Bibliophile heaven

It was wonderfully fitting that my last Saturday in Charlottesville was spent at events sponsored by the Virginia Quarterly Review for the Festival of the Book:

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10am
“Walt Whitman, An American, One of the Roughs, a Kosmos”: Whitman’s Self-Invention
Presentations by David Kirby (The Ha-Ha), William Logan (Reputations of the Tongue, Desperate Measures), and Heather Morton (Walt Whitman Archive)

12 noon
Did the Modernists Get Rejection Slips?
Explore a journal’s historical, humorous correspondence with former editor of POETRY magazine, Joseph Parisi (Dear Editor: A History of POETRY in Letters).

2pm
“Do I Contradict Myself?” Who Is the Real Whitman?
Presentations by Robert Creeley (If I Were Writing This), Stephen Cushman (Cussing Lesson), and Ed Folsom (Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song).

8pm
Robert Creeley Reads His Poetry
Join poet Robert Creeley (If I Were Writing This, Life & Death) for a poetry reading.
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I was also able to spend some time at their Whitman exhibit and the other new exhibit, American Journeys: Columbus to Kerouac (which knocked my socks off!).

I took copious notes, so I hope to post more later.

Meanwhile, Ron at Beatrice has four dispatches from author Pearl Abraham, who also spoke.