Lowdown on the Literati

Now in its fifth year, the Bookworm International Literary Festival is currently entertaining and inspiring hordes of lit-lovers across Beijing. If you haven't yet managed to catch any of the impressively diverse readings, workshops and discussions on offer, fear not – there's still a jam-packed week to go, including JUE collaboration Slam, Rap, Words which promises raw and wild performances like nothing Beijing's seen before. Festival Director Kadi Hughes took a few moments out of her busy schedule to chat with Creative Hunt about her favorite moments of the festival so far, what's new for 2011 and what makes Bookworm so special

First of all, you're almost a week into the festival – how's it going?
Everything has been incredible so far. The Bookworm has been abuzz since Friday with packed events. Our audiences have been really engaged and the events have generated a lot of fascinating discussions that carry on after the talk, over drinks and well into the night. It's been really lovely to have our festival authors popping in and out of The Bookworm to sit in on other author's events and chat with our festival audience and other writers over coffee.

What are the festival's strength? What differentiates it from other lit festivals in China?
The Bookworm International Literary Festival is a year-round effort, culminating in a two week celebration of literature and ideas for two weeks every March in Beijing, Suzhou and Chengdu. Each year we create a festival experience with a mix of different types of writers. In addition to bringing in well-established writers who are already household names, we truly support internationalism - introducing writers from different parts of the globe to our audience. This year we are highlighting even more Chinese writers with the intention of introducing their work to a larger readership. With our Chinese program, we are featuring writers who have already translated and some who we hope soon will be and who represent a wide variety of genres from science fiction to crime thrillers to modern relationship narratives.

We're also involved with outreach through our international and migrant school programs, bringing our festival authors to children at these schools to share with them our celebration of literature. Lastly, our community is an incredibly important part of the equation. We simply couldn't do it without our volunteers (over 100 in Beijing alone). The Bookworm has always been such a community resource for people in Beijing and we continue to draw on and support our community this year with our Footnotes program, which highlights local artists, musicians, filmmakers, performers, among others.



Of course there's still lots to look forward to, but what's been the highlight of the festival so far?

All of our authors have been amazing and inspiring this year. Emma Donoghue gave a brilliant reading and discussion of her book Room. She also joined Christos Tsiolkas and Rakesh Saytel for a fascinating discussion of taboo in modern society, XuXi and Brian Castro chatted about writing about Hong Kong. Meg Rosoff was a delight with her kids reading on Meet Wild Boars  and her discussion of her other works like How I Live Now. Michel Faber took us through his impressive and diverse body of work. Omar Musa has brought his powerful mix of spoken word and hip-hop that got our whole crowd on its feet. And there are still so many more wonderful events coming up!

Tell me about what's new for 2011 in terms of events for children
This year we decided to offer more onsite children's programming for all age groups, with both international and Chinese writers. We have always had an international schools program and with our onsite programming this year we wanted to provide even more opportunities for kids to get involved in the festival. We also have a Migrant School Program this year: festival author are visiting a few migrant schools, in partnership with MCF, sharing folktales from their home countries and encouraging the students to write their own stories as well. For Footnotes, we wanted to showcase the vibrant art scene in Beijing, using local groups like Beijing Improv, Electric Shadows and Moonglow Burlesque to curate special literary events for us. 



This is clearly a busy time of year for you - logistically, how do you manage festivals in Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou?

We have amazing festival teams in all three cities. Some of our international authors visit all three cities and in each city we draw on the local community of writers and artists - both foreign and Chinese - to give the festival in each its own flavor.

You're teaming up with JUE again this year - how did that come about?
We partner with many artists and organizations in Beijing. While BLF and JUE share some of the same audience, often people who attend BLF events who might not go  to JUE events and vice-versa. We decided to pool our resources to expose our artists to new audiences. Poetry is so often unfairly seen as a dusty and pretentious art form. Spoken word performers and hip-hop artists have taken this art form and transformed it into a modern expression that connects with a younger audience in a very personal way. So much about what we do with the festival is about making literature accessible. Slam poetry is just one way in which we do this.

Ah yes, Slam Rap Words - what is that exactly?
For Slam, Rap, Words we have three amazing artists with very different styles and backgrounds, coming together to create a showcase of spoken word. With their performances, we will be tracing the narrative of performance poetry - from spoken work to hip-hop to rap. Kelly-lee Hickey is the 2010 Australian National Slam Champion and performs in a very intense and beautiful style. Omar Musa is also a slam champion winner and bridges the worlds of performance poetry and hip-hop with his thoughtful and powerful pieces. Rounding out the night is Chinese rapper Lil Ray who represents the new Chinese MCs who are bringing new takes on traditional rap in Beijing. 


Omar Musa

Sounds fun, and certainly reaffirms the inclusiveness of Bookworm - is that an important factor in your programming?
There are so many different ways to tell stories and literature is just one of those ways. Rap, music, performance, fiction, poetry - these are all expressions of our need to share our tales and experiences. With our festival, we always try to program a mixture of events - literary heavy weights, children picture book writers, performance poets, screenwriters, comedic writers, essayists, nonfiction writers. Our audience and community is made up of a very inspiring group of people who are curious for new ideas and writers. Through our events, we are constantly growing and expanding with them.

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For details on Bookworm International Literary Festival events and tickets, check their website here.

Slam, Rap, Words takes place at 2 Kolegas on Saturday 12 March from 8pm. 50rmb on the door