On Tuesday I was most pleased to attend the wonderfully titled Aye, Write! – Glasgow’s book festival – to see Patrick Ness and Matt Haig at an in-person event.
I was never a fan of authors doubling up for these kinds of events because it seemed to take away time from the author I was there to see – but last summer’s event with Junot Díaz led me to Nathan Englander, and this event – which I attended for Patrick Ness – has introduced me to Matt Haig, so I’m going to have to admit defeat on this one. Turns out these events are actually kind of great.
I haven’t read any of Matt Haig’s books yet, but I’ve spent the past week poring over his brilliant blog on the Book Trust website. His title is ‘online writer in residence’ – which is basically my dream job.
Patrick Ness is the author of the wonderful A Monster Calls (which I reviewed here) and the Chaos Walking trilogy (of which I’ve read the first so far).
Both authors new books out, published by Canongate, and since they’re contemporaries and share a publisher, it seemed pretty natural for them to be teamed up. They each write adult and YA novels, contemporary with a fantastical bent, and neither are enamoured with that distinction. Haig’s concerned with the state of snobbery within literary fiction, while Ness is anti-snark and pro-wonder. It was great to hear about their experiences in writing and publishing, as well as more about their upcoming books.
I’ve uploaded a recording of the whole hour, which you can download (right-click, save-as) or stream (just click) here.
I brought along my copy of The Crane Wife to have it signed, and we were able to pick up an early copy of Haig’s The Humans, which is released next month – so I had that signed too.
I’ve just started The Humans and plan to dig in to The Crane Wife next – so I’ll have reviews of both up soon.
Here’s a link to my latest video. What are you reading this weekend?