I went to the National Book Festival yesterday!
Based on my blog posts, I’ve been to the National Book Festival six times in the past – but I burned out on it after they moved it from the mall to the convention center, so the last time I attended was 2015. And honestly? Yesterday’s experience reminded me why I’ve given it a pass since then.
Basically, back in 2011, I had figured out three tips for making the National Book Festival a good experience. They are:
1) Purchase books you want signed ahead of time.
2) Plan your schedule.
3) Plan to get a good seat in a tent – and stay there.
Unfortunately, Tip 3 is no longer possible in the convention center – because staff empty the rooms in between speakers. So I spent more of the day in line than I did listening to speakers. And planning your schedule is fruitless if you plan back-to-back activities, because many events require an hour of waiting in line first.
However, despite all that, I did have a good time yesterday, because I kept my expectations low for how much I would do. I had one big goal: Get some books signed by Shannon Hale. I reviewed her very first book, back when that wasn’t tremendously common, and when I met her at the 2009 National Book Festival, she knew who I was! Since then, I’ve met her at various American Library Association events, and we were even Facebook friends until I got on the Newbery Committee and sadly unfriended my author friends. She’s always kind and generous, and when I saw her this time, she said, “I know you,” and gave me a hug and asked how I was doing. And it made my day.
But first, I had to do some waiting.
One thing different about getting to the National Book Festival now is that now the Metro Silver Line comes all the way out to Loudoun County. So I only have to drive 15 no-traffic minutes to get to the metro station instead of 30 stressful minutes back in 2015 – so then I usually opted for driving. But yesterday, there was an Indy race going on in DC – so all the more reason to ride the Metro.
In the station, one other person got on, toting a book bag. I asked, “National Book Festival?” She said Yes, and we got to talking. It turns out she works in the same building as I do, on the library side rather than the technical operations side. So that was a fun way to get to know her. (We each thought the other looked familiar.) And made the over-an-hour Metro ride not feel as long.
I did not get up as early as planned, (Hey, it was Saturday!) so I completely missed Shannon Hale’s 9:30 to 10:00 talk with Meg Cabot. Shannon was signing from 10:30 to 11:30, so I figured it wouldn’t even matter if I was late to that. Oh, how wrong I was!
Unfortunately, I didn’t double-check my schedule when I got there. I thought I remembered the signings were on the bottom floor, but also thought they were in Hall D. So when I went to the basement and then learned that Hall D was on the second floor, I spent a good half-hour walking around and up and down, so when I finally got in line, it was 10:30, which I thought was fantastic.
I’d brought along four books I’d purchased in advance (see tip above) – two copies of the new Princess Academy graphic novel for two of my nieces, and copies of the new, revised, Austenland and Midnight in Austenland for me. [Christmas in Austenland is coming out this Fall! I’m excited!]
What I didn’t realize was that the line I’d happily gotten toward the front of was Line G. They were on Line A when I got there. Around 11:25, they told us that she was going to stay past the 11:30 end time – but then when it got close to noon, and they were only on line C – she had to leave. They did tell us that she would be reading in the Story Time pavilion later and would then be at the Utah booth in the Road Map to Reading section.
So – it got to be noon and I had not gotten anything signed, nor attended any talks. I had met some nice people in line – and read most of the Princess Academy graphic novel. So I actually felt good about it. They at least didn’t make you crowd too much in the lines, so it had been a peaceful wait, sitting on the carpet and reading, talking with other book lovers.
But when I gave up on that line, I did want to catch an author talk, so I found Room 202 for “Peace Is Anywhere (Even Out of Time and Space)” with Elana K. Arnold and Amber McBride. I was twenty minutes early for the 12:30 session, and got a good seat.
Some gems from their discussion, which included questions about their recent books Holloway and The Leaving Room:
EKA: One of the greatest pleasures of reading is inferring. Don’t overdo it on telling your readers.
Her new book, Holloway, is a portal fantasy, and she chose rules to follow. All the characters her protagonist meets in 1946 France are actual inmates and doctors from the insane asylum there.
You get one big ask of your readers, and all the rest has to follow from that.
