Brooklyn Literary 100

Earlier this month, the literati of the blogosphere were buzzing about Lawrence Shainberg's forthcoming novella, "Crust." Now, the buzz is about "The Brooklyn Literary 100," a feature published on April 22 by The New York Observer.

"Manhattan -- especially the Upper West Side and Greenwich Village, and Elaine's -- for years occupied a special place in the city's literary landscape," notes Doree Shafrir in her introduction to the Observer's list of Brooklyn's 100 top authors, editors, literary agents, literary cocktail party hosts, magazine and newspaper writers, and bloggers. "But making the jump across the East River, and onto Carroll Street and Clinton Avenue -- along with the assistants and junior staffers and newly minted MFAs -- are now the likes of (No. 1 New York Times best-selling author!) Jhumpa Lahiri; Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss, who famously bought a Park Slope townhouse for $3.5 million in 2005; and the veritable Renaissance man Kurt Andersen, who makes his home in Carroll Gardens."

Of course, we know all this already. As a Bostonian, I used to resent being forced to know so much about Manhattan -- its street addresses, its neighborhoods, who lives where. So I didn't enjoy visiting Manhattan as much as I might have; however, I enjoyed visiting Brooklyn because it was, by comparison, terra incognita. Now, I don't really like visiting Brooklyn, either. Still, Shafrir is amusing when she makes fun of an imaginary Brooklyn literary scene:

And so they clack away on their MacBooks at Ozzie’s or the Tea Lounge in Park Slope or the Central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, and do readings at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg or the Brooklyn Lyceum, and contribute to A Public Space or One Story or n+1, and meet their editor for drinks at Union Hall, and play football in Prospect Park on the weekends and tutor kids at 826NYC and buy their friends’ books at the Community Bookstore or Book Court and raise money to fight the Atlantic Yards project by contributing essays to a book called Brooklyn Was Mine, published by Riverhead in January.

Anyway. I bring this silly Top 100 list to your attention because two former Ideas staffers, Alex Star (Cobble Hill) and Laura Secor (Prospect Heights) are on it. Go team!

PS: I won't mention all the ex-Bostonians on the list. That would be beneath this blog.