Friday 14 September 2007

Wordplay: how was it for you?

So did anyone have interesting times at Wordplay? It was nice to see Denise Mina, she seems like an out-and-out nice person, though I'd have rather have seen her read her own stuff and I think some others in the audience were less than impressed by her and Iain Banks thinking it was a jolly wheeze to read each other's work. Twice Iain Banks has been up and he's still not read a bit of his own fiction. Really enjoying the last of the Garnethill trilogy, Resolution, and hope Morag is having fun in Glasgow with Exile. Just dinna wander into any dodgy places Morag!

On our book group reads, I've decided I quite like The Stornoway Way after all, though it irritated me at first - kind of sorry I never saw Kevin McNeill read at Wordplay, but the writing workshop ain't my thing, and from what I hear about the joint poetry reading he did, he didn't get the time he deserved. Venus as a Boy is a good read too, by the way, and very short!

One of the best things I heard at Wordplay was a poem called Mam's Chair by our very own Laura Friedlander - hurrah for Laura! There was a lot of good stuff at the festival but there didn't seem to be so many folk about and lots of good things clashed, not to mention clashing with the films, hope the book festival gets it's own weekend next year.

2 comments:

Aileen said...

I enjoyed Wordplay too, especially the fabulous and much-anticipated poetry salon. I really liked Denise Mina, we were chatting about shopping and clothes and all kinds of things, I think we were really boring Iain Banks though.

I would have liked to have seen more authors for adults though, and to have had separate sessions for Denise Mina and Iain Banks rather than having them together. And I think the poetry sessions should have been free.

lerwickstreet said...

I've only just read this post -how kind of you to say how much you enjoyed my poem. So many people are quick to anger and slow to praise as the saying goes, so it gives all of us writers a real boost when we come across little comments like this. Thank you.