Wednesday, October 27, 2010

festival weekend

The 2010 Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival is now over. Fortunately I didn't miss the whole thing while I was hanging out in Ontario. I volunteer for the festival; most of what I do gets done ahead of time, but I made it home on Friday in time to wash my car and drive out to the airport to pick up David Mitchell (his latest title is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet). I was star struck before I met him, he writes such good stories, but even more now, as he is quite lovely. What a relief. Imagine if I hadn't liked him. How would I explain those novels?

Anyway, I got a half hour of him to myself, a fantastic perk to this particular volunteer job, and then went to hear him read on Saturday evening. Again, he was interesting and gracious and funny. Really, if you haven't read any of his books, do, because his books are absolutely brilliant, which is the most important thing about him.

It was a most extraordinary weekend really, because I drove several other authors too, as well as members of their families. I had several good conversations, and didn't crash my car, which means they all got where they were going, at least while they were with me.

And I went to three other events besides Mitchell's, and listened to several writers whose work I didn't know and will look for now. And bonus, on Sunday afternoon I got to hear Ivan Coyote read/tell another story. She is worth the price of admission to just about anything. And on a whim I went to the last event Sunday night, and picked up The First Person and other stories, by Ali Smith, because I liked what she read and I liked what she said.

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