Paper fans decorated with dead poets.



Human swarm around the Crayola-colored tents. A diamond-bright day, the air smelling of hot dogs and spray paint.



A girl smoking a cigarette while flipping through a paperback in the shade.



First in a long line for Jonathan Lethem, who read about eagles and skyscrapers.



Listening to South Florida YA authors: Gaby Triana, (who took pictures of the crowd with her iPhone), Danielle Joseph (who read about her DJ-obsessed heroine as a hiphop beat thumped in the background), Alex Flinn (who shared Beastly movie gossip), and my literary fairy godmother, Joyce Sweeney (who once met an angel on a motorcycle).



Listening to the Miami Poetry Collective read, bucket brigade-style, then sign their anthology like a yearbook on the last day of school. Talking with their patron saint, Campbell McGrath, while he autographed the fold-out broadsheet.




Outside the wedding-style tents, a woman posing with strap-on wings.

Riding the MetroMover home, arms loaded with brand new books, surrounded by smiling strangers, doing exactly the same thing.