Reading Local Seattle

Local is fresh.

Clark Humphrey pretty much sums up the event at Misc Media. It was good for all the reasons he mentions.

Revised Post (10-31): After the Paul Constant churlish posts and some griping by Diane Mapes via Twitter, I was unsure what to make of the Seattle Book Fest. Organizer Paul Doyle in early September was flummoxed during a planning meeting when I suggested that the event would probably end up resulting in attracting mostly local writers instead of the type of large, general audience of the Northwest Bookfest. At that point, he only had a rough schedule and a handful of people such as Jerome Gold, Paul Nelson, and Pam Binder who had stated to help with the line up. Doyle said something to the effect that writers were going to be “on display” and that “readers” would be the ones coming to the event. I was skeptical and concerned that such an ad hoc event would work. I but it still made me uneasy although I didn’t know what that might mean. Paul Constant at The Stranger’s Slog seemed eager to fill in the blanks about what could go wrong before the event event started, and then after the event he continued to elaborate.

King Rat has a list of things that need to improved, based on his circuit of the vendors and leaving. Like many people King Rat focused on the lack of signage and the attempt to fix this problem with hand-made signs. I found these signs of charming, but if you were used to a corporate sponsored event in a conference center, I can understand why they would seem, well, cheesy. There were other features of the conference that were rough, too. The “food court” was a bit dismal and like a labor camp offering Starbucks and Phad Thai . It was raining, and the building had that chilly, barn-like feeling that pervades older buildings in the Seattle area (unless they are super-heated.)

Mostly the other threads of derision seemed to me puzzling and revealed bits of Seattle churl. The festivals location in Columbia City seemed a source of confusion or outright disdain. It has been a common rule of thumb among people who organize readings that it is a good idea to find a venue south of the Ship Canal, but I suppose now this means it needs to be north of I-90 as well. Within walking distance of The Stranger has often been an ironic rule. Since when was Columbia City considered not part of Seattle? It is a great neighborhood, and with the light rail, as Vince Keenen pointed out, very accessible by foot. Mass-transit connecting Seattle’s neighborhoods has long been part of The Stranger’s agenda, I’d figure that this aspect of the festival would have received some play. But alas, no, since it didn’t seem to fit into Constant’s narrative of “it’s gonna suck / yep it sucked.”

Constant’s main points made me take pause: that vendors didn’t make money. I was confused by the thought that they were expecting to make money. I have been at a dozen or so lit fairs, and I never expect to make money at an event. When I do a reading, I am always surprised when people buy books. Seattle, in particular, is kind of known for the fact that audiences tend not to buy books at readings. Books sell. People read books. But the equation isn’t as tidy, as hold a reading and sell books. Bookstores that buy into this logic, such as Arundel Books, stop holding readings. A book fair isn’t as tidy as rent a table, and make money. However, in asking around after Constant’s article, it seems this book fest actually was this tidy. Many vendors did better at this festival then other, similar festivals. Some vendors did make money.

The other aspect I found puzzling is the idea that the event was full of local readers who read around town all of the time, and that this was a bad thing. As a person who reads around town all of the time, I found the readings I took part in to be completely full of people who had no idea who I was. And in turn, I was able to see writers who I had been wanting to see read from their new books, including Ryan Boudinot, Midge Raymond, but hadn’t been able to see them. I did. They were great. More people should have seen them, and maybe next year they will.

Attendance was low. The attendance was actually pretty good, with 3,000 people attending the event.

I did notice that the panels on publishing tended to be packed, while the straight-up readings were lightly attended. I think this does speak to the fact that this was the first year of the program and so writers and aspiring writers probably made up most of the audience. And yeah, the programming was a mostly self-generated and could have benefited a lot by focus, outreach, a sponsor, and so one. I’m sure with a festival of this size; things went poorly for some people. Readers who were hoping to find certain kinds of writing were likely disappointed — such as Science Fiction or Fantasy — especially with the Steampunk Convention occurring the same weekend.

Chin Music Press has posted their follow-up, and their post is a lot more like my experience at the festival. I never bought the idea that this would be like Northwest Book Fest, and thankfully Seattle Book Fest wasn’t.

In a panel on book reviews, Paul Constant pointed out that there was no reason that he should care about books because they were local. Mary Ann Gwinn at The Seattle Times pointed out that at The Seattle Times their readers lived in the region and were interested in local coverage. I agree with Constant. There is no reason that a generic book review needs to be local. But I also agree with Mary Ann Gwinn, I am likely to be interested in a local book review because it is local. When I am interested in generic book news I read Ron Silliman, Bookslut, Maude Newton, Luna Park, The Believer, or the New York Times Book Review. For some writers and readers locality is an important attribute. They want to buy books in locally owned stores and know something about local authors. And for this reason, even if by accident, Seattle Book Fest was the first event in a long time in Seattle that contained local writing.

Seattle has long had an issue with locally produced work. It often doesn’t know what is going on within its own borders until it pointed out by some external authority such as Life writing about “Mystic Painters of the Northwest“, or Everett True writing about Sub Pop. I for one, was really excited to learn about what was going on, and next year I hope they include even more local writers. I know some key voices were missing this time around.

Author: Reading Local: Seattle

Reading Local: Seattle covers locally produced lit and lit events. If you have ideas for topics you would like covered please post them, or e-mail Reading Local: Seattle directly. If you are a regular producer of lit events, we would like to make sure your events are covered.

Reading Local: Seattle has written 1039 articles for us.