The traveling librarian in New York

I’ve lived in Texas all my life. I own a couple of suits and a canvas jacket. That’s it. No wool coat or parka to keep me warm in Gotham. Fortunately, the traveling librarian has a friend from Ohio who graciously loaned a wool coat. Armed with said coat, a camera, and a discreet map I headed to New York. Some highlights: soul food at Sylvia’s (Bill O’Reilly and Al Sharpton enjoyed a dinner there in September), a stroll around the new Yankee Stadium, a wonderful rainy walk through Central Park, and sneaker shopping in Manhattan and Brooklyn with a good friend.

Despite being outfitted in my average librarian get-up, I was “accepted” into the eponymous sneaker boutique Alife Rivington Club. The store has no sign and the door is locked. To enter, you ring a buzzer and wait, hoping that a sneakerhead working inside deems you worthy of entry into this well-cultivated world of sneaker exclusivity. I got in, but $200 for some purple shoes is too rich for my blood. Brooklyn and its $40 sneakers is more to my liking.

All this meandering served as an appetizer for the meat of the trip. Publishers, writers, and editors abounded at the AWP Conference. Stumbling like some giddy literary fanboy from panel to panel, I heard a veritable feast of contemporary American writers: Lydia Davis, Francine Prose, Jennifer Egan, Alice McDermott, Karen Russell, Charles Baxter, and Percival Everett to name a few. Pick up a novel or story collection by one of these incredible writers. There is no buzzer to ring. Just grab a book and you’re in the club.

Lydia Davis
Varieties of Disturbances
Samuel Johnson is Indignant

Francine Prose
Blue Angel
A Changed Man

Jennifer Egan
The Keep
Look at Me

Alice McDermott
After This
Charming Billy

Karen Russell
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Charles Baxter
Saul and Patsy
The Feast of Love

Percival Everett
The Water Cure
Damned If I Do