Brooklyn Book Festival - 9/22/13 - OVERVIEW

Today is a red letter day for Brooklyn writers.  Today was the final and pinnacle day of Brooklyn Book Festival held in various venues in downtown Brooklyn.

Workshops, lectures, readings, giveaways -- the works.  Writers of all ilks were on hand:

• Deborah Copaken Kogan
• Sonia Sanchez
• Michele Forbes
• Alexander Nehamas
• Edwidge Danticat
• Simon Critchley
• K'wan Foye 
• Courtney Angela Brkic 
• Dinaw Mengestu
• James McBride
• Robert Antoni
• Rob Sheffield
• Amy Brill

...and the list goes on and on!  This vibrant event was sponsored by top corporate and business entities such as Target, Brooklyn Tourism, St. Francis College, AT&T, Marriott, Citibank, Astoria Federal, WNYC to name a few.

Workshops such as:

• The So-Called 'Post-Feminist, Post-Racial' Life in Publishing
• Creating Dangerously in a Dangerous World
• Love, Villainy, Ethics and Karaoke: Chuck Klosterman and Rob Sheffield in Conversation
• Purple Reign: The Legacy and Significance of Prince
• Art Spiegelman and Jules Feiffer in Conversation
• Cities and their Ghosts, Past and Future
• How to Publicize and Market Your Self-Published Book
• Realms of Illusion and Imagination
• The Secret Lives of Girls 

The list of what was available for free goes on and on.  Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York -- aren't we lucky?

And I met Edwidge Danticat!  Here is Ms. Danticat's TED Talk.  Prolific writer whose work has been hailed as 'luminous', Ms. Danticat inspires me with her depth, wisdom and literary finesse.  Meeting her was the highlight of my BBF day.

Edwidge Danticat (left) and Courtney Brkvic (right)

 I will post more during the week about the workshops I participated in but wanted to share the general gist of what transpired on this momentous day.