“All the sweet green icing flowing down…”

January 9, 2012

Colson Whitehead

Bob Graham with Miles & Alan

Late night bull riding.

“All the sweet green icing flowing down…”

There was a moment during the Key West Literary Seminar during Colson Whitehead’s stunningly funny presentation where he held up a small recording device to offer an audio assist to illustrate a point he was making about the difficulty of becoming a writer and played a few minutes of the Donna Summer version of the song “MacArthur Park”. His comparison of rejected manuscripts to the lyrics, “Someone left my cake out in the rain, I don’t think that I can take it because it took so long to bake it and I’ll never have that recipe again,” was spot on and as hilarious as any stand-up routine.





It was among the many highlights of the second full day of the seminar and proved once again that the terrifying dystopian future that many of the writers foresee can also be uproariously amusing. Day two of the seminar featured many wonderful moments including readings, panel discussions and even a last minute surprise appearance by former two-term Florida Governor and two-term US Senator, Bob Graham, who spoke briefly on Saturday morning about the San Carlos Institute and then stuck around through the entire morning session.

Bob Graham

Mitch Kaplan, Bob Graham & Rafael Penalaver

He saw a great session that featured not only the aforementioned presentation by Colson Whitehead, but stunning readings from Joyce Carol Oates & Janna Levin and a panel discussions featuring Jennifer Egan, Michael Cunningham, Charles Yu and Jim Gleick and a poetry reading by James Tate were also featured in the morning.





After a wonderful lunch at the fabulous new restaurant 2 cents, located just around the corner on Appelrouth Lane, it was back for the afternoon session. I have to comment on just how cool it was to be eating lunch and look around and seeing so many of the panelist and attendees partaking of the great food.

Doug & Mike

Mark, Nick, Ian & Jason

The afternoon was just as enthralling with readings by Rivka Galchen & Billy Collins and panels featuring Galchen & George Saunders and one with William Gibson, China Mieville and Dexter Palmer on “Steampunk” that provoked the most discussion from attendees, mostly due to the moderator, Robert Krulwich of NPR. I did not see the panel, but those who did seemed to have strong feelings that Krulwich did not seem to understand the topic and was something of a bully. There were a few who thought it was fine, but many were upset and even angry which makes me wish that I had seen it for myself. Whatever the case, I have no doubt that Gibson and Mieville, and probably Palmer as well can fend for themselves and were a match and then some for the moderator.

Kathy & Billy Collins



Saturday evening was the return of the traditional dinner at the Key West Lighthouse which was held under beautiful skies and pleasant temperatures and an almost full moon. The packed gathering featured good food and more drinks and everyone seemed to be having a great time. The evening continued for many of the panelist, staff and select invited guests at the annual private soiree hosted by the iconic Key West resident David Wolkowsky in his incredibly eclectic penthouse apartment on the roof of the Fast Buck Freddies building.





Colson, Janna, Billy & Jennifer

The party is a tough ticket and is difficult to find and get to, the only way up via a small well-hidden elevator that only can take five people up or down at a time. Somehow, a big crowd manages to make it up to the beautiful and fascinating setting. The party this year was to honor Program Chair Jim Gleick and a small black and white photocopy of an image of Jim’s face was the only clue that partygoers had reached the entrance. Once inside though the party featured a wonderful and select group of seminar participants and special guests including many of the writers who call Key West home yet are not a part of this year’s seminar such as William Wright, Alison Lurie and Ann Beattie.

William Wright & Linda Mewshaw







Late in the evening a group of us, including Doug & Mike and panelists Charles Yu & Dexter Palmer headed out into the Key West night to take in the nightlife. Somehow, we ended up at Cowboy Bill's, where some mechanical bull riding took place before closing out the night as we often do, at the Green Parrot.





Mark

Yet Another World- Literature of the Future

January 8, 2012

Billy Collins





Yet Another World- Literature of the Future

If you ever wanted to know what happens when you put twenty or more of the sharpest minds on the planet together in a room to have at it about just might happen in our future or perhaps some other future, we found out this weekend during the 30th annual Key West Literary Seminar, “Yet Another World- Literature of the Future”. This amazing seminar focused on a talented array of writers whose work includes speculative fiction or literature of alternate futures.

Jennifer Egan

Joyce Carol Oates & Margaret Atwood

Impossibly difficult to explain, but awe inspiring when presented by the incredibly diverse and talented panelist made up of a mix of iconic figures of literature as well as promising newcomers who each offered either singularly through their readings or collectively as members of the many panel discussions, their take on just what might await us.

Charles Yu & Dexter Palmer



Michael Cunningham

It wasn’t always a pretty picture, in fact the future as presented by a majority of the writers present is a mostly bleak place, thankfully the appropriate human response to these dystopian futures is a fairly healthy sense of humor and so while the subject matter might have been dark, the laughs kept coming. This made for a seminar that was at once deep and thoughtful while at the same time often uproariously funny and entertaining.

Charles Yu





The seminar got underway in earnest on Friday after a brief introduction by program chair James Gleick, whose vision and leadership brought this incredible group of writers together. A beautiful opening reading by poet Billy Collins was followed by the regular program featuring readings and panels featuring Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, China Mieville, Joyce Carol Oates, Dexter Palmer, Charles Yu, Jennifer Egan, James Tate, George Saunders, Douglas Coupland, Michael Cunningham, Janna Levin & Rivka Galchen. Not a bad line-up for the first full day.

