NYC Teen Author Festival

Last month, one of my favorite NYC bookish events returned for it’s annual appearance! The NYC Teen Author Festival.

It was a busy work week for me, with back to back photo shoots mixed in with author panels. But I managed to catch a group of authors at a NYPL panel, and the “finale” Mega-Signing at Books of Wonder!

Elizabeth Eulberg, Tara Altebrando, Jenny Han, and Stephanie Perkins at the NYPL.

Stephanie Perkins.

Sarah Mlynowski.

At Sunday’s mega-signing, there were almost too many authors to count! I hauled a giant grocery tote full of books half-way across NYC to have signed by those appearing.

The always amazing Gayle Forman.

Jocelyn Davies and Anna Carey.

Kim Harrington.

Stephanie Perkins! Who I took a million photos of, because 1. She is adorable and SO BRIGHT. And 2. She’s awesome.

LOLA

“Fixing” a book for a fan who purchased a book from Barnes and Noble, already signed to some random dude!

Another great redhead: Andrea Cremer!

The funky lighting in Books of Wonder made a few of the authors rather “glowy”.

Barry Lyga.

David Levithan.

Jenny Han.

Corey Whaley and Jennifer E. Smith, with Mitali in the middle!

Jon Skovron with his awesome book, Misfit! (One of my 2011 faves.)

Jeri Smith-Ready

Melissa de la Cruz, who signed every.single. Blue Bloods book for me! –Ok, except the 2 I’d already had signed. 😉

We snagged Stephanie again after the signing for some fun portraits:

Michelle, Stephanie, and Bethany.

Me and Stephanie

Getting goofy!

See the full photo set here.

And my 2011 TAF post here.

2011 Teen Author Festival: Book Signing Event

On Sunday, I attended the closing event of the 2011 NYC Teen Author Festival– A HUGE book signing at Books of Wonder! 45 authors were present, to sign their latest releases and chat with fans.

I made it to the second and third panels of the day. When I first arrived, things were pretty hectic. The line was long, and no one was quite sure where to go. But once the authors for panel #2 arrived, things ran incredibly smoothly.

I hopped in one of the longer lines, for Lisa McMann. After a few minutes of waiting, I got to meet her:

Lisa is totally hilarious, and fun to talk to.

A little side note about the photos: I’m not sure what is going on with my iphone’s camera. After a month, you’d think I’d know how to use it! I’ve stopped bringing my DSLR to book signings when there are multiple authors present, because honestly it’s just too damn heavy. I was carrying six books yesterday, so I just went with the hipstamatic app. Which usually looks beautiful. I guess it just decided it was too excited to shoot photos in focus this time. ; )

Next, I met Melina Marchetta:

I’ve been meaning to read Jellicoe Road for ages (I’ve heard amazing things about it!), so I had my copy signed by Melina.

When I got back in line for the 3rd panel, I heard people buzzing about Ellen Hopkins being a surprise guest at the signing. Once I confirmed that she was indeed there, I ran back to the register and bought one of her books.
Ellen had another crazy long line, but was really nice, and more than happy to pose with fans:

I’m sure this would look great, if it was in focus!

Next up, was Kim Harrington. I read her debut, Clarity a few weeks ago right after its release. It’s a great combination of mystery, and just a little bit of the supernatural. Kim and I are twitter friends, so it was nice to finally meet her in person!

We got to talk about glitter! Kim (and about 10 other people) complimented me on my teal glitter eye liner.

The last author I met was E. Lockhart. I haven’t read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks yet, but it’s another book I’ve heard amazing things about. So I was excited to have my copy signed.

E. Lockhart and I.

The 4th panel of authors:

I also got to hang out with some fellow book bloggers! Pam from Midnyte Reader, Maria from The Serpentine Library, and Bethany from Bookish Bethie were at the signing too.

All in all, I had an awesome time meeting some great authors, and bloggers. I’ll be adding the Teen Author Festival to my list of yearly NYC events to attend. I ended up going home with a huge pile of signed books too: