Isn't it lovely to start my new blog with the impressions of my stay at the Edinburgh International Book Festival!
For the records: I left Amsterdam Schiphol with a suitcase of 18 kg - two weeks later I returned with 24 kg and a backpack full of books. All in all I brought back 26 books: 17 signed, 14 books by women, eight books of poems with one copy by Carol Ann Duffy (Poet Laureate) exclusively sold at the festival due to be published in October. Ten books are by authors not living in their country of origin, one in German, one book for young adults, one anthology, four books of short stories, one book about life in modern India. And I am proudest of those books that were given to me as token of friendship - my humble thanks for those! Yet, much more important than statistics: I returned with lots of wonderful impressions of people who love stories - those who tell them, those who write them down and those enjoying reading them; I enjoyed the atmosphere of the word being spread, to meet the authors, to hear them read their stories with their own words, in their own rhythm, their very own voice. I listened to Adam Zagajewski, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Tahmima Anam, Jenny Erpenbeck, Michel Faber, Kamila Shamsie, Manon Uphoff, Kevin Barry, Lucian Teodorovici, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Angela Saini, The Man Asian Literary Prize winner Bei Feiyu, Manu Joseph, Tabish Khair and the Newton First Book Award Nominees Rahul Bhattacharya, Anjali Joseph, Neel Mukherjee, Sanjeev Sahota, Naomi Wood and many more.
I got introduced to young adult stories by Gillian Philips, discussed Canadian poetry with Jim Nason, Ruth Pierson and their fellow poets, laughed along with Don Paterson on Shakespeare's Sonnets, and was taken away at Carol Ann Duffy's presentation. You'll get an impression yourself reading this blog regularly as all female authors will be presented during the next months on my blog - reason to check it every month! At last a word to those who reached out: many thanks to Peggy and Lilias from the Scottish Poetry Library and the work they do, warm thanks to Ruth and Jim and their poet friends, Ian from London who introduced me to Gillian Philips, Jane from Spain, and John Molleson and his family. And last but not least special thanks to Namita Gokhale, director of the Jaipur Literature Festival in India, chairing some of the events at the EdBookFest, giving me deeper insight on Modern Indian Literature. Now, it's time to read!
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Scottish Poetry Library
Jaipur Literature Festival