Readings & Talks

posted by Pearl Abraham

Up there at the B&N podium, looking out at an audience of, largely, friends and family who already know the book, I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed by it all and wondered why I, why any of us writers, do this. And though I am very grateful for friends who do show up, especially friends who have attended more than one reading, still, if I could look into the future, that is, if I were psychic, I’d hope to see that bookstore readings, meetings with the author, staged Q&A’s, or whatever variation these public events come in, will become a thing of the ridiculous past, and that books not authors will make their way to individual readers who will once again read in privacy and solitude, without the author’s spoken voice in their ears.

The week is drawing to a close and with it my postings for Beatrice. It has been fun, as always. And now, with deadlines for writer’s grants, awards, and fellowships looming, with the New Yorker festival gathering steam, and the academic semester already in full swing, not much fiction will be written in the next week or so, which should mean that the muses will be more accessible than usual. Therefore, I turn back to my novel-in-progress and hope to find wings.

22 September 2005 | uncategorized |