top photo by Jeffrey Moores, bottom row by Cesar Cruz

In addition to all the amazing literary events I'd previously mentioned were taking place while the National Book Awards were being handed out, Jonathan Safran Foer and Howard Jacobson had what sounds like a fascinating conversation about Jewish literature at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble. Brian Ulicky, Jacobson's publicist, told me how Foer introduced Jacobson by saying his nove The Mighty Walzer "does for table tennis what Portnoy's Complaint did for masturbation," and then Jacobson read from his new book, Kalooki Nights, and then when the conversation had gone on for an hour, "Howard asked the audience if he could read a bit more and they responded with applause and even more questions."

A world away downtown, Wanda Lee Robinson (bottom left) signed copies of her memoir, Stopless, at Rapture Café in the East Village. About 60 people came to see actress Laura Yuhasz read an excerpt from Robinson's account of working as a burlesque dancer in '70s New York, while contemporary dancer Howling Vic performed two dance routines, including this number with a hula hoop.

And then, just before I was about to hit "save" on this post, Sarah Reidy of Soho Press sent some photos from Anne Landsman's packed reading at McNally Robinson and the afterparty at Chinatown Brasserie.