courtesy Vanity Fair

Christopher Hitchens as he came into the world

Next month will mark one year since the death of journalist, polemicist and bon vivant Christopher Hitchens. Though the loss of the Hitch has been hard for his legion fans who fed lustily on his dispatches from around the world, few could have felt it more deeply than his best friend Martin Amis and his widow, Carol Blue. On Saturday at the Miami Book Fair International, they were joined by Hitchens' editor at Twelve Books, Cary Goldstein, to lead a joyful remembrance of Hitchens's life and work.

Amis, who was also at the fair with his latest novel, Lionel Asbo: State of England, led off with a story about Hitchens tangling with some well-dressed "upper class hippies" as the two attempted to enjoy dinner in 1975.

See also:
- Junot Diaz on Writing Men, Stories as Art, and Star Wars
- Naomi Wolfe's Vagina is All Up In Your Ladybusiness

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Feminist author and ladyparts researcher Naomi Wolf.

Naomi Wolf has spent her career defending women from the culture they live in, from 1991's The Beauty Myth, an assault on the value of women's physical appearance in society, to Misconceptions, a feminist examination of the world's response to pregnancy and childbirth. But in her latest work, she's defending the very thing that defines femininity itself, at least from a scientific standpoint: the vagina (and its associated female reproductive parts).

Born from Wolf's own medical quest to regain her own sexual vitality, Vagina is a look at the science of ladyparts -- and how that science can affect society at large. In advance of her reading at the Miami Book Fair International on Saturday, we spoke with Wolf about the difference between good sex and great sex, feminist haters, and of course, her favorite euphemism for The Big V.

See also:
- Junot Diaz on Writing Men, Stories as Art, and Star Wars
- At Miami Book Fair International, Naomi Wolf, Irvine Welsh, and Mark Helprin Bring Literary Heat

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Wikipedia CC

Dave Barry.

Your average bookworm would get an absolute thrill from the Miami Book Fair International's lineup next weekend. Uber-geeks, on the other hand, are going to totally, well, geek out. Event organizers have carved out an awesome space just for us nerdy types.

See also:
- Miami Book Fair International Announces Author Schedule
- Miami Book Fair's 2012 Dates and Authors

Here are the top things geeks should make a beeline for at the Fair:

For the intellectuals with a sense of humor, be sure to check out author and South Florida darling Dave Barry and The Onion writers Seth Reiss and Will Tracy as they show off their respective books, Lunacy and The Onion Book of Known Knowledge (Saturday, November 17, 10 AM, Chapman Conference Center, Building 3, 2nd Floor, Room 3210).

Click through for more geek-approved events.

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Nina Subin

Junot Diaz reads at the book fair Monday, Nov. 12.

We're less than two weeks away from the 2012 edition of the Miami Book Fair International, and now, at last, lit lovers can start planning out their schedule of author events, street fair browsing, and children's events, and more.

The book fair released its schedule of events this morning, featuring enticing options each day from November 11 to 18. Think readings by publishing's biggest names. Food demonstrations to satiate your appetite. Arts performances by the region's most talented artists. And happy hours and erotic panels for those of you who are just in it for the hedonism.

We're breaking down the most exciting events for you after the jump.

See also:
-Miami Book Fair Announces Full 2012 Lineup

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Wikipedia CC

Tom Wolfe is among the confirmed authors at this year's Miami Book Fair International.

Feels like just yesterday we were passing out during a Chuck Palahniuk reading and listening to Michael Moore daydream about his fantasy Florida documentary. But the last edition of the Miami Book Fair International was, in fact, way back in November 2011. And according to organizers, the 2012 event will have even more excitement in store.More »

Flickr Zachklein

​If you have never been to the Miami Book Fair, may we suggest you do. Not a huge fan of books? Neither are we. We CliffNoted our way through college. And if it isn't written by a celebrity, we probably want nothing to do with it. Which is exactly why we were in when we heard Darrell Hammond would be presenting his new controversial autobiography at the book bonanza. And Saturday night, we got one of the last seats available -- in between a hipster and an abuela.More »

cc: david_shankbone

​Michael Moore closed out the 28th edition of the Miami Book Fair last night with a standing-room-only discussion promoting his new book Here Comes Trouble. The book is a collection of non-fiction stories and anecdotes from the filmmakers life.
 
The event started 30 minutes late. The crowd was surprisingly older. Moore came on stage and cracked a few jokes about PBS broadcaster Jim Leher, who read in the same room prior, and blamed him for the late start. Then he credited book fair president Mitch Kaplan for championing all things literary. Moore, to his credit, seemed familiar with Miami's landscape and colorful characters.

"For years I've wanted to make a film about Florida," he explained. "I'm convinced that six months down here would make for the most hilarious and interesting documentary."

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Photo by Sean Grant

​Chapman, the biggest auditorium on the Book Fair grounds, was packed. It was a young crowd, pretty white for Miami, one might think they were in Austin or Portland. In Hipster-biblio-ville, there's plenty of plaid and an army of bespectacled soldiers.
 
Chuck Palahniuk walked on stage to a thunderous cheer. Wearing tight brown leather pants, he took in the adulation with a humble demeanor. "The world is filled with wonderful tales," he explained, "tonight will not be that."
 
Looking like a post-modern, skinny Jack Kerouac, Palahniuk explained how the night would transpire: first, a game, then a story, then a Q&A, and in conclusion another game. 

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photo by Jonathan Saunders

​As much as he loved visiting Hogwarts, something always bugged author Lev Grossman when he worked his way through J.K. Rowling's epic."I found it really odd that Potter never seemed to have read C.S. Lewis growing up. No one in his world seems to have ever read any fiction at all, in fact," says Grossman, who speaks at the Miami Book Fair International this weekend. "I don't think Hogwarts' library even has a fiction section."

So when he created his own fantastical realm full of young magicians -- starting in his 2009 hit The Magicians and continued in his new sequel The Magician King -- Grossman took the exact opposite approach.

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photo by Sean Grant

​What would happen if Judy Blume rewrote Dante's Inferno to star a sexually repressed teenager who thinks she's in hell for overdosing on pot? There's only one author alive qualified to tackle that question; luckily Chuck Palahniuk, maverick author of Fight Club and Choke, decided to give it a shot.

The result is a rollicking trek through a land of cascading shit waterfalls and oceans of hot vomit populated by Hitler and a cast of teen stereotypes out of the Breakfast Club. Palahniuk -- who visits the Miami Book Fair International this weekend -- uses the gruesome setting in Damned, his new novel, to skewer America's Puritan obsession with healthiness.

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