Lancaster Litfest 2012 - Curate's egg picks

In an ideal world, I would immerse myself in books for a whole week, gliding seamlessly from event to event, and talking all things literary with friends old and new over coffee and cake.

Since I can't possibly enjoy it all, here's my selection from a packed program of events:

Wednesday 17th October - Gothic Young Adult Fiction. After last year's excellent talk on pushing the boundaries in YA fiction, my daughter's really looking forward to this one. With Cliff McNish, Chris Priestley and Celia Rees.

Thursday 18th October - David Constantine (winner of the 2010 BBC National Short Story Award) and Adam Marek read from their short fiction collections.

It's so tempting to spend the whole weekend of 20th/21st enjoying the Poetry Shindig (Saturday) and Prose Shindig (Sunday), but I'm rationing myself to a couple of events each day.

Saturday 20th October - Gillian Clarke & Robert Crawford. Two poets, one Welsh and one Scottish. In At the Source, Clarke writes with great passion about the relationship between language and place so I'm hoping for more of the same.

Saturday 20th October - An Evening with John Hegley, poet, comedian and performer. This is the event chosen by our book group. I've never seen Hegley before, but having watched clips on YouTube I'm looking forward to an entertaining evening.

Sunday 21st October - And Other Stories present: Deborah Levy and Oleg Zaionchkovsky I'm intrigued by And Other Stories' unusual publishing route, involving readers in the publishing process through of a series of readers groups, on-line forums and discussions. Deborah Levy's novel Swimming Home has been short-listed for the Booker Prize. It's a disconcerting book, with some great writing. I'll be posting a review soon.

Sunday 21st October - Jo Baker and Zoe Lambert - The Right to Imagine. Two North West writers talk about the role of war in story telling.

There's too much else going on to mention it all here, but you can find the whole programme on the Lancaster Litfest website.

Autumn reading and other matters

These are busy times. Last week, my Italian exam and my son's grammar school entrance test. This week, a job interview and graduation at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. It's times like these when reading gets pushed to the edges of my days. Yet it's at these moments when reading can keep me sane. Given all that's going on at the moment, it's good to have some things to dip into. I'm enjoying my Litfest related reading. Gillian Clarke's poetry and her reflections on the relationship between language and places in At the Source are a joy to read. I find myself reciting her lines out loud in the bath. 

Ear to the wall of the night. Listen

to your blood beat in the pulse of your pillow,

the water table rising in your bones,

the future drumming the ground like a train on the track.

I have short stories to entertain me too - Zoe Lambert's collection The War Tour and David Constantine's Tea at the Midland and other stories. The Midland Hotel in Morecambe is one of my favourite places. It was the subject for one of my first posts on this blog. I've always thought it would be a good setting for a short story and I'm rather miffed that Constantine beat me to it. I must admit he made a rather good job of it though, winning the 2010 BBC National Short Story Award.

On the prose front, I'm currently re-reading The Outsider by Camus. This book bowled me over when I was seventeen and I'm curious to see what effect it will have on me now. As you can probably tell, my Classics Club Challenge has taken a back seat over the last few weeks, so I'll be looking forward to getting back in the swing of things with Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel. Rebecca is the only du Maurier I've read until now, so this will be my literary box of chocolates over the coming weeks.

Finally, thanks to Lizzy's Literary Life I have The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Turkish writer Emine Sevgi Ozdamar. The story of a young Turkish migrant worker who comes to Germany, the review describes it as 'a witty, picaresque account of a precocious teenager refusing to become wise.' This was the second book I have won this year. Perhaps I'm on a lucky streak. I certainly hope so.

Lancaster Litfest - first impressions

I've taken a first peek at Lancaster Litfest's 2012 programme. It may just be that I've overdone the caffeine today, but now I'm all aflutter.

It's probably more years than I realise since my first experience of Lancaster Litfest. I heard Wendy Cope read at the Dukes Theatre. I'd never been to a poetry reading before and I wasn't sure what to expect. I felt sure that all female poets must wear scarves. I've even tried wearing a scarf myself, but I still couldn't make my lines scan.  Wendy Cope didn't wear a scarf, but she did look like my grandma and her poetry was warmly received. By the time I saw Carol Ann Duffy in 2010, I was hooked.

Last year our reading group went to hear Carol Birch talk about her Booker short-listed novel, the wonderful Jamrach's Menagerie.  I took my daughter to the discussion of young adult literature and wondered about drawing boundaries in teenage reading, before realizing that the boundaries had been crossed without my even realising.

My brief excursion into creative writing did go some small way to demystifying the art of writing. No longer did I view writers as gifted gods, far above Premiership footballers and Hollywood actors. These were people like you and me. Didn't they have days too when the ideas didn't come, or the words clumped together on the page like lumpy porridge? I was determined not to feel out of place amongst the 'literary types' in both the audience and on the stage.

So this year, in a spirit of adventure, I have put myself forward as a volunteer to promote Lancaster Litfest in the ether and anywhere else where people will listen. I have no idea what this will entail, but I'm hoping it will lead to some interesting experiences and blog posts too.

I've yet to study the Litfest brochure in all its details, but I've already circled the poet Gillian Clarke and Jo Baker, author of The Picture Book, reviewed in my last post. My daughter's eyes lit up at the mention of the  Gothic young adult fiction event, so that's another for the diary.

You can view the Lancaster Litfest brochure here. Let the reading begin!

Every Day Poets

I'm making shameless plug today for my Open University friend Larraine Nicholls. I've always admired the originality and power of her writing. You can find her poem, 'Stripped Yet Dancing' featured today on Every Day Poets.

In praise of Prufrock

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;

I wonder if all book lovers have a moment of epiphany, when something moves or excites them to say 'yes, this is why I read!'  I've had a few such moments over the years, where something I've read has spoken to me about what it means to be human.

I'm not a poetry buff, but one of my first such moments was reading T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'. I was seventeen at the time, studying English Literature in a rather uninspiring comprehensive school in a very ordinary northern town. Certainly as a teenager I could identify with the frustration, angst and excruciating self-consciousness of poor Prufrock. Haven't we all, at some point, experienced 'The eyes that fix you  in a formulated phrase', leaving you 'pinned and wriggling on the wall'?

I still love the musicality of the poem, the repetition and the imagery.  For me, it begs to be read aloud, like an incantation.  And despite the clever literary illusions, I think it's incredibly accessible.

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

A successful day

Good news today.  My friend Vee's poem, 'Father', is to be published.  William Thirsk-Gaskill reminded us of the launch of the 2012 'Grist' poetry anthology, in which three of his poems are included.  It's too easy to put poets and writers on a pedestal, so it's good to see ordinary people, with hard work and talent, making a success of their writing.

Although not on the same scale, I'll consider my day successful too.  The Zola/Hardy essay is taking shape which is no bad thing since the deadline is tomorrow.

We're finally replacing our sixteen-year old cathode ray TV with a flat screen one.  Trying to watch 'Zookeeper' with a view the size of a letterbox was the final straw.  So, on Saturday we'll be able to watch Sky Sports in glorious 40 inch LED technicolour.  I can hardly wait.

Finally, a poem by another one of my Open University friends inspired me to write a poem of my own about my grandmother.

So, all in all, I'll call this a day well spent.