Anthony’s Index to the Festival

 

 

 

 

Ten Memorable Sessions

 

 

An hour with Loretta Napoleoni

 

The New Zealand Listener Opening Night

 

An hour with Sarah Hall

 

Where do underpants come from?

 

An hour with J.M.Coetzee

 

An hour with Hermione Lee

 

An hour with Simon Montefiore

 

An hour with Tusiata Avia

 

Edith Wharton and the Young Stalin

 

An hour with Michael Pollan

 

                                     

                                Five Praiseworthy Chairs

 

Mark Sainsbury

 

Peter Wells

 

Manying Ip

 

Selina Tusitala Marsh

 

Chris Trotter

 

 

Five Sessions Missed with Great Regret

 

 

An hour with Shonagh Koea

 

An hour with James McNeish

 

An hour with Philippe Claudel

 

Travel writing workshop with Thomas Kohnstamm

 

Ryan Knighton – As slow as possible

 

 

Note: One cannot be in two places at the same time, regrettably!

 

 

Anthony’s Sunday at the Festival

An hour with Anne Enright

 

 

Given my previous comments about the ‘hour with ….” Format, this session only reinforced what can go wrong if the chair imposes themselves on the occasion. For reasons which baffled not only the audience, but Enright herself, Kapka appeared unable to let go of a couple of bones, to the detriment of the opportunity to explore both the writer and her work. Corridor talk left me thinking that many felt somewhat cheated in this session.

 

For, Anne Enright came across as a deeply thoughtful, thoroughly committed and courageous Irish writer who demands considerable attention. Her use of language was a sheer delight, both in the readings and her part of the conversation. I have already reached into the book shelves to educate and inspire myself with an important writer.

 

May I leave you with a potpourri of quotes to tease your interests:

 

          “I also write about reproduction…..

 

          My women need to be ordinary…

 

          I am very interested in uncertainty…

 

          I am anti- Rose of Tralee…

 

          I am against the idea of importance…”

 

 

An hour with Professor John Gray

 

 

Gray, a prominent British political philosopher/author is currently Professor of European Thought at the LSE.

 

His talk started from the premise that progress in human affairs is an illusion. Although, he does believe that progress in science and technology is possible and open to proof.

 

He argues that the world’s great advances, for example the prohibition of torture, are ultimately reversed – see contemporary Iraq.

 

After a very broad outline of the contemporary landscape, Gray left us with two predictions:

 

·        The future global war will be fought over finite resources, e.g. water

·        Global redistribution of resources is not possible.

 

However, his final offering cheered us all up – a Polish saying, “Don’t put too much hope in the end of the world”.

 

 

 

Edith Wharton and the Young Stalin

 

       

 

Great session, well chaired by Harry Ricketts, himself a biographer.

 

Two very intelligent biographers, who approach their craft from quite different sources – literature and politics – provided a wonderful chat.

 

Their warmth and respect for each other and their respective work ensured 60 minutes of enthralling, humourous, insightful and engaging conversation.

 

Each agreed that it is absolutely necessary that their subjects are compelling; no less than the delights they brought to us in too short a time.

 

 

 

An hour with Michael Pollan

 

               

 

Pollan, a very engaging speaker and acclaimed author of the bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, spoke passionately about the food industry and its parasitic relationship with the environment and the health of the world’s population.

 

His most recent book, In Defence of Food: the Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating, promotes the simple and yet vital truth – Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. The next 50,000 words, to satisfy publisher demands, elaborates on these insightful suggestions.

 

Pollan deserves to be read and discussed by all seeking an alternative to the fast-food world that is only leading us at catastrophic speed to a global pandemic.

Anthony’s Auckland Day Three

An hour with Simon Montefiore

 

 

 This was a scintillating hour with a most acclaimed historian who has tackled the subject of Stalin, not once but twice. The first being, Stalin, the Court of the Red Tsar, and the second title being Young Stalin. Both biographies have been highly acclaimed. 

 

Recently, Montefiore has completed his first novel, Sashenka. The novel is set in the times of Stalin. But for Montefiore this novel gave him the opportunity of describing how people and families survived these times. He was particularly interested in knowing how children survived. The time of terror has been written about many times, its effect on people has not received the attention it deserved. For The author, the novel format offered the ideal format to tell the story without being dependent on the facts.

