The 2 day schools programme at the AWRF was a great success - packed audiences for both local and international writers with lots of questions and chatter and vows to read all the books. Anna McKenzie and David Levithan were the big hits. Anna Mackenzie's The sea-wreck stranger is a well thought out story set in a possible New Zealand landscape.
The Opening night event in the ASB theatre was also packed, the audience listening eagerly to the readings of five very different writers. Commentating on the Festival is a team from Christchurch Libraries who are producing several blog posts a day with audio interviews as well. Check out the Christchurch blog here. Richard Liddicott described last night session in these terms:
Thomas Keneally had some masterful turns of phrase; Emily Perkins read an unpublished piece full of sensory detail; Colm Toibin read as if he was delicately tip-toeing a merry dance, even breaking into song; Lionel Shriver displayed her ‘beguiling barbarity’ – dropping some swear-bombs that had the audience squeezing their knees together, but also some stunning phrases such as ‘kisses that were like sucking a coin’; William Dalrymple capped it all off with his fascinating descriptions of ‘religious lunatics’. Minstrels who make Glastonbury look like a Rotary dinner, an orthodox priest on the West Bank, and a cricket-loving Indian customs official who loved ‘Bottom’ – Ian Botham.
I agree that it is a treat hearing from the authors direct. Richard's final comment was that in print they impress you – in person they astound.
I'm back at the festival today to be astounded!
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