Authors Books Librarians Editors Agents Publishers... #USBookShow 2023

4 days of all hits no misses of keynotes, interviews, panels, book recs, advice...

Highlights:

Day 1 Monday 5/22

an insightful and terrifying and motivational discussion of book banning as an attack on liberty with advice on combating it via local focus and the fact that 30,000 school board seats in the U.S. are opening up this fall
effective OverDrive/Libby strategies executed by savvy librarians

Day 2 Tuesday 5/23

memorable quote from Chuck D's lunch keynote conversation with Kelefa Sannen: "People listen with their eyes." Plus his STEWdio boxed set and naphic grovel play on words with graphic novel and so much more.
public relations, marketing, how not to get cancelled, redemption

Day 3 Wednesday 5/24

book recs!!!
Gloria Edim's (Well-Read Black Girl) conversation with Kim Coleman Foote about her fall release novel Coleman Hill from SJP Lit, including Sarah Jessica Parker
Wade Hudson, Just Us Books co-founder, in conversation with Carolyn P. Yoder
Zibby Books exec editor Kathleen Harris in conversation with Kathleen Harris about her journey from television screenwriter to book author
Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key in conversation with each other about "The History of Sketch Comedy"

Day 4 Thursday 5/25

more book recs!!!
editors' picks in mysteries & thrillers, picture books, literary fiction, memoir & nonfic, current affairs
Flipping Boxcars, by Cedric Kyle (aka Cedric the Entertainer)

This was an exceptional celebration and dissection of all things publishing and publishing-adjacent. So glad they recorded the sessions to make it easy to catch ones that were missed and to revisit others--at least until 6/30.

And of course, my weekly book binge options

Comments

New Arrivals Giving BRBF Vibes + BAC Issues

Even as my friends and I enjoyed a fantastic community event yesterday in and around the Bowie Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System, there was envy in my heart for all of the attendees and participants at the Black Romance Book Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Reports of issues of crowding just made me happy for the event organizers' success while they posted apologies and corrective strategies for crowd control during the last day. In the meantime, the new arrivals shelves at the closest library in the neighboring county offered a variety of books by BRBF authors. "Where the Melanated Are Celebrated" indeed. [9 books, from left to right: Positive Obsession, Communion, Big Girl Blitz (atop a bookstack), The Started Ex, Fire Sword & Sea, Leave Your Mess at Home, Archangel's Eternity, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, First Sign of Danger] Currently reading Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Mo...

Legacies of Octavia Butler & June BAC Issues

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When What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funny

Need to laugh out loud? To feel inspired? To feel seen? To feel encouraged to pursue your heart's most ambitious desires despite overwhelming odds against succeeding? Read Zarna Garg's memoir, which offers an intimate, compelling coming of age, immigrant's journey, family saga, and keen observations about humans and life as experienced by a hilarious, intrepid individual. [front cover of "Zarna Garg, This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir" showing the Statue of Liberty holding the author in her arms with the New York City skyline in the lower half of the background] This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg non-fiction memoir Ballantine Books, April 2025 Universal themes of family love and family conflict, support and abandonment, grieving as a years' long process with lulls, parenting and being parented (or not), finding your people in friendship, romance, community presented and dissected with the author's sharp wit ...

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