. Vouched is a great concept--a guerrilla bookseller, representing small and independent presses, who has read and vouches for the books they sell. Ask about any title on the table and Laura can tell you all about it. At the book fair, they were not only selling books, but also selling readings for $1. So in addition to meeting some interesting people who stopped by the table, I also got to give an intimate reading of a poem, which was a new experience for me.
After that we went to the "21st Century South" panel discussion at Eddie's Attic, which had to be one of the most popular events of the weekend. The space was absolutely packed. The discussion featured Charles Reagan Wilson, Allen Tullos, and Jake Adam York, and was moderated by Hank Klibanoff. The discussion focused on southern identity--where it's been, where it is now, and perhaps where it is heading. This was perhaps my favorite event of the weekend. I found the discussion especially interesting as a northerner who has recently moved to the south--though most people tell me "Atlanta is not the real south," and one audience member even made that claim during the Q & A, though I think the panel did a good job of putting that idea to rest. I was cash-strapped this weekend, but I've made note to pick up these authors books in the near future.
Immediately after that event, Jericho Brown read at Eddie's Attic. I haven't read his book, but I especially enjoyed his persona poems, in particular the Janis Joplin piece, and I found his Q&A session to be particularly interesting--though I really don't want to think about people not knowing who Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder is! (On a side note, I just watched Nina Simone Live at Montreux 1976, and the way that Jericho started his reading, by standing still silently for awhile, commanding full attention, is reminiscent of Nina's entrance at Montreux.)
On Sunday, we started the day out at Eddie's Attic to see Collin Kelley & Michael Montlack read. I know Collin is a major poet in the Atlanta literary scene, so it was great to see him read. He opened his reading with a poem about his seven-year-old self wanting to be Wonder Woman, from
Slow to Burn, a recently re-issued chapbook. He read several other poems from the chapbook and then ended on newer work, including a long poem about Sally Mann called "Render." His poems were funny and touching--I especially enjoyed a piece about the Virgin Mary appearing as a water stain under an overpass in Chicago and also a poem about wanting to be Pam Grier. I also hope to pick up
Slow to Burn when I have the money. Michael was a classmate of mine at the New School, and I hadn't seen him or heard him read since then. His first full-length collection of poems,
Cool Limbo, has recently been released, and he read entirely from that. It was really wonderful getting to hear him read poems that I remember from workshop days as well as newer pieces too. The poems, like Collin's, deal with identity as a gay male in America, and are smart, funny, and touching. What impresses me with both poet's work is how quickly within a poem they are able to move from something funny to something serious, as Michael accomplishes in "Liz Taylor in Levittown." I loved getting to hear "On Castro," which is one of the poems I remember from workshop--the ending of it is too perfect. Michael also read more playful poems--"Lounge-adelic" consists entirely of words beginning with the letter L, and "Gertrude, you had Alice. But I had him (so briefly) and now we don't even talk" takes on the voice of Stein. Though there was only one question during the Q&A, I thought it was really interesting to hear discussed. Michael edited a collection of essays called
My Diva, in which gay male writers discuss the woman they looked up to, and the question asked why it was that the authors identified with these women, (for Michael it was Stevie Nicks; for Collin, Wonder Woman and Pam Grier were mentioned during his reading, but he said the Bionic Woman was really his diva). I made another note to pick up
My Diva as soon as I can (partly because I have been wrestling with the idea of writing about Amy Winehouse, and I feel like this book could be insightful, but mostly because it sounds like a cool collection).
After that reading finished up, we headed over to the Decatur Conference Center for the "Struggles for Freedom" panel discussion, which was another great panel. It featured Doug Blackmon, Kevin Young, David Eltis, and Michael Thurmond, and was moderated by Leslie Harris. The panel discussed slavery in various forms: David Eltis's work involves documenting the transatlantic slave trade from 1501-1867; Kevin Young's recent poetry book is based on the Amistad; Michael Thurmond's work as focused on the role Georgia has played in the struggle for freedom; and Doug Blackmon's work has looked at the indentured servitude that blacks in the South were forced into after the Civil War through the second World War. It was a great discussion, though it was way too short. (I had felt similarly about the 21st Century South panel on Saturday.) The panels were capped at 45 minutes and ran on time in order to keep the festival on time. There were only two moderated questions addressed and then two questions from the audience before time was up. Obviously this is a huge topic and difficult to dig into in such a short time.
After the panel, we made our way to the Decatur Presbyterian Church for the Best American Poetry 2011 event. Obviously the
Best American Poetry series has its flaws, which I am not going to bother going into here. I mostly attended because David Lehman is a former teacher of mine. The event featured Kevin Young, who edited the 2011 BAP; Natasha Trethewey, who has a poem in this year's collection; and David Lehman, who of course is the series editor. The three did a round robin reading of poems from the collection, which ranged from serious in tone and subject manner to light-hearted. The highlight of the event was during David's reading of a poem by Michael Cirelli, in which David mispronounced Chamillionare, and Jericho Brown yelled from the audience to correct him, which led to mid-poem banter before David picked up the poem where he left off.
Overall the festival was lot of fun. I am glad to be in Atlanta now and to know that such an event takes place each year and that it is free.
