We were lucky to host the second annual Indie Author Day at the Bronx Library Center on October 14, 2017. Four authors were featured: Annette Berkovits, who wrote Confessions of an Accidental Zookeeper, Rebecca Brooks, author of Make Me Want, a romance novel, Carmen D. Lucca, a Spanish/English author of The Sunset Watcher, and Anne Born, a poet who wrote A Marshmallow on the Bus. 

Reading and Writing on the Bus

Born commenced the program by speaking about how she became an author. At first, she read stories on the bus because she belonged to a book club and she wanted to use her commuting time productively. However, she then morphed into conceptualizing stories of her own and writing them while commuting on the MTA bus BX6. She has performed at open mics and at the New York Transit Museum. She has written poetry about many things, including making the bed and about what you see on the street while riding the bus. 

Boa Constrictors in Taxi Cabs

Berkovits retired as a vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society. She worked at the Bronx Zoo. Remarkably enough, she grew up without much contact with animals, and it surprises her that she ended up working with them. She grew up in the Himalayas, then lived in Poland and Israel. While in Poland, she learned that all of the family that she was looking for had been murdered. The Holocaust draped a dark cloth over her childhood. However, when she came to the Bronx Zoo, the animals were an entire world away from darkness and shadows. She found new life here. She read a vignette from her book about transporting a boa constrictor to Manhattan for a Captain Kangaroo children's television show. 

Bilingual Written Art

Lucca is a Spanish/English poet, and she frequently displays her artwork in the Puerto Rican Heritage Gallery on the fourth floor of the Bronx Library Center. She writes poetic meditations, which she read from for the audience. One poem that I found particularly powerful was about wondering where god was in the midst of horrendous genocide.

Romance Galore

Brooks is a romance author who has published four books in a series called the Men of Gold Mountain in the past year. This is about four friends who live in the mountains. They each have their adventures in a different season of the year. The stories are told from both lovers' perspectives. Brooks loves happy endings, so all of the conflicts are resolved by the end of her books. She is outdoorsy, and her novels spring from her personal experience. Two of her other books are set in Brazil and the Adirondacks. 

Audience Queries

I asked Lucca how her process was different for writing Spanish versus English poetry, and I requested that she read a poem in Spanish. She explained that if a poem came to her in her native language, she wrote it in Spanish. However, if it emanated from an experience with a friend in English, she wrote the poem in English. She orated a beautiful poem en Espanol.

Someone asked Berkovits how her escapade with the snake turned out. She informed us that she arrived at the CBS television studio, and the program went off without a hitch. 

This literary program was very entertaining and informative. The authors were very forthcoming about their writing process and creativity. I also loved hearing snippets of their work. It is great to discuss literature with authors. Hopefully, you will join us next year for another Indie Author Day at the Bronx Library Center! 

Annette Berkovitz's web site

Rebecca Brooks' web site

Carmen D. Lucca's web site