Whole mess of things

March 9th, 2007

1. I didn’t win a National Book Critics Circle Award last night. Daniel Mendesohn won in the autobiography category for his memoir about his relatives who were killed in the Holocaust, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Awards are funny things. I hate getting sucked into caring about them, but it’s hard not to on some level. Still, I don’t really mind losing so much. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true: it was a great honor just to be nominated. Any lingering disappointment was dissipated at dinner later, when I shook hands with the very august Taylor Branch, who also didn’t win. The third book in his trilogy about Martin Luther King, At Canaan’s Edge, had been nominated in the biography category. The high point of the evening for me was John Leonard’s lovely insights into the art of criticism as he accepted a lifetime achievement award. I won’t go on an on about who won what. If you care, you can look here.

2. I don’t mean to be tiresome, but speaking of awards, I just found out Fun Home has been nominated for a Lambda Book Award.

3. Here’s an interview I did with Bookslut, while I was at the Comic Con last week.

4. Here’s a picture of me at the NBCC reading on Wednesday night. Thanks to Lori McFadden of the Strand Bookstore for sending it to me. Oh, and thanks to cybercita for coming to the reading! Isn’t it cool seeing that giant drawing of my dad looming behind me?

5. I missed Town Meeting Day in Vermont because I’ve been away from home for a long time. But I just learned that nearly thirty towns passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for misleading the country into war.

6. In the past two weeks I attended four panels at the New York Comic Con, visited Franklin and Marshall College to talk about my work, spent a week with my mom, then returned to NYC for this awards hoopla. Monday I go to Middlebury College, and Tuesday I fly to Florida for three days to do a bunch of classes and things at Miami Dade College. Somehow between this morning and Sunday night I have to drive home to VT, do my laundry, pack it up again, and, oh–produce two comic strips. I wonder how that’s going to happen.

National Book Critics Circle Awards

March 6th, 2007

I’m gonna be in NYC Wednesday March 7 and Thursday March 8 because Fun Home is nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. There’s a reading of all the finalists Wednesday evening at 6pm at The New School University, Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th St. There’ll be some pretty fancy people there. A real literary smorgasbord. You should come! It’s free and open to the public.

Then on Thursday the 8th, the award ceremony happens. That also appears to be free and open to the public, and also happens at 6pm at Tishman Auditorium. Though it probably won’t be as interesting as the reading.

DTWOF episode #505

March 5th, 2007

Sorry I haven’t been posting. I’ve been really crazed.

Read the rest of this entry »

ComicCon Review

March 4th, 2007

Katie here. 

Here’s a short take on one of the panels Alison participated in at NY ComicCon from blogger Ron Hogan.  For the record, DTWOF does not endorse any particular blogger or received kickbacks in exchange for blogger publicity. For the purposes of this forum, it’s a piece that gives some background about conferences like NYCC while briefly addressing comics and the publishing industry as well as the potential removal of Fun Home from a Missouri library. 

Folks in Florida and thereabouts will be interested to know that Alison will appear in Ft. Lauderdale on March 13th.  Details on the Appearances page.