News | Thursday, 16th November 2017
Poets represent University at Hong Kong Literary Festival
Carol Ann Duffy DBE, Adam O'Riordan and Helen Mort performed
Carol Ann Duffy DBE and other leading poets from Manchester Writing School jetted out last week to perform at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival.
The Poet Laureate and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University read from her Collected Poems at a rapturously received sold-out event, accompanied by longtime musical collaborator John Sampson who performs as she recites.
Elsewhere, award-winning poets and lecturers Helen Mort and Adam O’Riordan came together to read from their collections.
The Manchester Metropolitan delegation also performed for school groups and delivered a workshop at HK Baptist University, and later met with colleagues from Hong Kong University to discuss further future collaborations.
'Whirlwind experience'
Dr Helen Mort, Lecturer in Creative Writing, said: "Representing the Manchester Writing School in Hong Kong was a thrilling, whirlwind experience. We were made incredibly welcome and it was exciting to make connections with poets in schools and universities there and think about future partnerships."
The Hong Kong International Literary Festival, founded in 2001, is an annual ten-day event featuring established and emerging writers from around the world in a programme that includes discussions, literary lunches and dinners, workshops, lectures, debates, book signings, and readings.
It has welcomed such literary luminaries in the past as Seamus Heaney, Louis de Bernières, Colm Tóibín, Jung Chang, and Yann Martel.
The Hong Kong International Literary Festival celebrates creative writing in English, including works in translation, literary fiction and non-fiction, poetry and scriptwriting, and emphasises writing with an Asian connection.
