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The inaugural Boston Book Festival takes place in Copley Square this Saturday, October 24, with Orhan Pamuk as the keynote speaker. A launch party called "Boston Out Loud" bill be held at Trinity Church on Friday the 23rd. All Book Festival events are free, but some are ticketed, so plan accordingly.
Bostonist talked to Boston Book Festival organizer Deborah Z. Porter about her role in planning the event.
How did you come up with the idea for the Boston Book Festival?
A former editor at Simon and Schuster who had recently moved to Boston, Sarah Baker, pointed out to me that Boston is the only major city in America that doesn't have a book festival. That sounded like an amazing claim and it turned out to be true. I had been looking into the possibility of starting a lecture series in Boston along the lines of City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco but realized that in a city with many lecture series, what was really needed was a large public event to celebrate book culture.
Why do you think Boston didn't have a festival?
It had one years ago, put on by the Boston Globe.
What was the biggest obstacle or headache in organizing the event? How did you overcome it?
The biggest obstacle early on was figuring out how to fund a book festival. In most cities, book festivals are sponsored by the largest newspaper in town as in Los Angeles, or by the city, as in Brooklyn or by the public library, as in Philadelphia. We are an independent non-profit and so have no institution to back us financially, although both the Mayor of Boston and the Boston Public Library are hugely supportive and helpful.
I approached several companies in the beginning who signed on as sponsors: Verizon, Hachette Books, Rodale and Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt. So we were off to a good start. Then, our new executive director, Emily D'Amour Pardo, met State Street CEO Ron Logue at a meeting of a civic organization called City to City. Mr. Logue recognized that Boston really needed an exciting public event that promotes something as positive as reading and literature and wanted State Street to help make it happen. So we are very lucky to have State Street Corporation as our Presenting Sponsor.
What author did you most want to get involved with the festival?
There are so many amazing, talented authors right here in Boston, we had a hard time choosing.
Is there anyone you wanted to participate who wasn’t able to?
John Irving.
There’s a big focus on technology at the festival. What’s your personal take on it? Do you have an e-reader? Will there be any online or interactive component to the festival?
I have more than one e-reader. I find e-readers especially useful for travel. I like to travel light and in the past i would force myself to choose only a couple of books to put in the bag. Now I can bring ten, twenty books on the e-Reader. One just has to remember the power cord if it's a long trip!
We hope to get many of our presentations on-line, in their entirety or in part. We want to encourage people to visit our website even after the Festival. Putting presentations online is great for the authors, too, because it allows them a wider audience People who might not be familiar with their work can find out about them online.
We have fun ways for people to interact on the website, including Twitter A Classic which invites people to rewrite a classic work of fiction in 140 characters. [#bbf09 is the hashtag for the festival.]
Technology is mixed in not only with ebooks, but also with documentaries and TV—Ken Burns and Reif Larsen are participating, the film adaptations of Dennis Lehane’s books are well known, and John Hodgman got famous for being on TV as well as writing books. How do you see video and books working together in the future?
Don't forget Tim Kring. He is working on a truly transmedia book. There are lots of ways that video and books might work together to provide entertainment and enlightenment. There are lots of ways to tell a story or convey an idea. Certain stories and ideas lend themselves better to certain media. And one thing is for sure: humans will not lose their desire for a good story.
Who came up with the ideal for Writer Idol [an event where aspiring writers can bring one page of work to be judged by a panel of agents and editors.]?
I saw something intriguing on the website for the Paris Book Fair where Festival-goers were able to meet a literary agent. It sounded like Speed Dating, so I wanted to do something called Speed Pitch where aspiring writers would have three minutes to pitch an idea to an agent. The nice folks at Grub Street talked me out of it, saying it would be a zoo. They proposed Writer Idol instead, a slightly saner version.
What panel are you most excited to see?
I'll be lucky if I see any panel! From a Festival-goers perspective, I think it's going to be tough to choose! But seeing Orhan Pamuk is a must. Even I will finally sit down in a seat to listen to him!
What are some of your favorite local literary organizations?
PEN New England and Grub Street of course! All the great indie bookstores. Four Stories is a lot of fun.
Mark your calendar for the Boston Book Festival this Saturday! We'll have more Book Festival coverage later in the week.
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