BookExpo America’s party season began with a bang at Monday night’s annual Literati-a-Go-Go BEA soiree hosted by literary agent, Donna Bagdasarian and publishing industry veteran, David Nudo.
National Book Critics Circle’s Jane Ciabattari and John Reed co-hosted the event which was sponsored by Agency212 and Palmer Vineyards.
Held at the posh, Vig 27, publishing industry’s who’s-who came out in droves. Open Road’s Jane Friedman, Sally Richardson of St. Martin’s Press, Jon Anderson of Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Division, and George Slowik of Publishers Weekly were just a few of the power players that intermingled.
“The party was bigger and better than last year,” Bagdasarian says and noted it exceeded their expectations.
Many were calling the event the perfect pre-BEA party of the year and perhaps rightly so as the mixed-media crowd consisted of power houses from the film, television, magazine and book publishing worlds — including BastardLife‘s Neal Boulton, John Mutter and Jenn Risko of ShelfAwareness Jerome Kramer of Kirkus, Sony Pictures’ Mark James and Philip Patrick of Crown Publishing; further evidence of how once separate industries are now colliding.
“BookExpo has always been a place for industry professionals to come together and exchange ideas and make things happen,” Nudo says, “The Literati-a-go events also has the same goal in mind.”
Guests laughed and exchanged cards while nibbling on hors d’oeuvres and drinking wine. One of the hot topics of the party was the changes in this year’s BEA as well as how their roles in the ever-changing book publishing industry have shifted and morphed.
The event did so well Nudo, Reed, Ciabattari and Bagdasarian are already planning their next event.
Photos Courtesy of RamonRivera.com