Jun 5, 2009

Jewish Book Council "Meet the Authors"

I recently returned from the Jewish Book Council Conference "Meet the Authors" event in New York City. What a blast! The MTA event happens over three nights--each night 60 authors who either are Jewish or have a book with a Jewish theme (or a combo) give two-minute pitches about their books and presentations to program directors.

It's kind of like American Idol meets Speed Dating.

By virtue of my lovely married name, I had the priveledge of going dead last on my night. (In a shout-out to all my horse friends, it was kind of like going last at the Medal or Maclay Finals.)

All I can say is thank god Jews are funny! I laughed out loud many times during the event and the two plus hours of pitching went by pretty fast. Being married to a WASP, I can only imagine how deadly this event would have been if it had been the Protestant Book Council.

More than anything I came away from the event overwhelmed and impressed by how many amazing books and authors there are out there. Here are a few in particular that caught my eye:

Andrew Blauner, BROTHERS
Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, MY LITTLE RED BOOK
Steve Luxenberg, ANNIE'S GHOSTS
Brooks Mendell, BEAVERBALL, A WINNING SEASON WITH THE MIT BASEBALL TEAM

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kim,

    Thanks for the shoutout on my book, Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret. For all of Kim's fans, I can confirm that she did go dead last at the Jewish Book Council audition, and when she began by saying how dumb she felt for taking her husband's last name (with its initial letter "W") when her maiden name (with its initial letter "A") would have landed her at the front of the line, everyone in the crowd laughed. What a great line.

    Steve Luxenberg, author of Annie's Ghosts (steveluxenberg.com)

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