The Happy Booker: Ain't Too Proud to Beg

Readers of the Happy Booker know that I have been angling for a free ticket to the PEN/Faulkner Awards gala for quite some time (refresh your memory here, here, and here.)

Ha Jin, this year’s winner, will be reading with four other finalists, Edwidge Danticat, Jerome Charyn, Marilynne Robinson, and Steve Yarbrough, followed by a $100 a plate dinner served in the hallowed halls of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

This is the literary social event of the season in DC. And where will the Happy Booker be on the big night? Home watching the pre-awards show on E! unless I make some headway on the whole free ticket thing….

Actual phone conversation where the Happy Booker tries the direct approach and goes straight to the top.

THB: May I please speak with Steve Goodwin, co-founder of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, twice president of the organization, and more or less permanent Board member for life?

SG: Happy Booker, I know it’s you, I have caller ID.

THB: Come on Steve, think about how cool it would be to have blogger coverage of the whole shindig.

SG: Are we doing this again? Sorry, no free tix. Not for you, not for me, not for any board members or the many writers who come. It costs $100 for everybody but the award winners and their guests.

THB: Did you know the National Book Critics Circle Gala charges only $40 a person, and that’s in New York City, where the dollar values are doubled!

SG: I know, I know. It seems steep. But where else are you going to see Ha Jin dance? We do have a band, you know. The food is excellent, and the dress code is fun formal? I'm not sure what to call it when writers get all dolled up.

THB: Can you at least give me an idea about what I will be missing?

SG: Well, as often as I've been, I still look forward to the ceremony the way that someone else might look forward to a tent revival. It's a renewal of the faith, an affirmation that people are still out there writing wonderful books. PEN/Faulkner was founded not just to recognize and honor the best works of American fiction but also to help them find an audience of readers.

THB: Bloggers can help writers find an audience, too! And we’re free— unless you count that little thing we signed about our souls.

SG: Look, our mission is like yours —it's to get people to read good books. In addition to presenting the awards, PEN/Faulkner runs a reading series here in Washington, and our Writers in Schools program put books into the hands of thousands of high school kids in Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, and Kansas City as well as here in DC. The writers of those books also visit the high school classrooms —and having been to several schools both as an observer and as visiting writer, I can say that the writers get as much of a kick out of the experience as the students.

THAT is where your $100 goes, it helps pay for a small part of that.

THB: Well, now that you mention the kids, I feel a little more inclined to raid my children’s college account and buy a ticket.

SG: Can I put you down for two?

THB: Do I get a discount if I volunteer to help with the Witers in School thingy?

SG: Nope. But if you come, I promise to save you a dance!

By the way, if you ever invite me over to that blog of yours to program your iPod I would put on a lot of Marc Cohn and Eva Cassidy, with a few old torch songs thrown in, just to keep the cheese factor at a high level.

THB: Oh, don’t worry, Steve. You’ll be appearing on the blog sooner than you think!

SG: You’re not quoting me about all this, are you? Hello??

Steve Goodwin is a kind man with a wonderful sense of humor. Patient and talented and not prone to lawsuits with cheeky bloggers, his most recent novel is Breaking Her Fall.