So last night Katy Lederer hosted a little book party at her place to celebrate the publication of three books. As usual, it was an interesting mix of people from work and people from the literary community (and even those categories often cross). Actually, “mix” may not be the right word as the writers were in one room and the DESCO folk in the other, so I appropriately stayed in the kitchen which connected the two rooms.
Mew (her cat) and I had a little tiff. It was a normal kitty I love you, I hate you pantomime of rub me, scratch me, no wait too much stimulation so let me bite you, but now I’ll lick the spot I just bit, scratch my ears again, but maybe I’ll hiss this time while I purr. I told him we needed time apart and he needed to think about what he wanted and when he was ready I’d be waiting.
Katy decided to have each poet read a poem, so we gathered in the one room and as we started the noise of a radio or television filtered down the spiral black staircase. She sent me up to investigate and we found “strangers in the attic”, friends of her roommate who had been there the entire time hanging out upstairs and we didn’t even know. They kindly lowered the volume on their laptop and we heard from the following peeps:
My coworker Regan Good, who did not bring any copies of her book (it’s out of print, but will be released perfect bound soon) read an old poem of hers that she found on-line. Her book is The Imperfect (David Wolfe Editions).
Next up was Michael Scharf who read a rather prosey piece from For Kid Rock/Total Freedom Spectacular Books).
And last was Jeffrey Jullich who read a poem from Thine Instead Thank (Harry Tankoos Books).
It was a nice night for a well attended little book party, a nice night to wander in Trader Joe’s and around Union Square and down the streets on the way to and from Katy’s. Reminders of why I love living in NY.