January 13th Reading at Princeton Public Library on Witherspoon St. in Princeton 7:30PM
January 16th A solo exhibition of my photographic work from the walk across Cuba opens at Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. I'll be at the opening from 7-10PM.
January 18th at 4PM Reading at Whitespace Gallery, ATL
January 22nd at 5:30PM Reading at Beth's Books at 2700 Chartres St. in the Bywater district, New Orleans, LA
Hope to see you one place or the other!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Guantánamo to go into its second printing!
We had a lovely book bash last week at Idlewild Books on West 19th Street in Manhattan. It's a travel-oriented bookstore with a new and brilliant, but, once you have experienced it, obvious twist. Travel guides, travel literature, and carefully selected regular literature are grouped together by region and country, so that Walking to Guantánamo shares a shelf with, for instance, a biography of Che. I signed something like 40 books, and was very proud to announce that Guantánamo is already going into its second printing. If you want a first edition, act fast!
Pedro Giraudo, Aaron Halva and Jainardo Batista from Nu' Guajiro rocking the set in the bay window at Idlewild Books. Lots of delicious reading on the shelves behind.
The place filled up quickly, and I failed to take any more photographs once the mad signing of books had begun...
The next day, suffering from a mild hangover, thanks to one too many of St. John Frizell's stellar mojitos, I high-tailed it north to Cambridge on the trusty Fung-Wah bus. Laura scooped me up in her pickup truck and we headed for Maine, where I read on Saturday at Gulf of Maine books in Brunswick, land of the flowing gray beard. Brunswick is sister city to Trinidad, Cuba, and I read about that city to a standing room only crowd, mostly drawn from the large local retiree community. I felt a bit silly reading my descriptions of the aged, septuagenarian bicycle agent who had helped me continue my journey by Flying Pigeon once I realized that the average age of the crowd was certainly above sixty, and possibly right up there in the seventies with Rigoberto, the character in question, but nobody seemed put out. Gulf of Maine is another great independent bookstore you should check out if you are in the area.
Ms. Harmon browses the design section at Gulf of Maine books
Poet and proprietor Gary Lawless and his beard
Frantic signing
Until I got to Maine I had been suffering under the sad self-delusion that I have actually grown a beard worth talking about. There were at least three resplendent heavy growths in the house that put my tatty reddish frizzle to shame. I promised to try harder for my next visit.
All Maine photographs courtesy L. Harmon, except the one she is in
Pedro Giraudo, Aaron Halva and Jainardo Batista from Nu' Guajiro rocking the set in the bay window at Idlewild Books. Lots of delicious reading on the shelves behind.
The place filled up quickly, and I failed to take any more photographs once the mad signing of books had begun...The next day, suffering from a mild hangover, thanks to one too many of St. John Frizell's stellar mojitos, I high-tailed it north to Cambridge on the trusty Fung-Wah bus. Laura scooped me up in her pickup truck and we headed for Maine, where I read on Saturday at Gulf of Maine books in Brunswick, land of the flowing gray beard. Brunswick is sister city to Trinidad, Cuba, and I read about that city to a standing room only crowd, mostly drawn from the large local retiree community. I felt a bit silly reading my descriptions of the aged, septuagenarian bicycle agent who had helped me continue my journey by Flying Pigeon once I realized that the average age of the crowd was certainly above sixty, and possibly right up there in the seventies with Rigoberto, the character in question, but nobody seemed put out. Gulf of Maine is another great independent bookstore you should check out if you are in the area.
Ms. Harmon browses the design section at Gulf of Maine books
Poet and proprietor Gary Lawless and his beard
Frantic signing
Until I got to Maine I had been suffering under the sad self-delusion that I have actually grown a beard worth talking about. There were at least three resplendent heavy growths in the house that put my tatty reddish frizzle to shame. I promised to try harder for my next visit.All Maine photographs courtesy L. Harmon, except the one she is in
Friday, October 31, 2008
Miami is full of nice people, even if you are writing about Cuba!
265 Aragon Avenue in Coral Gables: a warm and inviting place to buy books
I particularly liked the promotional pumpkin carving on the outdoor patio barPhotos: Antonina Vargas
The Books and Books flagship store in Coral Gables is one of the most beautiful bookshops I've ever seen. It is a vast, U-shaped space of high-ceilinged galleries, with warm lighting spilling down on to tables overflowing with fine reading. Every wall is lined with comforting, enveloping shelves. In the interior courtyard of the "U" is a wine-bar where cappuccinos are served beneath rustling palms.
