by Kay Kirscht
Quick Summary
Minitex shared a long table with other University Library programs at this year’s Minneapolis Book Festival on October 14 at the State Fairgrounds.
Minitex shared a long table with other University Library programs at this year’s Minneapolis Book Festival on October 14 at the State Fairgrounds. We were there to promote Ebooks Minnesota (with brochures, posters, branded chocolates, chapstick) and to share six hard-copy examples of books that can be accessed through the site.
One book - Murder, Incorporated (a mystery anthology) - with “MURDER” prominently in caps on its dust jacket - was one of six on display. Before I could launch into my talking points, a patron started paging through it. “This is one example of the many titles you can find at Ebooks Minnesota!” I chimed. “You don’t even need your library card; all you have to be is in Minnesota!” Duly noted, she put down the book, added a handful of Minitex bookmarks and chapstick to her swag bag, and moved on to the next University-sponsored table.
A man now picks up the Murder-titled book, and starts paging through it. Since he was from Wisconsin, he would not be able to access it online through Ebooks Minnesota (You must be in Minnesota to access books through Ebooks Minnesota; the site magically verifies your location via IP address. He may be able to locate it through a Wisconsin-based electronic holding, Overdrive, or via SimplyE).
Children reached for the bright picture book translated into Karen (A Sino-Tibetan tonal language spoken in lower Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand) recently added to the online collection...while mom reached for Murder, Incorporated. “These books are among thousands available - accessible through your desktop, laptop, iOS or Android tablet or phone!” I blurted out. More chocolate, chapstick and information-laden bookmarks (including the one about books for kids) went into purses and bags.
While on break, I walked across the crowded festival venue to interview Tom Cassidy; artist and local patron of many book and art-related organizations. When Tom isn’t avoiding requests for book and art org board membership, or reading books - he buys and sells books. At last year’s Book Festival, he was the mastermind behind the six-table-long mural made from collaged, cut-up books and magazines. This year, no paper cutting...he’s helping at Rain Taxi’s Used Book stall.
What drew you to the Book Festival?
“I always go” says Tom. “I’ve been going for many years. I also go to the Antiquarian Book Fair, which is much more esoteric - dealers touring the country with rare, collectible first editions; ridiculously expensive books. Some of the offerings are more accessible, because, after all - they have to pay their overhead (and most people can’t drop a few thousand for a book). When dealers tour, they hope to sell one book - and bring along hundreds of more affordable, fiction books, maps and paper goods. But the Antiquarian Book Fair only draws a few hundred people...the Twin Cities Book Festival draws over 6,000!”
...and why are you helping out Rain Taxi today?
“I like Rain Taxi, they the Twin Cities Book Festival. I like their vision; I like their mission; I like what they do for the arts...I like what they do for literature. They’re like The New York Times Review of Books. But you and I could write reviews for Rain Taxi! We would be edited; and our review may only go in the online edition - but they will help you if your book review hits on a topic with broad enough appeal. Rain Taxi covers the Young Adult genre, graphic novels, self-published novels, and they even review Asemic novels - very avant-garde, non-linear fiction. They’re wide open to it. Rain Taxi wants people to find their individual, idiosyncratic place in the world of literature - and they celebrate that, even if you’re not a million-selling author.
"The nice thing about Rain Taxi is they’re credible. John Hodgman was here Thursday night, and I went to a reception for Salman Rushdie a few months ago. It’s thrilling to meet these people, and Eric Lorberer (Editor) and Kelly Everding (Art Director) are good at getting sponsors for these big name authors. Magers & Quinn also plays a role selling books at these events.
"Rain Taxi is willing to run the gamut, and get an Icelandic Sound Poet, a kid who’s written her first book, fifteen books of poetry - and have someone review them all...which is just...you know what I think it could be? It’s so hopeful and optimistic. In a world where very few things are that way, we still believe in trusting the ideas of freedom of speech and press, and that you can share that. They support it so much - to me, this Book Festival is like the World’s Fair...of ideas.
"It’s not just that you can afford to share your ideas without benefit of publisher - or worse, bankroll self-publishing, but - using Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project, or other, online publishing and discovery tools - you can slowly move out there and find people. That’s what mail-art was, originally. (Tom started sending/exchanging small pieces of artwork with people around the world decades ago - long before computers and social media - a movement called “Mail Art.”)
Works created via MLPP could be kept private, made publicly available, or shared with editors. As an artist who works with books, how do you feel about that?
“At Rain Taxi, people could read 20 chapbooks that were printed in the Twin Cities last month, and recommend some. But you’re getting the editorial bias of that particular editor. And as a free speech and free press absolutist - as soon as you introduce editors into a process, you introduce a bias that very often (in the stuff I like and enjoy and support) is considered too avant-garde to be regarded (yet) as either relevant or serious. "Michael Jacobson (he curates an online gallery of Asemic Writing) took part in MCBA’s Asemic Writing show. It’s a global movement, around for hundreds of years. It doesn’t get space because people don’t buy the books. So, online, he’s able to get the stuff out there."
Putting away my recorder, I said goodbye to Tom, and walked back across the festival to the Minitex stall. We put Murder, Incorporated under another murder mystery - Triple Play, by Minnesota writer Elizabeth Gunn (her real name). Baseball...and murder (and also available via Ebooks Minnesota).
“An entire book club can look up the same, Ebooks Minnesota book...and read it at the same time! For FREE!” I pitched the cause. The patron reached underneath, pulled out Murder, Incorporated...and started paging through.