 

Montefiore outlined his journey with the Kremlin from approval (for his earlier book on Catherine the Great) to rejection, in access to archives being made very difficult. Some wonderfully funny anecdotes were shared, including the janitor who had assumed the title of the Professor at one archive, and fixed Simon in his glare with one question – Are you going to be fair to Comrade Stalin?

 

One of the most important conclusions Montefiore leaves us with concerns the calculability of those around Stalin. In fact, as we view the history of dictatorships throughout the world, the same calculability is present more often than not – Zimbabwe, Chile, the list goes on.

 

Full marks to Finlay Macdonald for his intelligent chairing of the session.

 

 

 

 An hour with Hermione Lee: the Michael King Memorial Lecture

 

 

 

 

To date this ranks as one of my highlights of the entire Festival. Lee is an articulate, engaging and thoroughly entertaining speaker. When academics get it right they really do  a superb job!

 

For the last 17 years Lee has spent considerable time in the company of two of literature’s most important writers – Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton. This period has produced two outstanding biographies. At the same time Lee has become of the most significant modern-day biographers. Her wonderful book, Body Parts: Essays on Life-Writing, supplements the biographies themselves in a most approachable manner.

 

Lee’s passionate overview of the writing of Edith Wharton painted a totally insightful and complete (as far as the biographer is able – Montefiore later exclaimed – we can never know anyone) picture of the formidable character of Edith Wharton. A thoroughly stimulating hour in the presence of a superb presentation and most engaging person.

 

An hour with J.M.Coetzee

 

 

                             

 

 

As I walked out of the theatre I overheard the comment an exchange as follows – “he is such a weird person…. but he can write”. I suspect that Coetzee would have smiled wryly if he had heard such an exchange. The expectations were high; the theatre was nearly full for one of world literature’s most significant writers. The Independent recently reported “if you are interested in literature, ideas and the reach of art deep into the heart of humanity – you must read Diary of a Bad Year (his latest work). And yet… many were left dissatisfied. Why?

 

I suspect it has something to do with the expectations around writers and readers festivals. And those expectations certainly clash head on with Coetzee’s concern with how human life is embodied in his writing. I am sure Coetzee’s response to disappointment will be to refer the reader to his writing (as he did in this session by reading from three of his earlier novels). It is clear that some author’s feel deeply uncomfortable with the theatre of festivals. I have heard a writer at a previous festival refer to feeling as though he was in a cage at a circus. Surely, we can respect a different view but at the same time never forget it is the body of their work(s) that is the key not a one hour session. 

 

I remember some years ago attending the Wellington Writers and Readers Festival to hear a life-long favourite, the exiled Somalian writer Narrudin Farah. I joined the book signing queue to offer my thanks for his work over the years and welcome him to New Zealand. After a very quick exchange, I turned to leave, very satisfied and honoured with the human contact. The person behind me in realising that I had not asked for a signature was heard to say to her friend, “what a weird fellow”!!

 

Coetzee outlined the censorship process in South Africa during the apartheid years. He personalised it in recounting, thanks to a contemporary find in archives, assessments of three of his earlier titles. He then read from each of those titles. He did not have to say anything more.

 

Sure I could feel he was not particularly engaging; humourless (not true!); cold and unapproachable. However, I left the theatre feeling deeply moved by a giant of world literature. Later that night I began re-reading Elizabeth Costello and dipped into Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship. I realised forcefully that we can rush to judge a book by its cover or an author by a one hour session at a festival and miss the significance of that person’s gift to humanity and the canon of literature.

 

Thank you Peter Wells and Stephanie Johnson, Creative Directors of the Festival.

 

 

 

 A Few random thoughts at the end of Day Three

 

 

What does it say about our priorities when a news reader or an All Black can demand and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for reading the news or playing rugby and at the same time a poet such as Tusiata Avia is on the DPB?

 

 

 

 

Anne Enright: the glimpse offered at a session on the short story was intoxicating! One of the great dilemmas at any festival is about choice between two concurrent sessions. Day Four opens with the choice between an hour with Anne Enright and a session with Thomas Kohnstamm and travel writing. I still have not made my choice!!

 

 

 

Philippa: You Know when you’re done with a story when…..

Favourite short stories from the Pro’s (AND ONES TO READ AND RE-READ WHEN I GET HOME!)

 

Anne Enright - Fat by Raymond Carver

 

Sarah Laing - Bliss by Katherine Mansfield

 

Peter Ho Davies - The Dead by James Joyce

 

Kate Camp (who chaired this session) The Doll’s House by Katherine Mansfield

 

Have a happy Sunday guys!!!

