World Book Night April 23rd

We celebrated World Book Night by giving away copies of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell – one of the many books listed as ‘give aways’ for the night.

The idea behind World Book Night is to celebrate reading and for volunteers to give out free books to those in their community to share their love of reading – for us the volunteer was Carolyn and the community was the College, and in total we gave away 24 books to students and staff from around the College. 

Some of the feedback to the book is that ‘it’s a great read and I’ll certainly pass it on’.  Each of the WBN books has a number which could be used to track its movement...if you have one of the books log onto http://www.worldbooknight.org/about-world-book-night and click on Track Your Book. If everyone who has the book does this it could tell a story in itself!

We have copies in the Learning Centre to borrow along with other Maggie O’Farrell titles.

The Growth of Literary Festivals in Wales

In April, I visited the Laugharne Weekend in West Wales for the third year in a row.  It’s a great little festival that attracts high-calibre writers and musicians, whilst remaining defiantly low-key and uncommercial!

Amongst this year’s highlights was a talk by Costa Book Award winning writer A.L. Kennedy, readings by punk-poet John Cooper Clarke and Robin Ince’s trawl through the realms of terrible fiction in his Bad Book Club. 

During my time in Laugharne I found myself reflecting on the growth of literary (and other) festivals in Wales in recent years.   

Obviously, the best-known is the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts.  This has been running since 1988 and now attracts writers, performers and visitors from all over the world.  Famously, it was described by Bill Clinton as “The Woodstock of the Mind”. 

 

This year’s festival takes places between 31^st May and 10^th June and further information can be found at:  www.hayfestival.com

However, there are a number of other festivals worthy of your attention in the coming months.

The Laugharne Weekend is over for this year, but it’s sure to be back next April, so take a look at: http://thelaugharneweekend.com/ to get an idea of what it’s all about!

The Dinefwr 2012 Literature Festival takes place between 29^th June and 1^st July in the stunning grounds of Dinefwr Park in Llandeilo.  The impressive line-up includes: Gruff Rhys, Howard Marks, Gillian Clarke (the Welsh National Poet), Julian Cope and comedians John Hegley and Josie Long.

Further information about this exciting addition to the Welsh festival scene can be found at:  http://www.dinefwrliteraturefestival.co.uk/

On the same weekend as the Dinefwr Literature Festival is Beyond the Border: Wales International Storytelling Festival.  This takes places every other year at St Donat’s Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan with the aim of: “celebrating the world’s rich heritage of traditional stories – and the universal art of storytelling….”.  The emphasis on storytelling makes it unique and in July 2002 The Times newspaper described it as “A festival like no other”.  It focuses on various themes and this year they include the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and the myths and legends of Celtic Britain.

Further details can be found at:  http://www.beyondtheborder.com/festival/line-up/

One other festival very much worth looking into is the Dylan Thomas Festival in Swansea.  This takes place in late autumn and the dates for 2012 have not been announced yet.  It has been running for thirteen years and it’s not all about Wales’s most famous writer.  For example, last year’s festival included a talk from Pembrokeshire-born author Sarah Waters and poetry readings from Simon Armitage.

Information on future festivals will be published at: www.dylanthomas.com

These are just some forthcoming festivals that I’m aware of and I’m sure there are more!  If you know of any, why not add your comments to this blog!

Simon Rhys-Phillips, April 2012