They say that print media is dead. And yet, at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, I felt the lively presence of the written word all around me. The area around Brooklyn Borough Hall was lined with rows of vendor stations stacked with a number of novels, pamphlets of poetry, zines and comic books. A mix of literary veterans, hip young intellectuals and bookworm moms buzzed around each tent. Upon the various stages, authors and poets read some of their work, conversed with one another and answered the audience's questions.
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I began by moseying around the various vendors, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for Jonathon Safran Foer or Joyce Carol Oates. I stumbled upon the NYU Press stand, where I had the pleasure of skimming through the work of NYU professors and graduate students. As I flipped through a biannual journal of poetry, I overheard a publisher remark, "Our company is based in Brooklyn and San Francisco. Those are the only places where people read anymore." I was not surprised to hear such a remark, as I'm about to declare my major in English despite my father's attempts to convince me to transfer into Stern. Nevertheless, such a comment was not comforting coming from someone in the business.
As I envisioned my post-graduate nightmare, I listened to a discussion where a panel of writers talked about their creative endeavors. Ted Rall, a well-known cartoonist, columnist and author, discussed the difficulty of trying to get his project funded by newspapers and TV networks. Rall had me further doubting my academic path until he described the mode in which he financed a book of cartoons that he has recently written from Afghanistan. The fundraising website Kickstarter has allowed Rall and many other creators to finance their projects through online investors. The creators pitch their projects with video digital itineraries. After leaving the discussion, I began to notice that many of the vendors were selling graphic novels or novellas with accompanying photographs. As I absorbed all of this and the notion that we are living in an age of visual information, my faith was not only restored but my perspective was renewed. The Brooklyn Book Festival highlighted the positive changes that are occurring in the publishing industry with the emergence of new technology and the shift towards a visual and digital audience of readers.
