Laila’s reading last night was, as expected, superb. She read two excerpts from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, focusing on the character Aziz. The audience was captivated.
And so was I, but I was also the dufus who shut off her cellphone just as the reading was beginning but who hadn’t changed it so it didn’t make noise as it shut down. So there were several seconds–which felt like hours to me–of a loud chiming coming from my person. In addition, my camera has a CRAZY flash and so at one point I believe I might have blinded Laila (you will not be seeing that photo because her eyes are closed, as are the eyes of everyone in the audience because the flash was tantamount to a nuclear explosion). Still, my unfortunate gaffs did not deter Laila from giving an excellent reading and from answering some lively questions from the audience afterwards.
Reading alongside Laila, was Christopher Castellani from his book The Saint of Lost Things. I found him utterly charming and shall be buying his book for sure.
After the reading, we went to dinner with Laila, the utterly delightful Xujun Eberlin (Xujun’s most recent published story can be found in AGNI 62) and her husband, as well as the very cool Bookdwarf and her partner. It was a fun night and I’m so glad we made the trip to Cambridge to celebrate Laila and her book.
myfanwy collins 