After Saturday’s panels on politics, pop culture, poetry, and songwriting, led by a slew of notable writers, poets and songwriters (Kurt Andersen, Daniel Radosh, Bill Zimmerman, Lynn Harris, Sonia Sanchez, Joan Larkin, Alix Olson, John Murillo, Johanna Hall, John Sebastian, Robbie Dupree, Jonell Mosser), the keynote speaker for evening — the unpredictable memoirist Augusten Burroughs — surprised a full house with straight, if not just a little wacky, talk about surviving the unsurvivable. His new book, This Is How: Help for the Self (Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike), addresses all of the above in a straightforward manner. Likewise, Burroughs went back and forth with host Jonathan Van Meter in a most declarative approach to presenting the book’s material. Who would have guessed that Burroughs had such a contemplative nature, and the desire to share his own pithy observations on the pathway to sanity? In a bookselling coup, Jackie Kellachan of Golden Notebook managed to finagle boxes of the not-yet-released book from the publisher. And a gracious Burroughs signed copies for his fans late into the evening.
Sunday morning, a panel of agents and publishers laid out the hard, cold facts about the tricky business of book publishing these days. Emphasizing ways to build a platform to help market your own work, including aspects of self-publishing vs. traditional distribution channels, Lynn Johnston, Bruce McPherson, and David Wilk described their work as being “matchmakers” who can only attempt to keep one step ahead of the trends themselves. In the end, writing must be one’s passion — and just maybe wild success will follow. Meanwhile, MacArthur Foundation Fellow Joan Snyder and Marilyn Symmes held forth in a discussion on Snyder’s incisive use of text in her paintings. Symmes, curator for Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, has exhibited the prolific painters work and has said, “Joan’s art is autobiographical and serves as a visual diary.”
Two afternoon panels offered insight into writing funny and writing memoir. In The Serious Business of Being Funny, Shalom Auslander, Greg Olear, and Elisa Albert talked about how outrage and sadness figure into a narrative that might end up being humorous. None of the writers could remember noticing when humor occurred to them as a way to communicate. Auslander remarked that the panel title should have been titled “The Funny Business of Being Serious,” because looking into the abyss and laughing about it seems a better fit. Martha Frankel, Ann Hood, Susan Richards, and Mark Whitaker (Managing Editor at CNN), discussed how writing memoir is telling your own truth, while recognizing that readers will bring their own interpretations to the work. Probing into the difficult areas in life, a memoirist creates the condition for others to relate, and she gives voice to universal feelings.
The Festival closed Sunday night on a musical note with Fred Gillen Jr. and Matt Turk performing at the Kleinert/James. Breakfasts each morning at Joshua’s Café with Bar Scott, Abigail Thomas, Carey Harrison, and Janus Adams, and dinners at Oriole9 with favorite authors gave Festival goers the chance to get close and personal with their literary heroes and heroines.
Can’t wait for the 4th Annual WWF to roll around.++