Joyce Carol Oates



Mary, Fran & Jane

To try and encapsulate such a wealth of information and to distill the contents of the seminar is a task that others have done much more successfully than I. To get a better insight into the content and meaning of the seminar, I would suggest checking out the beautiful “official” KWLS website “Littoral” created by the talented Arlo Haskell or the wonderful blog posting by my fellow board member Nancy Klingener, “The Bone Island Book Blog”. I have provided links to both below and strongly suggest that you check them both out.

Shayne & Ian

George Saunders & his daughter

Kathy & Margit

Douglas Coupland & Michael Cunningham

Friday evening there was a couple of wonderful receptions, because in addition to the mental stimulation, the seminar provides a ton of food and libations to keep everyone happy. One reception was at the Lucky Street Gallery and the other was on-site at the San Carlos just prior to a wonderful evening of entertainment with Margaret Atwood. The food and drink flowed freely and it was another excellent evening.

Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem, Charles Yu, Janna Levin & Rivka Galchen

Michael Cunningham

Following the conclusion of the official seminar activities a group of us made our way to the Porch to unwind and celebrate the conclusion of day one. Kathy & I hosted two volunteers who traveled to work at the seminar as full-time volunteers. Our friend Doug has been traveling from his home in Minnesota for years at his own expense to work at the seminar. Doug is just getting ready to release his first travel writing book, “Europe on Five Wrong Turns A Day”. I have a link to the Amazon page for his book below as well.

Doug, Jason & Margit





This year, Doug invited a friend that he first met here at the KWLS (on travel and adventure writing), Mike Cook, who also joined us for the weekend from his home in Utah, and helped out immensely. It was a great pleasure to have them both here and to be able to hang out as well.

Mike & Doug

Mike & Doug

Littoral

The Bone Island Book Blog

Doug Mack's book

Surreality

January 7, 2012



Runi & Terry George

Judy Blume & Dexter Palmer



Surreality

There are times in life when I just have to pause and ask myself how did I get here? Often people comment on the exciting life that Kathy & I lead here in Key West. Mostly that opinion comes from people who read this blog and think that all we do is travel, party and attend interesting events. My ready and true reply is that they only see the highlights and if I posted about the mundane portions of our lives, while the blog would be more accurate, we would lose the few readers that we have (with the possible exception of the exceedingly dedicated fan we have in Mountain View, California).



This past week however, I can say actually qualifies as pretty damn exciting and interesting as we found ourselves thrust in to the presence of some of the most interesting, creative and intelligent people in the world on any number of occasions as the 30th annual Key West Literary Seminar, “Yet Another World, Literature of the Future” got underway here in Key West.




The fun actually began on Tuesday evening, when I received a phone call from my friend Runi, who needed a last minute photographer to take photos of a small private party she was hosting at the Rooftop Café for famed screenwriter and director Terry George. George was in town as part of the Tropic Cinema’s visiting director series to showcase a short film that is up for Oscar consideration and to screen his acclaimed film “Hotel Rwanda” at the theatre.



The Rooftop

Michael & Terry



The party was for George, Tropic board members and some invited guests and was a wonderful chance to meet and mingle with a fascinating and talented director. The party was so small and intimate, that I had a chance to spend some time chatting with George and many of the other guests, an unexpected and wonderful pleasure. I have seen a number of the films that he has written or directed including, “In the Name of the Father”, “The Boxer” and most recently “Reservation Road” which was released in 2007 and starred Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo.

Matt & Runi





the Tropic Crew with Terry

You would think that that would be enough hobnobbing with creativity for the average week, but with the Seminar getting underway; it was only the beginning of what has truly been an amazing week. The next day, in my capacity as a board member, I found myself at the airport picking up two of the esteemed writers in town for the Seminar, Gary Shteyngart and Colson Whitehead. I was especially excited about Whitehead since he had been invited at my suggestion.





I picked them up with no problem and delivered them to their hotel, then picked them up a short time later so that we could join the other panelists, board members and special guests at a wonderful dinner at the beautiful home of Judy Blume and her husband George Cooper. Suddenly, Kathy & I found ourselves surrounded by some of the most renowned writers in America including Margaret Atwood, Douglas Coupland, William Gibson, Billy Collins, James Tate, Jonathan Lethem, Jennifer Egan, China Mieville, George Saunders and Michael Cunningham.



Esther, Gary & Judy

William Gibson, Colson Whitehead, Douglas Coupland & David Wier

It was an amazing evening capped off by sharing a table for dinner with Shteyngart and his lovely friend Esther, Linda Mewshaw and the incomparable writer and National Book Award winning writer Robert Stone and his lovely wife Janice. To have the remarkable opportunity to sit and listen to one of America’s greatest storytellers hold court and share incredible experiences was one of the most remarkable experiences that I have ever had, what an amazing evening.



Rafael kicks off Seminar

Douglas Coupland & William Gibson

The next night, the Seminar itself got underway with a keynote address, which was more of a conversation between Douglas Coupland and William Gibson. Coupland is the author of one of my favorite books of all time, “Life After God” and it was pretty cool to watch two incredible intelligent men get things started. The keynote was so brainy, that it took me some time to get in to the discussion, but I came away feeling like we were off to a fairly good start.



Jason Rowan

Marky, Dave, Nick, Jolly, Cayman & Shayne

As always there was another splendid party after the opening at the Audubon House which offered another opportunity to mingle with the panelists and attendees of the Seminar. The food was spectacular and once again we had Jason Rowan of Embury Cocktails back to make his incredible specialty cocktails for the events. Afterwards, we headed down to the Green Parrot where we caught a set from the jam band Donna the Buffalo which was rocking the parrot, it was the perfect night cap.



Donna the Buffalo