I was nervous in the hours leading up the reading, as Miami takes up a lot of space in the world of Cuban-America. My book is not political per se, but there are many people, I think, for whom my decision to travel in Cuba, as US citizen, cannot help but be seen as a political act in and of itself. Miami, in my imagination, is a place that still holds many Cuban-Americans hostile to the very simplest premise of my book: an American visits Cuba. But although there was an excellent turnout, none of these hostiles apparently go to book readings. I asked how many Cuban-Americans were in the audience and saw at least 8 hands go up in the crowd.
I read a rather poignant scene about a going-away party in the city of Trinidad, for a man named Conrad, who was leaving Cuba, perhaps forever, to emigrate to Miami. When I finished, some of the most interesting questions came from these "Miami Cubans." They were sincere in their curiosity about the island, and nobody seemed to hold my trip against me.
One man in the audience, a lawyer, gave me the excellent news that the statute of limitations on the Trading with the Enemy Act is six years, so that although I violated the law by visiting Cuba, my government's window of opportunity for prosecuting me has closed. I left my email address with Conrad's father-in-law in Trinidad, after the drunken going-away party in May or June of 2000, but I never heard from him after my return to the United States, and one man in the audience thought he could help me try to find him. Stay tuned for the ongoing story of Finding Conrad.
Author photos: Camila de Onis
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Reading in Miami this Thursday October 30th
I will be taking Cuba to the Cuban-Americans this Thursday, for my first Florida book reading, at Books and Books in Coral Gables. The bookstore is at 265 Aragon Avenue, and the reading is at 8PM.
I'm hoping for a nice crowd, particularly since in Sunday's paper the Miami Herald calls Walking to Guantánamo "a fascinating, wry, vividly detailed and elegantly written account of a trip that no one else is likely to take."
Twenty years ago it would have been a terrifying prospect to try and promote this book in South Florida, even though I think it is an extremely balanced view of life on the island. In the old days down in Miami one would have been virtually crucified just for having visited the island. My sense is that things have changed and that the Cubans of Miami are now almost as diverse a group as the Cubans of Cuba. I could be wrong, though. I'll let you all know soon enough if I get rotten eggs thrown at me. It is, after all, the day before Halloween, better known in suburbia as "mischief night."
If you don't have a copy of the book yet, and can't join me in Miami, you really ought to get yourself one from my publisher, HERE, or order it from Amazon, HERE.
I'm hoping for a nice crowd, particularly since in Sunday's paper the Miami Herald calls Walking to Guantánamo "a fascinating, wry, vividly detailed and elegantly written account of a trip that no one else is likely to take."
Twenty years ago it would have been a terrifying prospect to try and promote this book in South Florida, even though I think it is an extremely balanced view of life on the island. In the old days down in Miami one would have been virtually crucified just for having visited the island. My sense is that things have changed and that the Cubans of Miami are now almost as diverse a group as the Cubans of Cuba. I could be wrong, though. I'll let you all know soon enough if I get rotten eggs thrown at me. It is, after all, the day before Halloween, better known in suburbia as "mischief night."
If you don't have a copy of the book yet, and can't join me in Miami, you really ought to get yourself one from my publisher, HERE, or order it from Amazon, HERE.
Monday, October 20, 2008
At the local...
Yesterday's reading at Sunny's Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn, was a triumphant success. There wasn't an empty seat in the house, despite the glorious Sunday afternoon fall weather. Three of us read as part of the Sundays at Sunny's reading series, which has now been going on for six years. It was a wonderful, receptive crowd, with many friends from the neighborhood in attendance, but also a whole host of folks from farther afield.
Here David Rothenberg reads a wonderfully entertaining passage from Thousand Mile Song, in which he describes playing clarinet duets with whales. He then played a recording of this amazing interspecies musical experience. It was a rare treat. (His book comes with a CD). That's David, farthest to the left of the three people behind the bar.
I read three passages from Guantánamo. The first was my description of the rodeo-like décima poetry competitions held in Las Tunas, in which improvisational poetic artistry mingles with ten-gallon fashions and macho braggadocio; the second an account of contraband cheese-selling strategy beside the highway ("Like a matador with a cape, my friend pivoted with the cheese to give it maximum exposure as the car passed, but the vehicle did not slow."); and the third a story about discovering that a portion of popcorn I purchased in Trinidad was wrapped up in pages torn from a Cuban edition of the Communist Manifesto.Book Court books takes care of selling books at the event, and I'm proud to report that they were left wishing they had brought along more copies of Walking to Guantánamo, because they quickly sold out.
Monday, October 13, 2008
A charming neighborhood bookstore in Philadelphia!
I had my first official reading yesterday afternoon in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, a beautiful neighborhood and an apparent liberal enclave, where the residents seem to be battling it out over whose overgrown english-style garden is the most splendid, and who has the most Obama for president lawn banners. Although it was a beautiful day outside, the offer of a chapter from Guantánamo still managed to fill the cozy second-floor reading room of the very friendly Big Blue Marble Bookstore, assuaging my fears that for my reading debut I might end up starring in my own remake of the album-signing scene from This is Spinal Tap.