Her process is Art, then Craft, then Business. Thinking about the effect on the reader is, for her, a Craft question.
Your creative mind is like a friendly dog. You need to learn to be gentle and receptive when your creative mind brings you ideas. If you turn it away, it will stop bringing things.
AM: You must trust yourself enough to fix something after you make it. She writes a quick first draft to shut off the inner critic.
EKA: Don’t compare your ideas to finished books.
AM: When you write your first book, you’re teaching yourself to write a book. It’s a process of learning and growing.
Her characters are allowed to be messy.
EKA: Books are great places to practice consent. If you can’t handle the content in a book, close the book.
We conflate ignorance with innocence. She says in her life, “My actual innocence would have been more preserved if I hadn’t been so ignorant.”
AM: In talking about romance in their books, they talked about intimacy and friendship. That moment when the other person first sees you is magical.
EKA: She loves middle age! We talk about the journey from Maid to Mother to Crone, but we’re missing an important step: The Harvest Queen! The Harvest Queen has bounty and energy to give.
[The person sitting next to me and I agreed that we are absolutely adopting the title of Harvest Queen.]
Her YA books are about sex, death, and God. She’s constantly grateful to be alive.
AM: We should be talking about death more. Her vision of The Leaving Room includes the hope that when young people die, they land in a safe place.
That session ended at 1:30. Shannon was going to be reading Kittycorn upstairs in Hall B from 1:15 to 1:45, so I headed upstairs.
I stopped to talk with some friends at the Capitol Choices booth – and it was 1:45 by the time I found the Story Time plaza, no sign of Shannon. So I looked for the Utah booth and found it. They had a hand-written sign that Shannon Hale would be there at 2:15 – so I waited for this to happen, while giving space to families who were trying to get stamps from all fifty states. The person in front of me in the original line showed up soon after me, so we waited together – and were at the front of the line when Shannon Hale did, in fact, sit down to sign books.
And yes, when she saw me, she recognized me right away, gave me a hug, and asked how I was doing. I see why her line was so long, because she took her time talking with me. I got to tell her I’ve got a whole page on my website of reviews of her books. It made my day, and was worth all the waiting!
By then it was almost 2:30. I had something I was interested in at 3:30, so I naively thought I’d catch what was going on in the Main Stage (starting at 2:30) in the meantime. Well, I followed signs for the Main Stage, and as the line got longer and longer, I realized that I was in a line to see Martin Scorcese at 4:00. So I ducked out of line, but decided I’d attend one more session. I made my way to room 146 (thinking maybe I could catch the 1:45 session in Room 145, but No).
My final session of the day was Ron Charles interviewing Sasha Waters about the documentary she made about poet Mary Oliver. They showed a fairly long clip of the documentary, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World,” and it was lovely. Made me want to get a book of Mary Oliver’s poems.
Some things I learned from the discussion:
The Library of Congress was gifted a collection of her papers, curated by Mary Oliver herself. She had worked on the papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay, so had thought about legacy.
Mary Oliver was a nature poet who didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a nature poet. She didn’t like categories of any kind.
Mary was sending out work from a young age but didn’t get public readings until 1979. She was patient. Humble, but committed to her work. She was an outsider not trying to get on the inside.
Her popularity grew during the pandemic when young people discovered her work – a small section of the documentary looked at TikTok readings of her poetry.
They had a display of all 26 National Book Festival posters. These are from three of the years I attended:
So – that was my day at the National Book Festival. I only attended two sessions, and I spent lots of time in line, but I got a hug from Shannon Hale!
And really, I was okay with that. I had forgotten how excessively crowded it is, but by taking the Metro instead of driving in, I didn’t feel tense about it. Maybe it helped that I started by sitting down (in line) and reading a graphic novel! But the whole thing was free, I saw some cool things, and didn’t feel obligated to maximize my time. There were some awesome speakers in the evening – I’d had my eye on Jenny Lawson, and most other people I talked with were looking forward to Cynthia Erivo – but I decided I’d had a long enough day. And eventually, the Library of Congress is going to have most of the sessions on their website. I got on the metro at 5:00 pm, and arrived at my station at 6:00 pm.
And I’m so happy with my signed books!