OMG. We just had the most astonishing experience at the San Miguel International Writers’ Conference. This is a week-long conference for writers and readers now in its 15th year. Madeleine Thein, the keynote speaker for the evening and a Canadian author of Chinese ethnicity, gave the most incredible speech we have ever heard. I can’t even begin to describe it. It was a literary work in itself. Poetry in a way. She got thunderous and sustained applause when she finished, but then everyone sat there completely stunned and it took a long time before anyone could come up with a question for the Q and A session. This woman has the most amazing mind - I have never had a thought even one tenth as deep as hers. I have not read any of her books, but I will now for sure.
Ms. Thein has won every Canadian literary award that exists and her books have been widely translated. She has a short story collection called Simple Recipes and three novels: Certainty, Dogs at the Perimeter and her latest Do Not Say We Have Nothing. This last book is about China from 1949 to 1989, Mao’s revolution to Tiananmen Square.
I really would not want to be tomorrow night’s keynote speaker having to follow her. I think I would call in sick.
No comments:
Post a Comment