Thursday 31 January 2008

The conference begins! (just)

It's done. "The Transatlantic Writer: Challenges and Strategies" panel ran smoothly from 9-10:15 a.m. this morning NY time, with an array of interesting papers. At first it looked like we'd only have as many audience members as panelists (not surprising given that we were in the first panel slot of the conference and first thing in the morning), but ultimately we ended up with about 15 and received a few good questions for discussion.

Next I took a stroll about the bookfair. Oh, I love the bookfair. I picked up the latest issue of Rain Taxi, looked at Peter Gizzi's latest from Wesleyan with the hope of having the money to buy it later, glanced over the fondly familiar titles at the Shearsman table, and was surprised to see quite a number of journals I'd not heard of before. I look forward to a closer survey later, when I have more time.

The last couple days have been fairly quiet. I made it to the National Museum of the American Indian on Tuesday, joined the Bath Spa crowd for dinner at Remi, and introduced Tim Liardet and his son Joe to El Centro, where I had dinner on my own Monday night. Tim, Joe and I enjoyed their delicious house margaritas, made with Herradura tequila (a recent acquaintance), and had a great time. Last night, dinner was at the Red Eye Grill, which specializes in seafood; everyone shared perfect guacamole and blue corn chips as a starter, and my meal was an again perfect dish, of scallops with grilled vegetables and a tomato coulis.

This afternoon I'm manning Bath Spa's booth with Tim, then attending the Russell Edson tribute with Mr. Edson himself, James Tate, Charles Simic, and Robert Bly--I can hardly wait!

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