By Junior Martinez
With a TV dinner table, park chair and a signage that says “Meet The Author”, Garrett Buhl Robinson, 45 is a self published author, who sells his novels outside the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building main branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL). Robinson is currently living in a homeless shelter In Jamaica, Queens. To make money for rent and to continue to run his business of selling his novels, his option is selling his books in the street. “When I came to New York City five years ago, my purpose in New York City was to make contacts with publishers to sell my novels I knew from the beginning if it did not happen I was going to sell them in the streets,” said Robinson.
Robinson will be outside selling his novels outside the library almost everyday except bad weather conditions. He will wake up at 6 a.m., take the World Center bound E train to his storage facility in Chelsea, where he keeps his TV dinner table and boxes of copies of his books. Then will walk up to midtown, get coffee from the breakfast cart outside the library and set up his stand. He stays there for typically eight hours. Afterwards he has to run back to the shelter because he has a curfew of 10 p.m.“I am grateful for having at least having a bed to sleep at night, it is better than sleeping in the streets I tell you, I understand my situation I am at right now, It is not desirable, but my business helps me forget” said Robinson.
“I encounter so many different faces everyday from the typical library goer to tourist from different countries in the world” said Robinson. He has six books on display to sell. Two fictions; “Zoe” and “Nuntak” and four poetries; “Martha”, “Broken Open”, “Flowing Stone” and “Mobius Sphere” Robinson sells them for ten dollars with his autograph. “On a good day, I will typically sell five, is not much but it is better than nothing,” said Robinson.
Robinson knew at the age of 12, he would be a writer. Living in a small town in Trussville, Alabama. He was rewriting one of his favorite books “The Lord of the Ring” by J. R. R. Tolkien. “It was a challenge, I eventually gave up on it because I wanted to be a original piece of my own,” said Robinson
At the age of 21, Garett was stuck in life. He did not know what to do in his life. He wanted to leave his town. In February 1992, Robinson hopped on a coal train near his home and began a journey through the pacific North West. He traveled through Seattle, Vancouver and Portland for a year.
He would settle in Portland, where he would write his first novel. It was the first time he learned about the struggle of being author. “That was the first time, I learned about the mistakes of marketing my books,” said Robinson. After unsuccessfully marketing the book, he left for the state of Alaska to work at a salmon factory to pay the debts he owned to banks and book clubs.
In Alaska, He began to lost touch again with his writing, and started to question the future of his novels “When I arrived in Alaska I thought to myself my road to becoming a successful writer is coming to a close because I was stuck in a cannery packing fish, I had to accept that this was my life for now on, but me wanting to leave that factory motivated me to not forget about my passion and not give up, ” said Robinson.
In his recent novel “Nunatak” released in 2012. It is a novel he published about his experience in Alaska. Nunatak is a short story about one man’s life Evan and he shares his journey while working in a salmon factory during one summer. It is a story about the people he meets and his journey on the various paths he takes, the intersection of those paths, and not being willing to settle on life. “Evan is the fictional me and he learns that there is no rush. There is no finish. The real challenge is to survive,” said Robinson
After his stint in Alaska, Garrett moved to San Francisco. Garret worked various in part time jobs plus writing his poetry “Zoe” It was that moment when he realized he has to move to New York City, so he can get more connection with publishers. “San Francisco was the home for the tech, I did not belong there, so with the support of my parents I began my journey to New York City” said Robinson
“My couple of months here (New York City) was brutal, there was stretch I didn’t sell nothing,” said Robinson. After couple of months he learned how to become a strong salesperson. “Pitching to a consumer is really important if you want to sell at least one book,” said Robinson. He greets, who stops or who makes contact with a smile he says “Hi there, how is your day going?” Robinson asks a simple question. “Do you like to read?” and he follows up with, “Do you prefer fiction or poetry?” “Majority people love poetry,” said Robinson. He will usually recite one of his poetries from his latest poetry novel“Flowing Stone”
A Sonnet for the Sonnet
Being a sonneteer, I am enamored
by sonnets, but today to my delight
serendipity favored me to find
a university class the explored
the passionate history of the form.
The lecture described this frame tumbling through lives,
uniting affections through centuries of time.
There is no language that it scorns. There is no culture it cannot adorn.
This delicate and vigorous design
turns eternal through awakening minds
and endures with the desires it records.
I swear with my life and the lute I strum
as long as we love sonnets will be sung.
Regardless of getting a purchase or not he will give his business card, which include his website and his social media links. His hard work and hope of selling his books in front of the NYPL got him a big break. “Letters to Zoey” a play with music,”
“Zoe”, is his second novel that opened doors for Robinson. “Zoe” is a novella with fiction. It is in the same line as “Nunatak”, a character, who is finding himself as he traveling in a freight train, he writes letters to his childhood friend Zoey.
Producers United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row were interested at “Zoe”. Robinson at that time recently added a musical piece explaining to consumers about his novel “Zoe”, which grabbed the attention of United Solo Theatre Festival. Robinson made his Off-Broadway debut performing his musical, “Letters to Zoey” this past year in October 2015, at the Theatre Row in New York City. It was the musical of his adaptation of his second novel, Zoe. Eventually he did performed in different gigs throughout the year of 2015-2016
The Future is bright for Robinson. “Hopefully with this new opportunity it can help me move out of the shelter and I can find a place on my own, til then I’m still selling my books in front of the NYPL” said Robinson. Many regulars come by to say hi to Robinson. Carol Smith, 54 from Brooklyn are one of the regulars, who come to check on him. “Garrett is great author, he is living his dream even with the circumstances, he will have a big smile in his face,” said Smith. As 2016 comes to a close, Robinson hopes to continue to hop on the success wave of his musical, just like he did in February 1992 hopped on to a train that led him to create his novels.