Monday, May 07, 2012

Festivals & Festivities.

I'm off for my annual dose of literary society - to the Auckland Writers & Readers festival this weekend. I'll be there primarily as a punter, but I will also be chairing this session with Paula Morris and Stephanie Johnson, which should be lively and intelligent given the calibre of the brains and personalities involved (I'm talking about the writers, not the chair... oh never mind). They have both written wonderful novels, based on the lives of their ancestors and there will be a lot to talk about. I am also looking forward to seeing Jeffrey Eugenides, Emily Perkins, Eion Colfer, Geoff Dyer, Jesmyn Ward, Mal Peet, just to name but a few.

Then it'll be back to Christchurch to start preparing for the launch of Red Rocks (see below). The official launch will be at the Children's Bookshop in Kilbirnie on June 7, and I'll be posting more details as I have them. I'm hoping then I can have a bit of a break, but things just seem to thunder on and just as one thing falls out of the wagon, another usually jumps in to take its place.

2 comments:

Kiwicommunicator said...

I would love to know what you thought of Jeffrey Eugenides. I finished The Marriage Plot before the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival and I have finally managed to retrieve Virgin Suicides which my husband nicked from my side of the bed before I could read it. Book club on Tuesday - let me tell them your comments!

Rachael King said...

Hi Kiwicommunicator, Middlesex is one of my favourite books of all time. I was looking forward to The Marriage Plot immensely, and I definitely enjoyed it, but I didn't LOVE it. I admired it, certainly. At the festival I thought he was a great speaker, warm and lively and quite generous. The session he did with Emily Perkins, chaired by Jolisa Gracewood, I enjoyed in particular. Great questions, great conversation, such a rapport between teh three people on stage. A delight.