 

Philippa on Day Four - some kernels (and emotional truths)

I woke at 4am with my head full of voices.  Here are some of the louder ones:

“It is always the changes you don’t want, that change everything” Junot Diaz

 

“”Landscape goes into the making of us” Sarah Laing

 

“Never read your own writing.  It’s an exercise in self loathing” Steve Braunias

 

“”Ordinary things, through the agency of time, become treasures”  Iain Sharpe

 

“”The most important moment in any dialogue is when people stop [talking]” John Burnside

 

“I use it like prozac.  It calms and charms and gives you ideas. ” Shonagh Koea on reading Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time

 

“Where you come from is not who you are” Kapka Kassabova

 

“We have to explore the blackness.  Humour is a way of going there and NOT drowning”. Tusiata Avia

 

“A novel is a problem….a series of issues.  It’s like a marriage.  [When writing one] You are married to your fucking novel”  Anne Enright

 

“A good ending (the last line) is like a pebble dropped into a pool - the reverberations come afterwards”  Anne Enright

 

“Readers of biography are greedy readers.  They have an insatiable appetite for detail.” Hermione Lee

 

“Fiction will deal with what’s in your soul”  John Burnside

 

“I hear silences.  I see empty spaces.  Cities I find too distracting - there is too much noise - too many characters.”  Sarah Laing

 

“A negative hallucination is when you refuse to see what is right in front of you.” Junot Diaz

 

“When delving into history, your own, the major protagonist you have to forgive is yourself” John Burnside.

 

This sure is one NOISY hotel (yawn).

Genny’s thoughts on Saturday

More poetry!! Checked out the open mike session running from 10am -2pm. Penny Ashton from poetry Idol the night before was in charge. She was toned down from the rowdy pub scene, different venue. She kept everyone on order and more or less to time something you need to run good flowing poetry.

 

It was great to see how the Aucklanders run these things as we are wanting to get our own off the ground. Got lots of ideas, suggestions and contacts. The 3 hours included a mix of hopeful unknowns of all ages and a smattering of of established poets. My two favs were  Kalo Mila and John Burnside. John is one of the international guests from Scotland his poetry is very earthy.

 

Went to a great session “You know you are done with a story,,,” with Peter Peter Ho Davies, Anne Enright, Sarah Laing. it was very good, Anne Enright is a very clever witty writer I look forward to an hour with her tomorrow.

 

“Show and tell the slide show” was a lovely session. Four fantastic visual books. The speakers all talked about the importance of how things look. The Art in a book is the whole package, 

 

Two highlights for the day:

Spoke to Witi Ihimaera, he is a wonderful man and an hour of Tusiata Avia. She is a goddess. Got a photo of her signing my copy of her book  “Wild dogs under my skirt” 

 

So another Fabulous whirlwind of a day

Philippa’s Saturday thus far

I am starting to feel just a little “spacey” this afternoon as I settle down to update you on this incredible experience that is Auckland Readers and Writers (or maybe the late night last night at the London Bar has something to do with it?). The calibre of writers here is quite mind-blowing and we have little time to reflect on sessions before we are running to the next one - this morning I ran from J M Coetzee to Hermione Lee for example. ….. Witi Ihimaera introduced Coetzee, and declared “every household should have at least one JM Coetzee book in its library”.  Coetzee lectured on censorship, read (well) from 2 of his earlier works though didn’t invite questions from the audience. Personally I didn’t connect with him. Then into meet Hermione Lee, literary biographer, who was accessible, generous in her Q&A time and really brought her latest subject Edith Wharton to life. Lee, who has also written a biography of Virginia Woolf, says she has filled the last 17 years of her life with these two women……and in her opinion Woolf is the greater genius; dark and complex.  I certainly now want to read Wharton - especially her letters which have been published and sound fascinating. Lee’s biography of Wharton is LARGE - she said it was so big because she wanted ethnographic denseness of the material, and also to let Wharton’s voice to speak……I am heading on down to look at the wonderful books from Unity and Women’s bookshop now, and maybe time for coffee before heading into another session.

Pauline’s Random thoughts on Saturday:

Most poignant moment of the festival so far was seeing Heath Ledger’s face and hearing his distinctive voice on the big screen, in a session on film making – a documentary on the making of Candy.

 

It’s lovely to see Patricia Kay’s smiling face at the festival Information Desk.

