Graywolf Press’s mascot, the gray wolf, might be on the list of endangered species (although word has it the U.S. government intends to take it off that list), but the press certainly isn’t in any danger; in fact, it’s coming off of a year marked by triumph, such as a Pulitzer Prize for one author (Tracy K. Smith) and an NBCC Award in Poetry for another (D.A. Powell). Plus, it’s launched a new Web site after raising $25,000 through Indie-gogo.com and rocked the marketplace, with a record year in sales revenues.
To celebrate, Graywolf welcomes conventioneers to its lair, or rather, booth (1563), with authors, book giveaways, and even candy.
Today, Ru Freeman will be in-booth at 2 p.m. to sign copies of On Sal Mal Lane, her May novel set in Sri Lanka before and during the time of troubles there in the 1980s. To sweeten the deal, milk toffees—a Sri Lankan delicacy beloved by the characters in On Sal Mal Lane—from Sigiri, a Sri Lankan restaurant in the East Village—will be offered to booth visitors.
Fall releases will be given away as well. While author Kathryn Davis won’t be able to stop by the booth during BEA, Graywolf staff will be giving away signed ARCs of her novel, Duplex (Sept.). Galleys of Robert Boswell’s Tumbledown (Aug.), his first book since Century’s Son 10 years ago, will also be handed out, as will Dark Lies the Island (Sept.), the second novel by Kevin Barry released in the past year. And Graywolf isn’t forgetting Saturday’s Power Readers: 100 special BEA editions of Barry’s City of Bohane, which will be officially released in paper June 4, will be handed out to Power Readers on Saturday. “We’re hoping that the Power Readers will fall for the book’s wildly inventive prose as much as we all have, and that we’ll be one step closer to achieving Barry’s ultimate goal: utter world domination,” says publicity manager Erin Kottke.
