Scores of publishers, authors, and librarians attending the American Library Association Conference in Chicago were stranded in the Windy City, as a blizzard dropping more than 19 inches on the ground Sunday snarled travel. The storm, according to the Chicago Tribune, is the fifth largest blizzard to ever hit the area.
Approximately 1,500 flights in and out of O’Hare and Midway airports were cancelled Sunday and Monday, just as the ALA was winding down. Flights are expected to resume on a regular basis Tuesday.
The travel delays have been worse for some than for others. Michelle Bayuk, the newly-hired associate director of children's book marketing and publicity at Quarto USA, was supposed to fly home to New Jersey a week ago from a sales conference in Southern California. She intended to spend a day at home before flying to Chicago for ALA. Due to the blizzard disrupting travel on the East Coast last week, Bayuk was forced to fly to Newark on Thursday, arriving only hours before her flight to Chicago, and without enough time to leave the airport and later return.
“I had to borrow a winter coat from [Albert Whitman Co. editor] Wendy McClure, and gloves and a scarf from [Egmont USA sales & marketing director] Margaret Coffee,” Bayuk said, noting that after a Sunday tea for about 40 librarians and authors hosted by Quarto at the Drake Hotel on the Magnificent Mile, the bus driver spent an extra hour dropping each person off at his or her hotel.
Bayuk, who was planning on leaving Chicago Monday morning, is booked on a flight out of O’Hare Tuesday morning.
Walter Foster publisher Anne Landa was scheduled to fly home to San Diego on Sunday evening, but as her cab approached O’Hare, she received a call that the flight was cancelled. Minutes later, her cab fishtailed and went off the road. Both she and the cab driver were unharmed, and Landa is re-booked on a flight departing on Tuesday afternoon from O’Hare.
Chicago’s 400,000 public school students weren’t the only residents enjoying a snow day on Monday, when schools closed due to the weather: the Chicago Distribution Center closed for business on Monday at noon, leaving a voicemail promising to open up again Tuesday morning.
Agate Publishing's Doug Seibold was able to dig himself out from his home four blocks away from Agate’s Evanston’s offices, while his 20-person staff worked from home. The University of Chicago Press’ staff also worked from home, and most of Sourcebooks’ staff made it into the office in Naperville, despite power outages and driving difficulties.
The majority of Albert Whitman’s staff was able to get to McCormick Place for meetings there on Monday, while a few stayed home to work. And at IPG on Chicago’s North Side, publicist Caitlin Eck reported that while many employees worked from home on Monday, Triumph Books's staff was at the office in full force, working on its instant Super Bowl book, due to hit stores in the Boston area this weekend, commemorating the New England Patriots victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
Things were just as mixed-up at local bookstores. The Book Cellar closed early on Sunday afternoon, but had a normal day on Monday, including two book groups meeting at the store. Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville both closed on Sunday and cancelled Monday evening’s author event with Irvine Welsh (The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins, Doubleday). The Seminary Co-op hosted an offsite event with Cornel West on Sunday afternoon that drew 1,200 people. While sales at the store on Sunday were slow, due to the combination of the Super Bowl and the weather, $3,500 in sales of West’s book, The Radical King (Beacon Press) more than made up for the shortfall.
