Once again, Rain Taxi has put on a stellar event, full to bursting with great authors, great literary organizations, a fantastic exhibit including a used book fair and an all-around great day for book lovers. In case you missed it, here's what you, well, missed.
This year’s event, held last Saturday, October 15, marked the eleventh annual Twin Cities Book Festival. The location was once again Minneapolis Community & Technical College in downtown Minneapolis, which boasts loads of parking (at a cost of $5).
Cross the skyway and you were brought to the level which held the Children’s Pavilion, featuring book sales by The Red Balloon Bookshop, a row of authors and a large area where fun activities were taking place for the kids. There were books being read, craft activities, games and music. Features included fun presentations such as Bookcrobatics, The Bazillions and Dazzling Dave Yo-Yo Master, with author appearances by Phyllis Root, Kelly Barnhill, Lynne Jonell and others.
Journey down the stairs, and at the first landing you got a good view of the entire exhibit floor. This was a massive collection of so much of the best of what the Twin Cities has to offer in the way of literary tendencies, it was hard to decide where to start! I had missed the Morning Mixer, a meet-and-greet collection of just plain great Minnesota authors.
So I started by attending a panel discussion. Three panel discussions were offered during the day. Topics included were Mystery Writers: How Do We Plot? with Erin Hart, Sujata Massey, Julie Kramer, Michael Allan Mallory and Carl Brookins, moderated by Raymond Benson; This Must Be the Place: Representing Minnesota with Kevin Cannon, Steve Healey, Wing Young Huie, Susan Niz and Danielle Sosin, moderated by Laurie Hertzel; and Telling Our Stories: Minnesota Memoirs with Martin Kihn, Paul Metsa, Nancy Paddock, Theresa Weir and Mary Rondeau Westra, moderated by Patricia Hampl. What a great collection of talent! I attended two of these panels, the Mystery Writers and Telling Our Stories. They were informative and entertaining.
A walk around the floor yielded a treasure at every turn. I quickly loaded up my arms with free items, and was rescued by Amy Sullivan, one of the new owners of The Red Balloon Bookshop, who graciously gave me a shopping bag when I went back upstairs to find some food. Alas, I was a bit late for much in the way of food offerings, and had to settle for a snack. The morning went by so quickly, I barely had time to think about food until 1:00.
Back downstairs to see the rest of the floor, check out the used book sale and weave my way through the mob waiting to get in to see Kevin Sorbo. A bevy of authors were speaking in individual sessions, including Diana Abu-Jaber, Tess Gallagher, Jaimy Gordon, Steven Pinker, N. M. Kelby, Ben Katchor, Gary Tillery, Lawrence Weschler, Daniel Woodrell and yes, Kevin Sorbo has a book out too. I meant to see at least one of these, but I was having so much fun walking around the booths talking to people that I decided to forego it. I would have loved to have seen at least two of them.
Alas, there isn’t time for everything one wants to do at the Twin Cities Book Festival. I roamed voraciously through row after row of book-related folks, talking to book artists who are members of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Co-operative, publishers, a stop by the Loft table and the Minnesota Book Awards, and filled out several slips for raffle drawings. The new Lit Punch Card had a table, and while I did fill out the drawing slip, I forgot to get my card punched! Don’t let this happen to you – go to the Rain Taxi-sponsored Twin Cities Literary Calendar to see which events are Lit Punch-eligible. Check for the red-starred events.
There were myriad exhibitors – a list too long to repeat. From publishers to library organizations, author groups to publications, you could find just about anything book-related. One thing I noticed this year was several comic-related tables. Let’s hope that’s a trend that will continue. I talked to folks at several literary journals, and even picked up a few at criminally low prices at the CLMP Literary Magazine Fair – just $2 each for lit mags from all over the country!
Yes, this was a work day for me. I had an author who was in one of the panels. By the time his book signing time was up after the panel, after the crush of the Kevin Sorbo signing had abated, the show was almost over. It was a long and busy day, but I went home, full shopping bag in hand, blissful. Such is the work life, if you can get it!
Mark your calendars for next year. It's typically the second Saturday in October, and the Twin Cities Book Festival is an all-day event, suitable for all ages, FREE and open to the public.
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