Northwest Bookfest 2001
by The Editor, Rebecca Brown

On a dry October weekend I headed east on the bus lines across the Olympic Peninsula, across the Hood Canal Bridge & onto a Washington State Ferry to the Emerald City to “where the curious converge” according to The Seattle Times which ran a huge central booth. I was certainly one of the curious!

At the Seventh Annual Northwest Bookfest in the Safeco Stadium Exhibition Center there were Author Presentations all day long, notables with bestsellers as well as novices old & young, self-published & PODders(Print on Demand authors). Everywhere there were Book Signings, Storytellers & Soapbox Stages, Illustrators & Literary Presenters. It was like a farmers' market for readers & there was even a fertile delta of Gardening publishing booths.

I chanced upon a Cooking Stage which made me drool until my son & daughter-in-law found me & whisked me away to a concession stand for refueling while listening to poetry in action -- lively, angry, funny & melodic.

The Friends of Seattle Libraries had a smorgasbord of cast off goodies & there was a big booth of Bookfest Memorabilia at affordable prices. Naturally I bought a book bag for my foraging.

At the Mother Tongue Stage you could hear the Tower of Babel in action from all over America as well as around the Globe & at the Word(Of Mouth)Cafe you were gobbled up by hiphopness.

Then I happened upon Laura Fine-Morrison at www.GambiaHELP.org. She was willing to share ideas about how I, far out in the rainforest of the Pacific Northwest with no excess of cash, could possibly help village girls living along a river in Africa. Do visit their site & see how you can help rural girls read, write & tell their stories. GambiaHELP provides books & computers, educational opportunities, seed money & human resources to communities in need as they build a sustainable economy & environment. The Library Project distributes over 25,000 books to 55 schools & resource centers along that river's rural reaches.

What Laura & I came up with was a way to encourage the girls there to write essays about their rural lives which I will post to our site. The trouble is they're not yet wired to the Web so everything will have to be done through the mail. What I want to ask of you, dear Readers, is to crawl into your attic, basement & closet & find that portable typewriter you discarded when you bought you first word processor/pc. Dust it off -- make sure it works & then buy a couple of reams of typing paper, a folder of carbon paper(if you can still find some!) & erasers, ribbons & mailing envelopes -- box it all up & then email - LauraFM@Home.com about how to ship it to her for when she makes her next trip to The Gambia.

I stopped at the National Adult Literacy booth & thought about ways to encourage reading & strolled over to the Younger Writers & Readers Area & watched the literate young at play. Then I found a whole section of Book Arts Exhibitions where the thrill of actually making paper www.canoystudio.com & real books could be enjoyed as too Paper Crafts, Kites & Gift-Wrapping.

C. J. Macgenn of The One-Legged Cricket, was on the panel for E Publishing: What New Authors Need to Know Moderated by Ethan Casey, co-founder & editor-in-chief of Blue Ear: Global Writing Worth Reading, an electronic publishing company & contributes to Digital Publishers & Content Spotlight www.blueear.com.

Other authors on this panel were: Matt Briggs of The Remains of River Names published by www.blackheronpress.com; Jim Monroe of Angry Young Spaceman published in the US by Four Walls Eight Windows who has an alarmingly engaging website: www.NoMediaKings.org. & Pete Rizzolo, a retired family physician, who has published This Thing Called Love.

C.J. at www.oneleggedcricket.com gave RebeccasReads a good plug & at the close of the discussion I was mobbed by people coming up for my flyer. I found this panel the most meaningful because I am on the edge of publishing my first book. She also handed me a fine, signed copy of her lovely allegory. I was impressed by all the authors' stories of how they got published & I left with much to think about & explore!

