Miami Book Fair 2009

Now in it's 26th year, The Miami Book Fair is taking place this weekend in downtown Miami. Mitchell Kaplan, owner and founder of the renowned Books & Books in Coral Gables, and co-founder of the Miami Book Fair, credits the growth of Miami's literary community to this annual event.

I attended the Fair on Friday, and as always there was the sense of carnival in the air. However, it was clear to me that there were far fewer exhibitors this year, and most of the exhibitors seemed to be bookstores or used bookstores. Many of the publishers I'd seen in the past were missing.

However, I had a nice chat with the folks at Pineapple Press and I am ever hopeful that one day I will get to work with them. As I usually do each year, I walked away from their stand with a STACK of books - Birds of Florida, The Storm Gourmet (so we can figure out what to eat in a hurricane), and River of Grass by Florida author and environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

When I discovered that Ms. Douglas went to Wellesley, as I did, and apparently lived to be 108, I also bought her autobiography Voice of the River. How does someone live to be 108? Having a consuming passion helps - Douglas was a committed environmentalist and passionate about the Florida Everglades. She also appears to have been somewhat of a crank, was single most of her life, refused to learn to drive, and lived with a passel of cats!

I enjoyed chatting with the publisher of Akashic Books about their motto "reverse gentrification of the literary world" which to me sounded like just another way of saying everyone in publishing is losing their jobs. We also discussed their Noir series and I ended up with copies of Miami Noir and New York Noir. I got the low down on the latest styles in bible design from one of the several Christian publishers/distributors at the fair.

Today I am packing, and then it's off to Barcelona, where Imago's European printing partner is located, for a press check with designer David Skolkin.