 

Thank you Waka for putting our comments onto our blog, at the same time as you’re busy launching our new Library Cyberspace software.

 

Thoughts on blogging: OK if you have the time and adequate technology.  I’m sure you can read between the lines….

 

Dedication is researching for 7 years (on Edith Wharton) and 10 years (on Virginia Woolf) as Hermione Lee has done

 

Anxiety is hearing that Steve Braunius is looking forward to reading our blog entries about him (gulp – Rebecca what did we say?)

 Happiness is new books, festival t-shirts, purple coats, and tapa bags (not all purchased by me!)

5 Books Rebecca Will Read When She Gets Home

1.  God of Speed - Luke Davies,

After a seedy/saucy reading from his book about Howard Hughes, Luke Davies wanted everyone to know that he does not approve of the man’s ugliness and misogyny.  He wrote a fictionalised account of the extraordinary man’s addictions to sex and drugs and other problems that led to his fall from a great height. Possibly not a book that I would have read if I hadn’t heard Davies speak about it but now I am quite interested to learn more about a man he described as unlovable and “a dried up husk of a man”. 

 Pauline and Luke Davies
.

2.  Lullabies for Little Criminals - Heather O’Neill

If Heather O’Neill moved to Palmerston North I hope she would be my new best friend.  I thought she was great and all reports suggest that her book is likewise. 

 

3. Where Do Underpants Come From? - Joe Bennett

Obviously the answer is China and this book is mostly about that country and its absolute massiveness, which left him in awe.  Joe Bennett used to be a teacher and he gives us a lesson in Chinese history in the book with suggestions as to where the country is headed - probably global domination of more than just the world’s supply of underpants.  He put on a fantastic and funny show for us.

 

4. Cockeyed - Ryan Knighton

 When Ryan was fourteen he ran over someone with a forklift, he covered up for himself by telling his boss at the time that he was going blind (after telling us this chairperson Kim Hill said “and God punished him for that”), several years later he was diagnosed with a condition that meant eventual complete blindness.  The star of Saturday night’s film “As slow as possible” is also a travel writer going around the world one sense at a time to teach people to appreciate their other senses. ”Cockeyed” is Ryan’s memoir, for a fairly young man he had many ridiculous and funny stories to tell and I want to hear more of them.

 

5. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Unfortunately Junot was obviously tired and possibly a bit grumpy so wouldn’t be persuaded to read from his book again today so I suppose I’ll have to read it for myself.  And maybe I’ll learn a little about the Dominican Republic.  It sounds very good and has won Junot lots of prizes.

Finally some of our team Photo’s

See we do exist

Philippa and one of her poetry heroes, Karlo Mila

Philippa’s Friday Catchup

 Philippa admiring artwork from Karlo Mila’s new book ‘Written on the Body’ (launched Friday 16th May)

It’s a poetry kinda day at R&W and there is lots of it.  I loved “Who do You think You are” a session featuring 2 of my all time favourite poets, and focusing on identity.  Karlo Mila is a NZ born poet of Tongan and Pakeha descent.  She says there’s no polite language when speaking of “mixed” decent.  Her new book “Written on the Body” was launched here at the festival and is a beautiful, sensuous, work of art – rather like the poet herself!!  Check out the photo of one of the artworks that feature in the book. Happily Karlo is living in P.Nth, and so we will see her performing at the Library in the near future!!!  Tusiata Avia is of Samoan Palangi descent and a stunning performance poet (whom we also saw at Poetry Idol held at the London Bar).  She is often confused with other Pacific Island writers she says, and joked “we are all just one big amorphous Polynesian writer”!  To Samoans she is Palangi, to Palangi she is a Samoan.  Identity is a shifting thing…..The third writer at this session was Kapka Kassabova – a Bulgarian Born NZer, now living in the UK.  Kapka says she was born in Bulgaria but is not Bulgarian…..and “where you come from is not who you are”. 

 
Poetry Idol

Everything it was cracked up to be – 200 people all queueing to get into a poetry event at a bar in downtown Auckland.Hardly need to say more…….It was insane and heaven all at once. 10 amazingly talented performance poets all competing for the ultimate title of poetry idol (plus $300 prize money) and 3 star judges – Tusiata Avia, King Kapisi and Heather O’Neill.  Loud, dramatic, fabulous…..we will definitely be coming back home to explore how we can have something like this going on in Palmerston North.

 

Rebecca waiting on her oversized chair at the Aotea Centre