Book lovers in Manchester were treated to an appearance by 2021 Booker Prize winning author Damon Galgut this week as he kicked off Manchester Literature Festival.
On Monday evening the South African author was at Central Library to discuss his acclaimed novel ‘The Promise’ and attendees gave their thoughts on his event and the importance of the Literature Festival.
Manju was one audience member who got the chance to ask Galgut about his literary inspirations: “I was struck by his honesty…he makes an immediate connection I think it’s a very rare ability to do that.”
She highlighted how the Manchester literary festival is accessible to readers of all levels.
She said: “I did the love the book, I thought it was brilliant, and I missed all that about the narration, I’m not an analyst I’m just an ordinary garden reader.”
Mia is a 17-year old aspiring author from Warrington who received some words of encouragement when she met Galgut: “He said to keep reading, keep going, keep trying. It’s just so inspiring the way he pushes the form, deconstructing what a novel means.”
Sami enjoyed getting the opportunity to learn about Galgut’s creative process.
“It’s nice to get your book signed and I understand a bit more why he made certain choices that he made, and I really like his quote that ‘the key to being the best is being particular’, that was a great thing to think about.”
Manchester Literature Festival runs until October 23. Frankie has been volunteering with the Festival for nine years.
She said: “It gets me out to see and hear authors that I wouldn’t maybe know about or go and see so it’s a real benefit to me because I go away from the festival with about 20 books on my list.”
Frankie is a big advocate of the event: “It is a great festival and I do it because I don’t have time to find out who I should be reading and coming and doing this gets me really interested in it again.”
“You can see there’s a big crowd here, people want to come and hear what the author’s been thinking, they want to find out how they write, they want to ask their questions, they want to meet them and having it here in the city centre makes it really easy.”
You can find the full line-up of events for the Manchester Literature Festival on their website and Twitter page.
