The Small Press Center celebrates its 20th anniversary tonight, and as part of the festivities, they’ll be bestowing their annual Ben Award (named after founding father and independent publisher Ben Franklin) upon Workman Publishing founder Peter Workman. It’s the kickoff event for this year’s Independent & Small Press Book Fair; among the many free events taking place this weekend is a panel called “Is Blogging Dead?” Both of your Galleycats, Ron Hogan and Sarah Weinman, will be weighing in on the subject, along with Maud Newton and Dennis Loy Johnson. (It’d better not be, otherwise the recently launched Metaxu Café, which collects headlines from an assortment of bookblogs, is going to have a short half-life…)
Anyway, in recognition of the Center’s longevity and the upcoming festivities, Mayor Bloomberg has declared that today is Small Press Center Day here in New York. So, I dunno, go to a bookstore on your lunch break and buy a book published by a small press!