I went to two author talks last week (both were free events) and I was reminded why it’s ace living in a UNESCO City of Literature.
The first event was part of the Wheeler Centre’s Double Booked series. Favel Parrett and Anna Krien talked about their new books, There Was Still Love and Act of Grace respectively). At the second event, hosted by Readings, Charlotte Wood talked about her latest book, The Weekend (review to come but spoiler alert: I LOVED it). Continue reading
Last night I had the great pleasure of hearing authors Chad Harbach and Jeanette Winterson speak as part of The Wheeler Centre winter program.
The story of Harbach’s debut novel, The Art of Fielding, is one of those publishing fairy tales – it took him ten years to write and when he was finally ready to show it, the book was rejected by all except one agent. According to Harbach, it seemed that the themes of the book, baseball and homosexuality, “…kind of cancelled each other out in terms of ‘audience appeal'”. Fortunately, publishers saw The Art of Fielding differently and the book was the centre of a fierce bidding war – it sold for $665,000 in what Vanity Fair called ‘the biggest fiction auction in recent memory’.
Have you read The Art of Fielding? My review is nearly ready – all I need to say at this stage is READ THIS BOOK. Continue reading