Wednesday 20 June 2007

Daljit in Action

We thought we'd put up another few pictures of Daljit getting into the swing of things at Dereham Library yesterday.


The audience was demanding, engaged and very interested in all that Daljit had to say. They had read the books in advance, had a lot of questions to ask, and were fascinated by the process of poetry as well as the poems themselves.



It was a wonderful reading and many thanks to Dereham Library, Sarah and Creative Arts East for the organizational wizardry and Daljit and the young people too!

Tuesday 19 June 2007

Welborne Festival

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Welborne Arts Festival on Sunday, and Daljt read to an enthusiastic audience and then took questions. The appearance lasted over an hour and many books were bought too.

Sarah and Daljit took a look around the rest of the exhibits and events too - and are seen here listening to Dulcimer music in the small-but-beautiful Welborne Church. Thanks to Mike and his team for organizing a great day.



And here's another picture of Daljit while we were waiting for the audience to be called by the Village Crier from the temptations of the cakes and tea room. (We had the best-cake-ever-at-a-literary-event™ too.)





Daljit then went on to read at Dereham and Diss Libraries on Monday. There were audiences of 35 and 25 respectively for another two lively sessions of readings and questions.



Monday 4 June 2007

Xiaolu Guo in King's Lynn

The first of the reading group events for Norfolk Reads and Writes took place in King's Lynn on Friday at the Gaywood Library.

Xiaolu read to members of several reading groups in the North Norfolk area and then answered questions and talked for nearly an hour.


There were a lot of questions about the novel's writing style and how Xiaolu had managed to exert such phenomenal control over the language while being a learner herself. She talked also about the differences she has experienced as a novelist in China and the UK, how her long training as a film maker has contributed to her writing career, and how she initially turned down offers to translate the novel back in to Chinese, but had finally given in after realizing that whatever the result of the translation, she would still have 'her' book - the original!

It was a fantastic event and we're looking to welcome Xiaolu back to Norwich for a joint reading with Daljit Nagra on the 23rd June at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library.


Readers of the book, whether book group members or not, are very welcome to turn up at 4pm for this reading, and if you would like to post questions to Xiaolu in advance, simply leave a comment below and we will make sure she gets your queries!

(Thanks again to Gaywood Library for being such great hosts!)