Saturday, May 17, 2008


SHORT STORY WRITERS PANEL

AT THE AUCKLAND WRITERS & READERS FESTIVAL

Two masters and a novice made up this panel which was skilfully chaired by poet Kate Camp.

Man Booker prize winner 2007 Anne Enwright & Peter Ho Davies sat each side of NZ writer & graphic designer Sarah Laing and they all chatted amiably about the short story, how endings were possibly more difficult than beginnings, they named their favourite short stories of all time, the differences between writing short and long fiction, and Anne reminded us of the long history of short story writing in Ireland.
There was a lot more besides, a convivial and pleasant hour.

Favourite short stories:
Fat by Raymond Carver (Anne)
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield (Sarah)
The Dead by James Joyce (Peter)
Pic of Anne Enwright taken by Bookman Beattie at the Man Booker press conference in London, October 2007.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Carver story is 'Fat', not 'Fact'. You'll remember that she spelled it out for us...

Beattie's Book Blog said...

Oops, many thanks for pointing out this typo. I am going to seek out the anthology of Carver's that contains that story because two people have since commented to me about it.