The Hungry Muse

January 9, 2011

Roy Blount, Jr.

At the Banana Cafe



The Hungry Muse

The 29th annual Key West Literary Seminar kicked off this week with the first of two sessions dedicated to exploring the role of food in literature. This year’s seminar, “The Hungry Muse, An Exploration of Food in Literature”, brought many of the nation’s finest writers to the island. Some might be considered specifically food writers, while others might have some significant work that involves food, but each brought insight into the nature of how food imbues just about every aspect of our lives and their writing.

Billy Collins

Judith Jones

Dan, Molly & Miles

Session one welcomed Diana Abu-Jaber, Roy Blount Jr., Frank Bruni, Billy Collins, Jason Epstein, Jonathan Gold, Darra Goldstein, Madhur Jaffrey, Judith Jones, Harry Mathews, Molly O’Neill, Julia Reed, Ruth Reichl, and Calvin Trillin.



Ruth Reichl & Diana Abu-Jaber

Diana & Ruth

The interesting mix and variety of types and styles of writing made for some fascinating conversation that was enhanced by the diversity that included memoirists, poets, novelists, journalists, editors and critics all who examine food as part of their work. Not meant to be a conference about “cookbooks”, the seminar hoped to get in to much greater depth on the nature of food (and drink).

Madhur Jaffrey & Darra Goldstein

Nancy, Jonathan Gold, Diana Abu-Jaber & Mark

This year the program chair was our friend Nancy Klingener, who kicked off the first full day of session 1 with an impassioned introduction which at once welcomed the panelists and guests and introduced them to our island community in a beautiful speech. Nancy writes a literary blog (linked below) where you can get her take on the action. I have also posted a link below to the official KWLS blog “Littoral” by the talented Arlo Haskell. Both of those sites offer better insight than I possibly could into the seminar and are well worth a look for those interested in the meat of what happened.

Nancy Klingener

Kerry, Madhur & Sanford


For me the first day was a welcome feast of literary laughs courtesy of readings by Billy Collins and Roy Blount, Jr. and delightful panel discussions and readings. One of the highlights for me was a wonderful discussion between the lovely, intelligent and funny pair of Diana Abu-Jaber and Ruth Reichl. I also enjoyed the presentation by the renowned editor Judith Jones, which had already been posted on the Littoral site for your listening pleasure.

Judith Jones, Judith Miller & Jacob Epstein

Roy Blount, Jr.

The day passed by far too quickly and the evening was busy as well. It began with a food related art exhibit at the Lucky Street Gallery followed by a new addition to the seminar, “The Flavors of Key West”, which replaced the traditional Friday night dinner.



Ilana & Kathy

The Flavors of Key West involved seven of the finest restaurants in Key West closing down for the night and opening exclusively for KWLS participants who had signed up in advance. The restaurants included, The Café Marquesa, Louie’s Backyard, Azur, Antonia’s and The Café among others. Kathy & I had reservations at the Banana Café where we joined a sold out group in enjoying an amazing 8 course, 4 hour dining extravaganza.





The restaurant chefs each created their own special menus and most went completely over the top. It was an incredible experience and pretty much a complete success. The only downside is that it cut in to the time we got to spend at the wonderful, eclectic Friday evening party at the rooftop apartment of Key West icon David Wolkowsky. By the time I arrived it was pretty late and the party was in its final throes. But after a spectacular first day, it hardly mattered at all.



Ian

KWLS Blog

Bone Island Books

Preparations

January 8, 2011

Ruth Reichl





Preparations

The start of the year is a very, very busy time for me as the year kicks off each year with the annual installment of the Key West Literary Seminar on the first week-end of the year. This year marks the second year that I have spent on the board and my second round of serving as the volunteer coordinator. You would think that it would be easier the second time around, and it a way it was, but unlike last year when there was only a single session, there are two sessions on consecutive weeks this year.

Margaret & Christopher

Cathy, Damon & Leah

Nan & Arlo

Having two sessions means twice the work organizing and almost two times as many volunteers (though many of them work shifts on each session). It is mostly tedious and time consuming, but the fact is that we have a huge number of wonderful, worthy volunteers who make my job fairly easy.

Kathy, Michael, Janos & Linda

Janos & Linda

The week before the start of this year’s seminar, Kathy & I had some very special visitors to our island, who are dear friends of my mother Marta, Linda & Janos Horvath. The couple was visiting Key West for the first time from their home in Budapest where Janos serves as a member of the Hungarian Parliament. They joined us for dinner at Louie’s Backyard where they shared stories of their fascinating lives. It was a little intimidating hosting such distinguished guests, but they were as kind and charming as can be. We really wished that we had more time to have spent with them, but the myriad of tasks associated with seminar preparations kept us from that pleasure. Hopefully we will get a chance to see them in Budapest at some point.







Speaking of distinguished guests, I had the pleasure of picking up the keynote speaker for this year’s seminar, Ruth Reichl and her husband Michael at the airport and delivering them to their hotel and later to the board/panelist dinner at the lovely home of Jean Carper on Wednesday evening. Ruth is a noted food writer and served as editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine for many years. The opening party was well-attended and enjoyable and the Key West weather was just about perfect.

Rafael

Ruth Reichl

David, Curt & Ian



Thursday morning, I was at the San Carlos along with a group of volunteers led by my amazing friends Margaret, Doug and Ilana, the latter pair flying all the way from Minneapolis for the weekend just to volunteer for the seminar. It was a busy day of registrants and panelists arriving in advance of the evening’s activity.

Ilana & Doug



The topic of the seminar this year is “The Hungry Muse, An Exploration of Food in Literature” and Ruth Reichl kicked the event off by delivering the keynote, John Hersey Memorial Address at the San Carlos on Thursday evening. It was a beautiful and well received address, followed by the traditional reception at the Audubon House.