Event Title: A Reading & Conversation with Sarah Broom & Ada Calhoun, Sponsored by Grove/Atlantic and Seattle Arts & Lectures
Description: Sarah M. Broom is a writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Oxford American, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. A native New Orleanian, she received her master’s in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004. Ada Calhoun is the author of the memoir Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, named an Amazon Book of the Month and one of the top ten memoirs of 2017 by W magazine; and the history St. Marks Is Dead, one of the best books of 2015, according to Kirkus and the Boston Globe. She has collaborated on several New York Times bestsellers and freelanced for the New York Times, New York, and The New Republic.
Participants: Sarah Broom and Ada Calhoun
Location: Hemisfair Ballroom C1, Henry B. González Center, Ballroom Level
Date & Time: Friday, March 6, 12:10 p.m. to 1:25 p.m.

Q: What are some of the conference events or Bookfair exhibitors you look forward to seeing at AWP?
Grove Press, of course, my home team. At the Bookfair I'll also hope to visit with friends at W.W. Norton and reps with Ingram. I'm excited to be paired with Sarah Broom, whose book The Yellow House is a terrific look at New Orleans East.

Q: What do you remember most about your first AWP? What advice would you give to an AWP first-timer?
My first AWP I went to something like four parties in one night. I’d advise first-timers not to forget about offsite events. And keep in mind that booksellers usually know where the best parties are.

Q: What is your favorite AWP conference memory?
I met the Solid State Bookstore guys at an AWP panel a couple of years ago and when I was on my last book tour they took me to a Nationals game. I'm hoping to parlay this AWP into more baseball games nationwide.

Q: What book or books that you’ve read over the last year would you most highly recommend?
The Great Pretender, The Ghosts of Eden Park, Warlight, All Adults Here, American Predator, Gravity and Grace, Fleishman is in Trouble, Middlemarch, and (to read with a tween) Charlie Higson's James Bond-at-Eton adventure books.

Q: If you’ve been to San Antonio before, what places do you recommend that our attendees should visit?
My grandparents lived in San Antonio when I was young, so I have fond memories of the River Walk. My son is three-quarters Texan and has never been to the Alamo, so we’re going to fix that on this trip.

 

Ada Calhoun is the author of the memoir Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, named an Amazon Book of the Month and one of the top ten memoirs of 2017 by W magazine; and the history St. Marks Is Dead, one of the best books of 2015, according to Kirkus and the Boston Globe. She has collaborated on several New York Times bestsellers and freelanced for the New York Times, New York, and The New Republic. Her O Magazine essay “The New Midlife Crisis” was named the internet’s fifty-fifth-most-read story of 2017 by Chartbeat.