For those not in the know, Word is a writers festival hosted by The university of Aberdeen. Each year a mixed bag of poets, writers and musicians come together and do talks, readings, performances. The likes of Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay have been involved (to name but a few lesbian writers :p)
The festival runs from 13-15 May. Just in time for the end of semester.
Last year's line up wasn't much to write home about, but this year looks pretty pretty good. I'm excited to see Margaret Atwood's name on the programme. I recently bought 'Year of the flood' but have yet to read it. Atwood is known for her feminism and mythological themes and her novels can be classified as science fiction. She writes beautiful things like this:
"I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary."
—Margaret Atwood.
Alasdair Gray is another exciting name to see. Not only because he's one of Scotland's best literature writers but because he is a man of many talents. I remember Steph Studying Lanark a few years ago, its huge and she spent like 3 whole days reading it. I mostly liked the artwork to be fair and haven't quite finished the book. None the less it will be interesting to hear him talk. He also has an exhibition of his artwork through out May in the Old Town house (Aberdeen uni campus/Old Aberdeen).
His art looks like this:
Lovely.
Another point of interest, but perhaps a personal one is Wayne Price. Wayne was Steph's creative writing lecturer at uni. He was the first person (barr me, of course) to take to Steph's writing and really pushed her to create and believe she could be a writer. He also pushed us to start Epershand (our zine for local writers and artsits) and still insists now that when we have the time, we should make a proper go of it. He really is a lovely chap and apparently writes some great short stories (according to the Bridport Prize). He will be talking along side Billy O'Callaghan on the Saturday.
There really is so much on this year that's so great for Aberdeen to have: Ian Banks; Dermot Healy and Paul Trynka: David Bowie Night :D
I think I might check out these two things as well:
These are the exhibitions that are on too:
Website HERE
Programme HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment