panels – Three Percent /College/translation/threepercent a resource for international literature at the URochester Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:38:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 What Makes a Good Panel? /College/translation/threepercent/2009/04/30/what-makes-a-good-panel/ /College/translation/threepercent/2009/04/30/what-makes-a-good-panel/#respond Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:40:50 +0000 http://www.wdev.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent-dev/2009/04/30/what-makes-a-good-panel/ This was the question that Leon Neyfakh from the asked a few people at the recent PEN Foundation annual gala. The answers aren’t all that provocative or surprising: Edmund White points out how most panels are “an exercise of competing egos rather than an effort to communicate or focus on the topic” and Daniel Menaker (whose project seems to have gone into permanent hibernation) offers up the excuse that most authors aren’t good at interacting with the public.

The one comment that I completely agree with is from Rhonda Sherman (organizer of the New Yorker Festival): ““In general, it’s not a party unless there’s blood on the floor. There needs to be tension on a panel. You need to have some disagreement. If everyone agrees on the panel, it’s a total snooze-a-thon.”

Every panel needs a contrarian to really foster a discussion. Otherwise it’s easy for these events to devolve into a series of disconnected, individual presentation.

]]> /College/translation/threepercent/2009/04/30/what-makes-a-good-panel/feed/ 0 The Future of Book Reviewing /College/translation/threepercent/2007/08/28/the-future-of-book-reviewing/ /College/translation/threepercent/2007/08/28/the-future-of-book-reviewing/#respond Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:26:10 +0000 http://www.wdev.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent-dev/2007/08/28/the-future-of-book-reviewing/ For anyone in the New York area, the National Book Critics Circle will be hosting a .

Officially entitled “The Age of Infinite Margins: Book Critics Face the 21st Century,” panel discussions will take place at Housing Works on Thursday, September 13th and Friday the 14th, with a Sunday event taking place at the Brooklyn Book Fair.

(I’m not sure Thursday through Sunday constitutes a week . . . possible there are more events that aren’t listed here.)

Some of the participants include Barbara Hoffert (Library Journal), Brigid Hughes (A Public Space), Jeffrey Lependorf (Council of Literary Magazines and Presses), Scott McLemee (Insiderhighered.com), John Freeman (NBCC president), Erica Wagner (Times (UK)), Jennifer Szalai (Harper’s), Steve Wasserman (Truthdig.com), and Dwight Garner (New York Times Book Review), Eric Banks (Bookforum), David Kipen (NEA), among others.

For anyone interested in book reviewing, this should be a great set of events.

Also

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