I want to introduce you to Kim Pearson of Primary Sources - storykim@home.com -- “a storytelling resource.” Kim's books are unique & fascinating because...“We all have stories that need to be told” & she will help you tell your story(or your grandparents' or parents') & then she will beautifully print & bind them for you to offer as gifts. She is an accomplished interviewer, storyteller & teacher. She also gave me a copy of her Eating Mythos Soup: poemstories for Laura which I will be reviewing shortly. It is a feast of visions, passion & power.

Then I stumbled upon www.goodfellowpress.com & Polly Blankenship whose Howl at the Moon I will shortly be reviewing. Polly introduced me to Pamela Goodfellow, editor extraordinaire & supplier of such services as editing, weekend workshops, ongoing & private lessons & a speakers bureau. The books she prints are hardcover & beautifully presented & she offered me a handful for review.

Two books drew me to www.educarepress.com & after an earnest talk with Deborah Odell, I left laden with Terra Incognita: The True Story of How America Got Its Name by Rodney Broome & Pagan Dances of Caherbarnagh by Bridget Horan Mahony. Their catalog covers an astonishing array of thoughts.

www.TimeBridges.com has a thrilling book: India Treasures of legends & stories which I will be reviewing soon.
www.74thstreet.com are notable for publishing reader-friendly editions of Shakespeare's works complete with awesome illustrations & eminently readable versions of The Bard's plays.
www.osorail.com -- is a curious publishing group devoted to accurate information about early logging practices & industrial railroads - I live in timber farms -- it matters to me!

Richard Gold of www.pongopublishing.org -- is a dedicated & driven man who counsels youths to cast their grim & tragic young lives into poetry, eking solace & healing from telling their stories.

Marlene Howard publishes Media Weavers a newspaper of “news & reviews for the community of the printed word” out of Portland, Oregon & is enthusiastically promoting David Matheson's Red Thunder -- a portrait of the Coeur d'Alene tribe's traditions. (email: spudhow@alveus.com)
www.allforkidsbooks.com has a glorious array of mouth-watering books for the young & deserved a long browse. & www.booksense.com.
www.spirituality.com for comfort in crisis
www.open-spaces.com a quarterly magazine on issues vital to the Northwest.
www.martingale-pub.com for quilting & patchwork calendars & “America's Best-Loved Craft & Hobby Books™”
pathfinderpress@compuserve.com for controversial & thoughtful books in many languages about many subjects that bother us.
www.fulcrum-resources.com -- “Books from the West...Books for the World” -- amazing catalog on travel, gardening, cultures & more!
www.washington.edu/uwpress -- featuring Stephen J. Pyne's Cycle of Fire -- The Woven Coverlets of Norway; Plains Indian Rock Art; Kimono: Fashioning Culture; The Boys of Boise & more, more, more!
www.mwynhad.com -- “books for friends, books by friends.” In the liquid language of Welsh, mwynhad means pleasure or enjoyment -- the offerings here are precisely that.
www.eastwestbookshop.com -- Ah! A quiet oasis amid the hubbub! Enchanting, soothing & satisfying!
www.sealpress.com -- women's words wielded with wisdom & wit!
www.AncientRiver.com -- featured The Blissmaker by Royce Richardson -- an awesome merging of text, illustration & music.
www.pbstudio.com -- memoirs, poems, fiction & more!
www.ishkbooks.com -- Octagon Press issues wonderful books of Sufi, Islamic & Oriental philosophy & stories for adults & children alike.

Then I found Zafar Ibrahim's booth for www.beachreader.com. He showed me how his freestanding portable book tables, easels & holders work. There are times when I want to stand while I read & Zafar's Deluxe BeachReader™ is perfect.

I did stop at the Amazon.Com & chatted with a quartet of the tallest men & women in the place. I even visited Barnes & Noble's booth to check out the competition!

I urge you, Dear Readers, to enjoy all the sites I've brought back for you from the Northwest Bookfest 2001 & please remember to let them know who sent you &, in the upcoming gift-giving season, buy your books & gifts at Amazon.Com by clicking through from our site, thus helping support RebeccasReads.com.

Rebecca