Thanks for having me!
Thanks for having me!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The book launch party was a spectacular success!
The friends and family book launch party for Walking to Guantánamo, kindly hosted last Thursday night by Anthony Chase and Nini Ordoubadi, at their loft, was a splendid affair, and not just because of the tremendous pleasure I felt when actually holding a copy of the finished book in my hands for the first time.
As we went to open the first box of books I had a flash of panic when I noticed that “Guantánamo” was spelled wrong, right on the outside of the carton, but the books themselves were perfect.
The stalwart and patient publisher, Stelios Vasilakis, manned the tables until the boxes were empty and the piles of books had dwindled away to nothing.
Nini layed out a massive spread, upon which the greedy hordes immediately descended, some before they had even noticed my book!
Right here is the man who really made the evening a success, St. John Frizell, master cocktelier, who mixed innumerable mojitos, as well as a drink he had dredged up from his deep collection of historical literature devoted to festivities of the Antilles, a cocktail known as the Isle of Pines (that island is now known as la Isla de Juventud, or the island of youth). It doesn’t really matter what you are promoting, launching, introducing or displaying; if you locate someone with the skills, panache and good humor of Mr. Frizell, your event is guaranteed to be a roaring success.
Ben Schneider and Sohui Kim of the Good Fork
Ferne Pearlstein and Bob Edwards, of Chinatown and Hollywood
Anthony Chase and Jainardo Batista
Clearly I am saying something utterly preposterous
My old friends from Mo’ Guajiro, now the new and improved Nu’ Guajiro, stopped by and threw down some spectacular and authentic Cuban musical flavor.
The Brooklyn Red Hook posse was well represented. Here Francis Kerrigan (center, with hat and beard) grimaces at Jens Veneman and Anne O’Neil. On the later side of the evening someone approached me with a book to inscribe, saying “when I bought it that other guy with the hat and the beard told me he would sign it for me; he was quite insistent about it.” It was as if they were wondering whether such a thing had been authorized. I congratulated them on their caution, and urge you all to be vigilant: watch out for those pesky counterfeit signed copies.
The authentic author, with hat and beard, about to sign another copy.
Enormous thank-yous to Nini Ordoubadi, Anthony Chase, St. Jean Frizell (oops, I mean St. John Frizell, I always want to make that more New Orleans than it is already!), Laura Harmon, Stelios Vasilakis, and Nu' Guajiro, for making this such a special evening.
As we went to open the first box of books I had a flash of panic when I noticed that “Guantánamo” was spelled wrong, right on the outside of the carton, but the books themselves were perfect.
The stalwart and patient publisher, Stelios Vasilakis, manned the tables until the boxes were empty and the piles of books had dwindled away to nothing.
Nini layed out a massive spread, upon which the greedy hordes immediately descended, some before they had even noticed my book!
Right here is the man who really made the evening a success, St. John Frizell, master cocktelier, who mixed innumerable mojitos, as well as a drink he had dredged up from his deep collection of historical literature devoted to festivities of the Antilles, a cocktail known as the Isle of Pines (that island is now known as la Isla de Juventud, or the island of youth). It doesn’t really matter what you are promoting, launching, introducing or displaying; if you locate someone with the skills, panache and good humor of Mr. Frizell, your event is guaranteed to be a roaring success.
Ben Schneider and Sohui Kim of the Good Fork
Ferne Pearlstein and Bob Edwards, of Chinatown and Hollywood
Anthony Chase and Jainardo Batista
Clearly I am saying something utterly preposterous
My old friends from Mo’ Guajiro, now the new and improved Nu’ Guajiro, stopped by and threw down some spectacular and authentic Cuban musical flavor.
The Brooklyn Red Hook posse was well represented. Here Francis Kerrigan (center, with hat and beard) grimaces at Jens Veneman and Anne O’Neil. On the later side of the evening someone approached me with a book to inscribe, saying “when I bought it that other guy with the hat and the beard told me he would sign it for me; he was quite insistent about it.” It was as if they were wondering whether such a thing had been authorized. I congratulated them on their caution, and urge you all to be vigilant: watch out for those pesky counterfeit signed copies.
The authentic author, with hat and beard, about to sign another copy.Enormous thank-yous to Nini Ordoubadi, Anthony Chase, St. Jean Frizell (oops, I mean St. John Frizell, I always want to make that more New Orleans than it is already!), Laura Harmon, Stelios Vasilakis, and Nu' Guajiro, for making this such a special evening.
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