Reading Report from Open Books
Me with John and Christine of Open Books before the reading…Super-awesome girls at the reading – aren’t they a sexy bunch? (Pictured: Carol Levin, Joannie Stangeland, Lana Ayers, Kathleen Flenniken, Annette Spaulding-Convy, Kelli Russell Agodon, Jeannine Hall Gailey in sequins)
Although I had to navigate a variety of almost-disasters – a windstorm knocked out power to a lot of Seattle, then knocked a gigantic-bed-sized patio umbrella from the top of our apartment building into our parking space three stories below – where we had fortunately not parked our car, by some strange luck – Obama’s visit to Seattle snarled traffic all over town (and he didn’t even stop by Open Books! The shame!) – traffic accidents shut down two of the major highways and bridges, including the bridges that allow us over the water to Seattle – and so, after an hour and ten minutes in traffic for the usually twenty minute drive to Open Books, we finally arrived. A lovely if modest crowd also braved the windstorm and crazed traffic, we started just slightly late, and Glenn even successfully videotaped the whole thing (we’ll post it on YouTube.) I even got some gorgeous flowers a friend had delivered to the store – what a sweetie! – and got to take another friend out for birthday gelato afterward when the sun came out. So, all’s well that ends well.
Open Books continues to be a delightful, friendly place to read. So glad it’s where my first Seattle reading was held! (And you can still stop in and get your copy of She Returns to the Floating World…) Now to crash into bed…
Update: The whole reading is now available on YouTube, so you can see it yourself!
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
