Singapore Writers Festival launches

So it may be awhile before I blog again here! We had a great opening panel, with Peter Goldsworthy, Wei Hui, Nuri Vittachi, Rudhramoorthy Cheran, and Rattawut Lapcharoensap. It is a tradition in Singapore to start off with a panel representing writers working in several of Singapore's languages... the host was Singaporean writer Philip Jeyaretnam, who did a terrific job. For more news on the Singapore Festival, please see the Festival website, and in particular the Chairman's blog.

Technorati Tags: literaryfestivals, singaporewritersfestival

Edinburgh on its way to a new record?

The Scotsman is are reporting that the 2005 edition will break attendance records set last year. After the first week the count stands at 108,000 people - 17 per cent more than a year ago. Recordings and transcriptions of some of the key events are already available on the Festival website.

Moorish Girl blogs Breadloaf

One of my favorite literary blogs is Portland, Oregon based Moorish Girl, aka Laila Lalami, whose Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits will be out in the US in October. She's attending the Breadloaf Writers Conference, on a workstudy scheme, and is blogging the event.

giving good interview

Which writers do best? This article by novelist and journalist Adam Langer divides writers into five groups:

The Freewheeling Improviser
He/She Who Does Not Suffer Fools Gladly
The Unself-conscious Subject
The Consummate Storyteller
The Genuinely Decent Human Being

What's fun about the article is that Langer gives medals to the authors he's interviewed who best fit these descriptions. Nadine Gordimer told him "ask me a stupid question, I'll give you a nasty answer." Fair enough, says Langer, and gives her bronze medal in the He/She Who Does Not Suffer Fools Gladly category.

Technorati Tags: literaryreviews

What's it like to chair a session at the Edinburgh Books Festival?

Rule number one: read the book...

See this tremendous article in the Herald

Byron Bay write-up in the Age: "less earnest, more relaxed"

From one of the panel chairs, journalist Jane Sullivan.

According to the article, writer participation is a key element of what makes Byron Bay fun:

At the big festivals, writers tend to do their gigs, sign some books and disappear. But quite a few writers at this festival turn up in the audience at other sessions, asking questions and making comments from the floor, or just sitting quietly, doing a little professional development. They seem to like taking part as both performers and spectators.

Technorati Tags: literaryfestivals

Is the Singapore Writers Festival Selling Out...?

...for including bloggers in its line-up. This was the spirit of a story in Singapore daily, Today. The story was useful in fact, but just begins to deal with the issues of programming blogging and bloggers in a writers festival.

Technorati Tags: singaporewritersfestival

Edinburgh off and running

According to the Scotsman, the Book Festival is off to a record year. Olivier Joly says the Book Festival has already sold more than 50% of tickets, with 130 events sold out. Joly is further quoted "The festival is growing in stature every year and we are on course for our largest festival yet in terms of numbers with more than 200,000 people in attendance. The children's events are selling extremely well and the web traffic is up 50% which is extremely encouraging as many more people are booking online."

what's up in science fiction?

4,500 people expected for Worldcon 2005 - the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society. See this report in Guardian Books.