March 26, 2013

NYC Teen Author Festival 2013

Last week, I got to attend a whole slew of events for the NYC Teen Author Festival. In case you were wondering what exactly this is, it's a whole set of events, panels and signings that happen all in the span of one week featuring many different YA/teen authors. I missed out on this last year because I was on vacation in the Philippines, but this year, I was lucky enough to attend three of the events!

The Panel
Three of the fabulous authors were Gayle Forman, Jennifer E. Smith and Melissa Walker.

The first event I attended was a panel entitled I'll Take You There: A Change of Scenery, A Change of Self. This panel was held at the Mulberry Street Branch of the NYPL, and featured authors Gayle Forman, Kristen-Paige Madonia, Bennett Madison, Jennifer E. Smith and Melissa Walker, moderated by David Levithan. 

The authors basically shared a little about their books, their character's journeys, their own personal journeys and even their writing. It was quite the fascinating panel, and I managed to record some of it on my phone! I attended it with Rachel and Estelle, and we all went out to dinner at Japadog after (and it was delicious!).

The Reader's Theater

Rachel & I
The amazing cast of authors reading from Go Ask Alice

The second event I attended was the Barnes & Noble Reader's Theater/Signing at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square. This event featured authors Eireann Corrigan, Elizabeth Eulberg, Jeff Hirsch, Rainbow Rowell, David Levithan and Nova Ren Suma

Rachel and I met up for dinner at Republic, before heading on over to the store to wander around before the event started. I must say -- this was definitely one of the most entertaining events I've ever attended! The authors performed scenes from each of their books, as well as a bonus opening scene from Go Ask Alice. Honestly, my favorite scenes were definitely the ones from Eleanor & Park (with Rainbow as Eleanor and David as Park!) and Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality (with Elizabeth as Lexi - and she totally pulled it off, of course!).

Rachel had her copy of Eleanor & Park signed by Rainbow, and I came up to the table with her. It was pretty darn awesome when Rainbow gave me a hug after recognizing who I was from Twitter!

The (MEGA) Signing

And the last event I was able to attend was Our No-Foolin' Mega Signing at Books of Wonder, which was held at Books of Wonder (one of my favorite bookstores!). There were at least 30 authors present, signing in 45 minutes shifts, and I was amazed by the sheer amount of energy and passion for YA books in the room. Obviously, I grabbed copies of a few books that I either didn't have yet or hadn't read yet and got them signed by all the authors, which was a fun experience, especially since there was time to chat with each of them!

I had brunch with Hannah at Westville before the event, and we hung out for most of it. I did spy Jamie, and get to meet the awesome Betty and Ellie from her book club. Plus, Margot was there for a while and I also got to see Mitali! It was also fun to see Kim Sabatini again - we first met in a line at BEA while waiting to meet Veronica Roth and a few other authors.

The wonderful and adorable Marisa Calin, author of Between You & Me
Jessica Brody, author of 52 Reasons to Hate My Father
Hilary Weisman Graham, author of Reunited
Kody Keplinger, author of The Duff
The amazing and incredibly sweet Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor & Park 
Gorgeous Diana Peterfreund, author of For Darkness Shows the Stars
(And yes, that is an ARC of Across a Star-Swept Sea!) 
Amy Spalding, author of The Reece Malcolm List
The supremely talented Nova Ren Suma, author of 17 & Gone
Victoria Schwab, author of The Archived
FYA: Philly hits up Books of Wonder - Ellie, Betty & Jamie!
So awesome to finally get a chance to meet these two for real! 
Jamie, who is as gorgeous and lovely as always
Hannah, who is all sorts of awesome
There you have it - my little recap of what went down all last week for me. I hope you enjoyed getting an idea of what the NYC Teen Author Festival has to offer. It's a very fun event, and I would definitely recommend coming to attend it and see all the amazing authors if you can swing it.

(If you're wondering where the books are, you'll have to wait till Sunday for that, as I'm including them in my book haul!)

19 Comments:

  1. Wow you got so many pictures at the mega author signing! I'm jealous =P I loved getting to attend all these events with you.. can't wait to go to more!!

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    1. I think it's wonderful that we're always able to attend events together these days! It makes for a much more fun experience :)

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  2. Soooo envious you got to meet such awesome authors! Glad you had a great time and got to meet some bloggers too :) Woo hoo can't wait to see your book haul!

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  3. Looks like such a fun time with some AMAZING authors!

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    1. It definitely was! I'm still in awe that I got to meet most of these amazing people :)

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  4. How awesome!!!! I'm super jealous. I would have loved to be there but obvs NY is a little far for me hahaha. SO many amazing authors and glad you got to be there!

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    1. Hopefully, one day, we will be able to go to a bookish even together. And yes, it was so much fun!

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  5. LADY. How much do I wish I was home and not home all at the same time? I would have spent like $300 on books if I'd been there. But I do wish I could have gone!!!! I can't wait for all the bookish events we'll go when I get home!!

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  6. I absolutely love all these pictures -- as someone who is kind of visual it's so cool seeing a recap with a lot of pictures. I can't get over how fun everyone looks in real life. AND OMG my jealousy over you meeting Rainbow Rowell. Sighhhhhh. Eleanor & Park was so great!

    LOVE IT SO MUCH!

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  7. Oh my God, this is amazing! I'm so jealous! You met like then of my favorite authors. But actually. I'm so glad you had such a blast!

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  8. SO MANY AUTHORS!! And hold up, I'm distracted by your amazing cuff. That is fierce!

    -Maggie

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  9. Events like these make me wish I lived in NYC. SO MANY BOOKISH FRIENDS AND AUTHORS! I'm glad you had fun. :D

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  10. OMG!! I'm so jealous! Nova Ren Suma! Jennifer E Smith (which I'm actually reading right now)! So much fun! Are you going to BEA? If so we have to meet! :D

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  11. Aww, this looks like it was so much fun! I wish that we had events like this in Canada. Plus, yay to meeting all those awesome bloggers in real life! Possibly even more exciting than meeting authors, in my opinion :)

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  12. Um, THAT LOOKS LIKE SUCH A FUN NIGHT!

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  13. This is an amazing event. I'll have to make it up there on year. I met Kristen-Paige Madonia at a signing I found her story to be unique. The Signing/Theater looks so cool ! Can't wait to see what books you picked up.

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  14. Great pics, Alexa! It's too bad we both went to several events, but not the same ones. I really wish I could have made the reader's theater especially, and it's too bad you missed Sat since almost every author you took pics with was on a panel. Glad to see you enjoyed it though!

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  15. This whole thing was so much fun! And it was so awesome to hang out with you at the signing - I'm so glad you had a camera! Looking forward to hanging out with you at more bookish events!

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  16. Ah I so need to move to the US for these kinds of events! You met so many amazing authors (the bit about Rainbow Rowell and David Levithan reading a scene from Eleanor & Park sounds amazing) and I would love to meet other bloggers :) It looks like you had a great time!

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