I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from Wordstock and Lit Crawl. What a crazy, damp day of literary edification and having to check my backpack everywhere. If you missed the festival (or left after waiting in line forever, sad face), here are EVEN MORE photos taken by the Mercury‘s Pat Moran, who braved some of the fest’s most hyped authors so you didn’t have to.
How hyped? Well, at least in the case of John Irving, so renowned that it’s difficult to think of John Irving as a real person. But he really was at Wordstock! Here he is, in a Q&A with OPB’s Dave Miller:
- Pat Moran
- OPB’s Dave Miller, with John Irving
That’s right! It’s the author of every book your dad likes!
- Pat Moran
- John Irving
Here’s what Ned Lannamann had to say about Irving’s latest:
As with all of Irving’s work, tragedies abound. The cloud of Catholicism hangs over each of these characters, and the book contains long discussions about the Virgin Mary and her Mexican apparition, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Much of the writing is completely engaging; Irving’s a master at both setting up his stories’ improbable events and appropriately withholding narrative information; the way the not-exactly-orphans’ story unfolds is sentimental and funny… Avenue of Mysteries does nothing to change the perception that Irving’s greatest work is behind him, but this weird, inexact, shape-shifting story does stick with you—it’s more than a reasonable consolation prize.
Elsewhere, Lidia Yuknavitch and Chelsea Cain appeared at OPB’s State of Wonder event, alongside their fellow writing group members Monica Drake and Suzy Vitello.
- Pat Moran
- Lidia Yuknavitch and Chelsea Cain (#friendshipgoals)
You heard right! They’re in a writing group together, and Yuknavitch especially strikes me as a great literary citizen.
HEY. it’s my belief that you are not a fully evolved writer unless you are lifting other writers up as part of your writing practice.
— Lidia Yuknavitch (@LidiaYuknavitch) April 30, 2015
Where could I possibly have gotten that idea?
Also at the State of Wonder event: Author and illustrator Carson Ellis, author Maile Meloy, and the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy. Maile and Colin are sister and brother, Ellis is married to Colin, making them Wordstock’s adorable family retinue:
- Pat Moran
- Maile Meloy and Colin Meloy
- Pat Moran
- Carson Ellis and Maile Meloy
Awww. See you next year! Maybe Wordstock’ll add at least one additional venue to thin crowds a little.