Banff

Okay, the festival has moved to Banff, and so have I. There are 3 events today at the Banff Centre. At 11, there’s a discussion of the writing life with four very interesting, very different writers from all over the world. Challenges, frustrations and rewards goes the promotional bumpf. What about the boredom? Writers are glamorous fascinating people but getting up everyday and scribbling words until they blur isn’t exactly the stuff dreams are made of. That, of course, doesn’t dissuade the many of us who want to be writers. Nor should it. If you really want to be a writer you’re probably pretty weird in the first place. You probably like the idea of spending all day pacing back and forth in a cramped dusty office covered with indecipherable notes you wrote in a Red Bull-gin cocktail frenzy the previous night.

Later this afternoon, there’s the festival finale. Don’t miss it. Where else are you going to see a Brit born in Nigeria, a Canadian who lives in France, the man described as Mexico’s edgiest literary genius, and a Canadian who’s written a novel about slavery that spans Africa, the USA, and back again? The world’s come to your doorstep and there’s nothing boring about that.