Tayari's Blog: Report From The Road: Chicago
Posted by TayariJones on June 11, 2005 11:12 PM
Filed under
Book Tour
In all honesty, I'll have to say that Chicago wasn't really the highlight of my book tour. It hurt my feelings a little bit. Afterall I live in Illinois now.. I am even gung-ho about my new state. I changed the tags on my car! I left my OBAMA sign in my yard until it started to fall apart in mid-Feb.
But the snub of a certain bookstore aside, some really good things happened in the Windy City.
One: I took Amtrak from Champaign to Chi. Trains rock. No security drama and at no point are you require to turn off your iPod.
Two: I got to spend time with poet and visual artist, Toni Asante Lightfoot. She's a lovely woman and even more lovely with her short hair. She introduced me to Tracie Hall who is triple cool to hang with and also does good work at the ALA.
Three: I went to Printer's Row book festival where I got to meet two sisters I have been emailing with: Xenia and Shamontiel. I love meeting people in person after "meeting" them in cyberspace!
Four: More notable sighting at Printer's Row: Porter "Drives Like a Dream" Shreve, Elizabeth Flock, Adrienne Miller, and Meg Wolitzer. Quite a line up.
Five: Living and learning is always a good thing. Beats the heck out of the alternative.
Good night!
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There are 4 comments on "Report From The Road: Chicago". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.
Comment #1, by XENIA
Tayari,
It was great meeting you in person, too. Sorry your tour in Chicago wasn't so great. I noticed that there weren't many authors of color in the line-up at Printer's Row & that was disappointing. I'm beginning to think Chicago isn't the great literary community it professes to be (Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg, Studs Terkel). So far, none of the bookstores here have committed to a book reading/signing, only in-store stock signings. My first book event is scheduled in Detroit(!); I am somewhat disappointed but also relieved since I wasn't looking forward to reading in public. Everyone seems to be interested only in celebrity book signings these days (sigh).
Hope the rest of your tour goes better.
X
June 12, 2005 08:42 PM
Comment #2, by R. Fulton
I am sorry that your tour in Chicago was not up to your expectation. There are quite a few book clubs in Chicago and I am sure if they were award of your presence in Chicago they would have come out. Most of the time Printers row is not known for African-American authors and in particular not fictions.
I belong to a book club called "You Go Girl" and we have approximately 26 members and access to many other readers. We hold our meeting at a book store in Oak Park and would love to have you come for a reading and signing when you return to Illinois. We are a non-profit organization and do not pay authors for signings but we would live to have you.
Some of us (approx. 8 members) will see you in Atlanta at the National Book Club Conference in April.
Please visit our website and check us out.
June 18, 2005 05:29 PM
Comment #3, by R. Fulton
Correction to my comment. The National book Club Conference is in August 2005.
June 19, 2005 03:37 PM
Comment #4, by Toni Asante Lightfoot
Hey Tayari,
Thanks for the shout out. You are the best. I have two of the young ladies I mentor reading "The Untelling". They are loving it and hopefully we can all hook up and begin changing the world. What, you think that's a lot to ask?
July 10, 2005 08:20 PM