Five authors affiliated with McSweeney's, a publishing company founded by Dave Eggers, concluded the McSweeney's Rectangular Festival Saturday evening with readings from their works and words of support for keeping the Brown Bookstore independent.
The festival, the largest gathering of McSweeney's authors ever, began Friday evening with readings and continued with book signings at the Brown Bookstore Saturday morning and panels with the authors Saturday afternoon.
Eggers, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," founded the magazine McSweeney's Quarterly Concern in 1998 with the intention of publishing works rejected by other publications. Today the company is at the forefront of experimental fiction and publishes both short stories and novels, often introducing new, talented authors who would otherwise sink into obscurity.
Eggers concluded the festival with readings from his yet unpublished novel based on the experiences of a Sudanese refugee in Ethiopia. Before reading, Eggers, sporting a pin expressing his support for the Brown Bookstore, condemned the bookstore's potential takeover by Barnes and Noble College Booksellers. Eggers called Barnes and Noble "predatory," especially among Ivy League schools.
"This is a scary thing and not a right thing," Eggers said. "McSweeney's wouldn't be here without selling only through independent bookstores," he added.
"Make yourself heard," Eggers told the audience before he began reading from his work, which will be published this fall through McSweeney's. Excerpts of his work have not appeared in any publications.
Adjunct Professor of Literary Arts Robert Coover, who coordinated the festival with Associate Professor of English Brian Evenson, also asked audience members to support the independent Brown Bookstore at the start of the event. Independent bookstores have always welcomed authors like those published in McSweeney's, he said.
"Let's hope McSweeney's carries the day for us," Coover said before introducing Eli Horowitz, managing editor of McSweeney's.
Horowitz first introduced Miranda Mellis, who completed her master's in literary arts in 2004 at Brown and currently resides in Providence. Mellis read "The Doctor of Mental Health," a story about a vegetarian who buys 10 pounds of meat from his psychiatrist. Dustin Long followed Mellis with his first book reading ever. Long read several sections from his debut novel, "Icelander," a mystery set in Iceland and recently published by McSweeney's.
Salvador Plasencia then read from his first novel "People of Paper," also recently published by McSweeney's, about a man in love with a woman made of paper. Brian Evenson followed Plasencia with the first half of his unpublished piece about the relationship between two sisters, titled "Younger."
Audience members praised the readings. "I read Dave Eggers' book last spring and I never imagined that I would get to hear him read," said Sophie O'Connell '09.
"It's always a privilege to hear authors read from their own work, especially from a publishing company I really like," said Jenny Filipetti '09, who also attended the panels on experimental fiction Saturday afternoon.
The authors themselves also said they thought the readings went well and echoed Coover's sentiments about the bookstore.
"You go in there, you know you're in Providence," Plasencia said. "It's marked by Brown."
Eggers reiterated his views on the bookstore in an interview with The Herald after the readings.
"If people at Brown don't stand up against that sort of aggression, then who will?" he said. "I think there's a place in the world for Barnes and Noble, I just don't think they should be pushing out independent bookstores," he said.
Eggers said Brown holds a special place in his heart, partly because the University was his first-choice school when he applied to colleges 18 years ago and also because he received an honorary degree from the University last year.
"I'd do anything at anytime for Brown," he said.
Horowitz said Brown was an appropriate venue for the festival because the literary arts program "really runs in parallel to what we're doing at McSweeney's," he said. "Brown serves as a lab for a lot of things McSweeney's is trying to do," he added.
