Gregory Holch

Well-known young adult and children's book author William Sleator died on August 3, 2011. This afternoon, I attended a memorial in his honor held in the auditorium of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

His longtime editor, Ann Durell McCory, spoke, as did Elizabeth Law, Susan Van Metre, and Stephen Weiner. His brothers Tycho and Danny gave emotional readings from some of his books and from letters written by friends and fans. Tiedan Yao played some of William Sleator's favorite pieces by Ravel and Debussy on the piano.

William Sleator wrote 26 novels, four books for younger readers, short stories, and a collection of autobiographical stories called Oddballs. I re-read Oddballs last night, and it's an excellent

The annual meeting of the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) was this afternoon from 2:00-5:00 p.m. Norman J. Jacknis (Director of Cisco IBSG Public Sector and METRO Board President) announced that Jason Kucsma would be the new METRO Director.

Suzi Oppenheimer (New York State 37th Senatorial District) and Rachel Sterne (Chief Digital Officer, New York City) received awards and gave brief talks. Maureen Sullivan (President-Elect of the American Library Association) gave the keynote address. (Hey, Seth Godin, she knows who you are! She mentioned your writing on user experience in libraries.)

I guess it's not news, but I saw this scene in New York City this afternoon, and I had to stop and take a photo. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a Smith Corona manual typewriter. I like the fact that it's labeled "Galaxie" along the top.

Is this scene a comment on technology that has become obsolete? Is it telling us something about the value of writing Read More