MOLI VIEW™

The Miami Book Fair International got off to a sniggering celebrity start Sunday with Rosie O'Donnell. The 24th annual event continues through November 11 with a street fair starting tomorrow, and dozens of readings by both youngbloods and literary luminaries: Madison Smartt Bell, Erica Jong, David Leavitt, Edwidge Danticat, Alex Ross, Susie Horgan, Amy Bloom, etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing my colleague Jana Martin, MOLI's contributing editor for Fashion & Design, read from her new collection of short stories, Russian Lover. The book's the debut title from Yeti Press; it's a dizzying collection of tales of young women facing down difficult circumstances: cheating husbands, leering strip-club customers, mountains of cocaine, etc. The fair will bring Martin back to familiar turf: Many stories are set in Miami in the decadent '80s – when the city was even more decadent than it is now, and Jana used to live here. Jana reads Sunday afternoon at 3:30 in the Centre Gallery, Building 1, in the downtown Miami campus of Miami Dade College. (Full disclosure here: Not only am I Jana's editor, but we have a long-distance writing group together – the Fictionaires – where many of these stories were workshopped, and she's a dear friend.)

Russian Lover is also the first selection for the MOLI Book Club's Book of the Month. Please sign up for the club, and let us know what you think of Russian Lover.

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