Architect Anne Jackaway and attorney Pete Ferrero are both longtime fans of Miami Book Fair. She’s attended every Fair since its inception in 1984; he’s been going for years and became an official Friend of the Fair in 2022. “I snuck in all the other years,” he said, laughing. The two of them met at Book Fair 2019 and have been an item ever since. We thought that made them the perfect choice to kick off this year’s Friends profiles, since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.
You met at Book Fair a few years ago – how did that actually happen?
A: Mary Jo Francis [a longtime Friend of the Fair] and I are good friends and share tickets. Her brother and sister-in-law also come to the Evenings With programs. So that’s how she was able to invite Pete – that year they went to the weekend events instead, so Pete came with us to an Evenings With during the week.
Oh, so you’re both friends with Mary Jo and she introduced you.
A: Yes – we’ve both known Mary Jo really well for years and years. She and Pete were public defenders together and I’ve been in a book club with her for a long time.
P: Yeah, I was a public defender for 35 years, and then I went into private practice, part-time. I’m sort of semi-retired but I still do one or two trials a year.
So it was definitely a setup?
A: Well, I didn’t know who Pete was. I didn’t know that he read a lot, I didn’t know anything about him other than the fact Mary Jo said I should meet him. But she didn’t tell me that she was also introducing him to other people, too! [all laugh]
The thing that really clicked with me is that I’ve always been adoring of Tim O’Brien. I love Tim O’Brien, I love his books. I probably started out in college or high school with Going After Cacciato. In the Lake of the Woods, The Things They Carried – that’s just brilliant – and he was at Book Fair in 2019 and I told Pete, you have to go see him. We were in Chapman and I said you have to walk across the street, but you have to go. And he did.
So afterward I’m standing in line [at the book signing area] because I always like to get my books signed and Tim O’Brien never shows up. The other authors are there but Tim O’Brien isn’t, so I decide to go looking for him. And who do I find on the steps leading into the auditorium, but Pete talking to Tim O’Brien!
They were so deeply engrossed in their conversation. I think that was a seminal moment for me, that Pete could engage Tim O’Brien, who is one of my superstar authors, and they were so engaged that Tim completely forgot to look for where he was supposed to be signing books, and he’s just standing there talking to Pete. [laughs]
P: I think we were talking about the Dolphins.
A: Whatever. [laughs]
P: It was nothing literary. [all laugh]
A: But you kept his attention. I was going to get my book signed and then meet you at Tuyo, and I was worried I was going to be late. Instead I got my book signed by him on the steps and then we went to Tuyo together. And I just thought that it was so special – if Pete could draw Tim’s attention and just chat him up, you know I just thought to myself, “I really gotta pay attention to this guy.”
How did you first find out about Book Fair?
A: I think it was the street fair – that’s how it started out really, and then Book Fair evolved into all of these authors that we could sit and hear and meet, and that’s what makes it so thrilling, seeing these people in person.
P: It was about 15-20 years ago and it was word of mouth. You know, you work with a bunch of lawyers and somebody’s been going to Book Fair for like 50 years and so they tell you about it. [laughs]
Do you always Book Fair together or do you break off for different things and then meet back up?
P: We go to some things together – for the nighttime programs we basically go to those together – and then for the weekend, because there’s so much to do and she has her interests and I have mine, we split up. Last time we went to three evening programs together.
Which ones?
P: Jimmy Johnson … who else? Kevin Nealon –
A: He was great! I had no idea he’s the artist that he is.
P: There was that fabulous television personality, what is his name …
Billy Porter?
P: Yes! Billy Porter. [See Porter’s MBF22 session here.]
He spoke with Ana Navarro.
A: Yes. And we also saw Patti Smith –
P: No, I didn’t go to Patti Smith.
A: Well, I did. [laughs] I wouldn’t miss Patti. It was the third time I’ve seen her at the Fair.
After getting your socks knocked off by the Tim O’Brien thing, Anne, did the two of you start seeing each other right after that?
P: Yeah, right after that.
A: December the first we had our first date and we’ve been together over three years now.
Where did you go on your first date?
P: What’s the name of that place, Anne?
A: Well, it’s a great restaurant – it changed its name and then it closed for a while; I don’t even know what it’s called now. But we went back this past December 1 [for our anniversary].
P: It’s an outdoor restaurant in Miami.
A: It has a beautiful garden behind it. It’s a great place to meet.
P: Of course it was her idea – I didn’t know anything about the place. I walked in and there was like a fountain going and gardens and birds chirping, and you know, harps – look at this place.
Angels wept.
P: Yeah, exactly. [laughs] My suggestion to go to a sports bar went down the toilet.
I’m thinking the Tim O’Brien thing is one of Anne’s most memorable Book Fair moments – Pete, what about you?
P: The one I have is about 10 years ago, I’m paging through the [Fair guide] and there’s this guy I never heard of before, Robert Clark, and this book I never heard of before, Dark Water, and I was like, lemme give this a shot. So I walk into the classroom and there’s like six or eight people there – which happens sometimes with Book Fair – and the guy starts telling the story about his book, which is about the Venice flood of 1968 and how they restored everything. And I love this so much that I went to Venice and hired a guide expressly to show me the restored artwork that [Clark] had written about in this book.
That’s the thing about Book Fair – you go to not the packed things, but the little things with the not-so-famous authors and it ends up blowing you away.
That’s a great lead-in to my next question – what new authors have you discovered at the Fair?
P: I’m reading Stacy Schiff’s biography on Samuel Adams right now. [See Schiff’s MBF22 session here.]
A: I like seeing political people and historians that talk about the world. Can’t think of anyone right now. I loved meeting Marlon James; he was fabulous. Julian Barnes is one of my favorite authors and I saw him at the Fair and just loved him. Russell Banks, too. Mary Jo’s brother was sitting in Tuyo that year saying how much he adored Russell Banks – who happened to be in the room at the time but Mary Jo’s brother-in-law didn’t know what he looked like – so I walked up to him and asked him if I could borrow him for a moment and brought him over and introduced him to her brother-in-law. I thought he was gonna fall on the floor; he was so thrilled to meet one of his favorite authors. Sy Montgomery – I do not eat octopus ever after reading Soul of an Octopus.
P: Oy.
What’s the last great book you read?
A: Hernan Diaz, In the Distance. And one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. That blew me away; I love that book.
P: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.
If someone wrote a book that told the story of your life, what would it be called?
P: A Father’s Life.
A: That’s a really good one for you.
P: My father was a tremendous influence on me, and I’ve got a daughter.
A: I don’t know.
P: I’ve got one for you: The Woman Who Can’t Throw Books Out.
A: [laughs] That’s just a little piece of me! I think it might be Perseverance. That’s because I’ve had ups and downs throughout my life and I’ve told my children that the pendulum swings, and you hope for a wide arc. A wide arc means you get great rewards, but it also swings the other way so you get things that you’re not expecting that aren’t good for you. But you hope for the wide arc.
Interview by Elisa Chemayne Agostinho.
