BookExpo & BlogBound 2017: Recap

Posted June 8, 2017 by Shelly in Discussion Post / 5 Comments

If you follow me on Twitter, then you know that I’ve been in NYC last week for BookExpo 2017 and Blogbound!

Based on a twitter poll, y’all wanted to see this recap in detailed jot notes so detailed jot notes it is! That way, I can share more details and hopefully make you feel like you were a part of the action.

I tried to integrate the photos but our theme is still wonky so they just went at the bottom. Hopefully you can still follow along?

On Wednesday, May 31 was Blogbound! It’s a free event organized by Nicole Brinkley and Julianne Daly, lovely book people, and I feel so honoured that I was able to participate and attend. It took place during the evening and it was a lovely way to end my full day in NYC.

I was a part of the Getting Political: Tackling Problematic Books in Our Current Climate panel, with Camryn Garrett and moderated by Heidi Heilig! The conversation was more chat-style and I loved finally meeting the fellow panelists, as I’ve been huge fans of them for the past few years.

During the day, I finally visited The Strand and Books of Wonder and it was lovely. I bought a few things and even met a blogger at Books of Wonder who recognized me and almost made me cry (I believe it was Bookcrushin on twitter) and it was just the loveliest thing ever. Totally made my day. I also attended a tour of the Bloomsbury office that morning, courtesy of the Blogbound organizers, and it was amazing.

Here are the highlights from Thursday:

I picked up my badge on Wednesday morning so on Thursday, all that we had to do was wait in line in the morning
Wandered around with Julie in the morning and picked up All About Mia which we both haven’t heard of
Went to the YA Editor’s Buzz panel (books discussed: Spinning, Beasts Made of Night, All the Wind in the World, 57 Bus, Dear Martin). On the panel were the editor’s of each book discussed and they talked about why they chose to work with the author and their book, it was really informative and entertaining
Met some friends in line later, like Vee and Kiana
Went to the Boom! Comics booth and everyone there was lovely, and they totally spoiled us
Attended the Daniel José Older signing and picked up Shadowhouse Fall (yessss!)
Like last year’s BEA, I went to Adam Silvera’s signing and he’s a delight as usual
Attended the special event, An Evening with Hillary Clinton! She was discussing her upcoming memoir with Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild. We got a signed bookplate and it smelled like sharpie so CJ and I think that she actually signed each bookplate
Met up with up with Cale Dietrich (author of The Love Interest) and Sonia Belasco (author of Speak of Me As I Am) for some ice cream and it was such fun, I also met Christine, an editor at Macmillan and she was the loveliest
Basically, everyone is lovely

Here are the highlights from Friday:

Stole Joey‘s bowtie for some awesome selfie game
I met Ashley Poston, author of Geekerella, and we had a compliment-off about our hair and it was just lovely
I finally met Nita Tyndall and it was the loveliest experience ever, a tackle hug was involved
I attended so many book signings: Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Tristina Wright, Anna-Marie McLemore, Katherine Locke, Julie C. Dao
I ran into Leigh Bardugo and Dhonielle Clayton on the show floor and they were both the loveliest people
A lot of Friday involved wandering around in between signing lines and seeing different people as I walked from signing to signing and there’s just nothing more surreal than seeing all your favourite book people in one place

Essentially, BookExpo was just one Twitter meet-up and I loved every second of it. I kept running into some bloggers that I’ve met before and it was lovely just to see everyone again. I am terrible at details so if this seems like BookExpo is just running around and taking selfies with Twitter people, you are correct.

I want to also thank all of my lovely roomies and friends, Joey, CJ, Mishma and Hazel, who were so awesome and supportive the entire time. They totally made this trip as awesome as it could be, and I am so grateful for them.