Scene @ Downtown Omaha Lit Fest

I ventured out to Nebraska over the weekend for the (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, getting into town just in time for the opening night party at the W. Dale Clark Library. The reception included a silent auction for the works exhibited in “Speaking Volumes: Acts of Defacement,” a series of distressed books which had been culled from the library’s shelves and handed over to artists to make of what they would. Among the most notable items, at right: Kurt Cobain’s Journals and a book about John F. Kennedy, shot at in the appropriate (so to speak) spots with rifles by Kenneth Adkins and Scott Blake, who’ve put photos of more of their work online.

After wandering around the Old Market district Saturday afternoon, I was responsible for moderating two of the festival’s panels. First, a discussion on adapting literature into film, with (top row, from left to right) authors Rick Dooling, Will Clarke, and Timothy Schaffert (who was also one of the festival’s key organizers). We got a lot of good stories about dealing with Hollywood out of that one—Rick wrote the novel that Sidney Lumet based Critical Care on and was a producer for Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital, while Will’s in the early stages of seeing his first novel, Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles, worked over for the screen. Then I hosted a talk on blogging with Melanie Lynn Hauser, Jami Attenberg, and “Omaha Momma” Jessica Kennison. After that, I could just sit back and enjoy the show, so I sat in on a humor panel that featured Clarke and Amy Guth (center) along with Ad Hudler and Charlene Ann Baumbich (bottom).

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