NYC Teen Author Festival Recap

The 2011 NYC Teen Author Festival has come and gone. So now it's time for a grand recap of most of the week. I was able to go to all the days of the Festival except for the library readings on Thursday and the symposium on Friday (as I was hard at work at my internship). And here's what went down:

Day 1

Finding Voice, Giving Voice: Speaking Up for Characters panel

This panel consisted of authors Cathleen Bell, Jen Calonita, Cecil Castellucci, Brent Crawford, Elizabeth Eulberg, Brian James, Kekla Magoon, Melina Marchetta, and Marie Rutkoski, moderated by the incredibly awesome David Levithan.




The main highlight of the evening was the admission that most authors hear voices. Er, I mean, most authors hear the voices of their characters (after all, this panel was all about voice and characters!).

Day 2

YA Reader's Theater

Tuesday's event was a real treat. A fantastic group of authors (Holly Black, Judy Blundell, Gayle Forman, and Eliot Schrefer/E. Archer) along with David Levithan read aloud from one of their books.

Holly Black, Judy Blundell, Gayle Forman, and Eliot Schrefer

The only catch was that each member of the Reader's Theater had to play a different role in each story. I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job of explaining it, so see the video below for an example.

Mitali from Alley of Books and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, and we were also fortunate to meet the lovely blogger behind Midnyte Reader.

Day 3

Who's a Libba Bray fan? I certainly am. Way back when in November, I spotted Libba in the audience of a signing I attended in Brooklyn but was too awkward/shy to go up to her. So when I found out that Tiger Beat would be performing, I knew I would not miss the chance to see Libba and the rest of the band (Natalie Standiford, Daniel Ehrenhaft, and Barnabas Miller) perform, broken elbows and all.

And I have to say that Tiger Beat was pretty darn good. The musical performances were intermeshed with some (mostly) musically related readings from Jon Skovron, Daniel Ehrenhaft, Rita Williams-Garcia, Philana Marie Boles, Jeri Smith-Ready, Barnabas Miller, and of course, Libba Bray. Oh, and Libba read from the forthcoming Beauty Queens, and if you didn't know this already, it's pretty darn hilarious.




It was really nice getting to see Natalie Standiford as well as running into Michael Northrop. But it was also really great getting introduced to Libba Bray (eek! a bit of a fangirl moment), Jeri-Smith Ready, and Marianna Baer, author of the upcoming novel Frost.

and now to skip ahead to...

Day 6

Saturday Symposium

I was only able to attend the first three panels on Saturday, but I still had a lot of fun hanging out with Mitali from Alley of Books and Kelsey from The Book Scout. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to talk with or meet anyone because I had to leave early, but I still managed to wave at Natalie Standiford and Michael Northrop as well as chat briefly with Lisa McMann, who kinda-sorta remembers me from her signing three years ago with Cassandra Clare in California.




I found all of the panels pretty stimulating. The first panel consisted of Kim Harrington, Lisa McMann, Maggie Stiefvater, and Robin Wasserman, moderated by David Levithan. The second included Melissa Kantor, Melina Marchetta, Alyssa Sheinmel, Natalie Standiford, and Danette Vigilante, moderated by Jack Martin, who is the YA programming specialist for the NYPL. The last panel I got to see had Matt de la Peña, Ellen Hopkins, Torrey Maldonado, Michael Northrop, and Leila Sales and was moderated by Barry Lyga.

Day 7

Books of Wonder signing

The final day of the festival was the most hectic by far. I met up beforehand with Mitali from Alley of Books and Kelsey from The Book Scout so we could prepare ourselves for the madness. I won't list all the authors who were there, because that will just take up too much space on the page, but I will try to catch all the highlights.

I got books signed, for both myself and friends, by Maryrose Wood, Maggie Stiefvater, Kieran Scott (also Kate Brian), Leila Sales (thanks to Kelsey who gave me her ARC), Léna Roy, Michael Northrop, Lisa McMann, Kimberly Marcus, Melina Marchetta, E. Lockhart, Melissa Kantor, Gwendolyn Heasley, Kim Harrington, Helen Ellis, Eireann Corrigan, and Judy Blundell. In addition to all those authors, I got to chat with Natalie Standiford, Suzanne Weyn, Marie Rutkoski, Terra Elan McVoy (and her editor!), Sarah Darer Littman, Carla Jablonski, Elizabeth Eulberg, and Sarah Beth Durst, as well as Gwendolyn's publicist Sarah Burningham. I was amazed by how many of the authors recognized me from having seen me before at their signings or knew me from friending them on Facebook.




Not many good quality pictures were taken (except for that of me and the wonderful Léna Roy) because I was too busy trying to get all my books signed amidst all the craziness!