In Spite of Rain, Crowds at 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival

Book lovers came out in the rain yesterday for the fifth annual Brooklyn Book Festival at Brooklyn Borough Hall and environs. There were plenty of opportunities to see your favorite authors -- more than 200 writers presented on panels, did readings and signed books (luckily, many events were inside).

Just a few examples: Salman Rushdie spoke with  novelist, poet and dancer Tishani Doshi about her new novel The Pleasure Seekers; Nobel Prize–winner Paul Krugman and economist Robin Wells spoke about the economy with Jeff Madrick and Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books. Novelist Helen Simonson discussed her first book (a hit) Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, while Paul Auster conversed with John Ashbery, this year’s 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival BoBi Award winner.

 Children stayed dry and comfy under the tent in the Target Children's Area as children's book authors read to them -- some brought giant-sized books that even kids in the back could see. Teens and young adults had their own "Youth Stoop" where they could hear contemporary writers like Newbery Award winner Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me).

Piper Kerman (Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison), Darin Strauss (Half a Life), Kathryn Harrison (The Kiss), and Nelson George (City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success), spoke with Elizabeth Wurtzel (Prozac Nation) as part of the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe.

Saint Francis College, one of the major venues, was packed and books were flying off the tables. Many of the events were "sold out" in spite of the rain.

Once again, the Brooklyn Book Festival was both great fun and a great literary event.

Past Book Festival posts here.

Photos by MK Metz

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