vienna lit fest 2008 - day 2

no time for anything, so no time for blogging, but here is day 2 of the lit fest:

julia had asked me to pick up british poet rommi smith at one of the train stations and take her to the lunch reception for us vienna lit VIPs. *g* the reception was at josephine's house in the 19th district - very beautiful part of the city. it was lovely to talk with rommi on the way there - about her workshop at a school, about poetry, about life.

at the reception i met clare murphy and joe brennan, two irish storytellers who liz gallagher put me - or rather julia, the director - in touch with. they are such lovely people, and great fun, too. i bumped into nigerian poet charles ofoedu there for the first time in over ten years - he used to be good friends with my friend tom. i met mehru jaffer, gabriele pötscher (who co-wrote two books with an old acquaintance of mine, walter hölbling), bruce holland rogers, our host josephine, and brian patten and sylvia petter were there, too. great food, interesting discussions, a lot of laughter, and some sunshine - not a bad friday afternoon!


clare murphy going all jackie o. and joe brennan pretending not to care



at the reception: sylvia petter, brian patten, gabriele pötscher, brian's partner linda, charles ofoedu, bruce holland rogers


i was at the venue, ratpack, at 6, in time for the school slam. students between 14 and 18 had responded to a poem by jackie kay, and the final 18 presented their work on stage at ratpack and a jury of three women, including jackie kay herself, chose a winner and two runners-up (and, as it were, one HM). you've really got to admire those young people - i don't think i could have read an english poem to an audience of 100+ at that age! i would have been way too nervous, and anyway, what few poems i had written at the time, well, they were not exactly great. :)


school slam winner!


after the slam, bruce holland rogers from the united states read some of his short short stories. i particularly enjoyed one called egypt, which was rather funny.

next up was one of the events i had really been looking forward to: clare murphy and joe brennan, the two irish storytellers. they were fantastic. i don't think there was anyone in the audience who was not spellbound. people were listening and watching open-mouthed.

joe's frog story was great fun, the audience was asked to join in, and i just loved how that seemed to bring out the child in so many! do visit joe's website.


joe brennan in action

i loved the long story that clare told, an irish tale. do go and check clare out on youtube and stop by her myspace site.


clare murphy, storyteller extraordinaire



happy clare and happy joe after their performances


gabriele pötscher (graz-based american) and walter hölbling (graz-based austrian) read from their two collections of poetry, one of which i had read some years ago. i particularly enjoyed gabriele's tongue-in-cheek and sassy poems. it was also great to finally meet walter after so many years of corresponding online.

julia had asked me to read my poem how to survive in vienna, the poem published in the vienna views anthology in 2006, at the open mic. i was the second or third reader at the open mic and read the requested poem as well as a vienna-themed poem from small confessions & pebbles of regret. i got immediate reactions there - people smiling, chuckling, etc - and quite a bit of applause!

i would have stayed longer, but clare and joe asked me to join them for food and drinks, so i left, together with the storytellers, harold, a couple of vienna lit girls and georg in his kilt. we had a great time, and clare seemed to come to life again after having eaten more than two grown men ... *g*

i got home very late, but happy and feeling, well, YAY!! :)


day 3 to follow - pictures ditto.

song of the day: westwards we're headed by lucky jim.

vienna lit fest 2008 - day 1

i have to do this in instalments or i will never get any work (yeah, that four-letter-word!) done. so here's day 1:

was i nervous? was i? you bet. thanks to valerio for making sure i actually showed up at the venue, vienna's ratpack. *g* and thanks again to my lovely friends who came to ... well, make me even more nervous. ;)

sylvia petter kicked off the lit fest with her short story "Bogey Man" from the collection "Back Burning", which i enjoyed, despite being a little distracted before my own performance. sandra huber was next, reading some of her recent poetry. cool sounds in her lines, and very charming stuttering. :)


vienna voices - sylvia petter, sandra huber, julia novak, me


and then it was my turn. i began with a poem from my manuscript-in(-sort-of)-progress, elemental, oxygen (o) – first kiss, the poem dedicated to sean power who was the first boy to kiss me - properly, that is - and who drowned in 2004. i could sense that the audience went quiet and were really listening, and i felt myself relax halfway through the poem. next was rho from the greek letter series, and it went really well. i followed that up with a poem from small confessions & pebbles of regret, and it was as if the people in the audience were holding their breath at times, it was fantastic! i enjoy reading that poem out loud – and the same can be said for the last one i read, a very personal poem – Open Letter to A Poet. i'd had really good feedback on that one before, and i just had to read it at the festival. i could see on people's faces that i really *had* them, which was, well, *wow*, and then there was so much applause, i was totally overwhelmed and thrilled. :)


me, being a poet in public ;)


after the reading, victoria, one of my vienna-based poetry acquaintances, came up to me and said "you look great, and ... your last two poems ... i was so touched, some of the lines brought tears to my eyes!" i am sure i blushed, though it was probably hard to tell, because my face was all flushed anyway. ;)

then the wonderful rommi smith approached me to say she had just bought both my books and would i sign them for her, and where could she get hold of that last poem ... i was sooooo thrilled! she also mentioned that people had actually gasped and held their breath at the back, in reaction to Open Letter.

i got myself a new fan that evening, too, oxana, who's originally from moscow and who gave me such lovely feedback that i ended up beaming so much they could have switched off the lights! ;) stacy from the vienna review asked me a few questions, random people congratulated me ...


my new fan oxana with her friend


and my friends hugged me and told me they were proud of me, it just made me feel very loved and fuzzy and warm, and later that evening i said to a couple of friends that i was really, really happy. no "but". no "if". just plain happy.

next up was british poet brian patten whose reading i enjoyed a lot. one could see that the man has had a lot of experience performing – he read alongside neruda and ginsberg when he was an up-and-coming poet and worked closely with adrian henri and roger mcgough. i bought one of brian's books and had it signed, of course, poet groupie that i am. *g*


brian patten and julia novak, event manager extraordinaire



brian patten and this weird woman ...


labyrinth poets peter waugh, homemade gordon banks, felix de mendelssohn and toby fischer rounded off the evening with poetry "round the world" – some interesting stuff there, though the poem about the part of austria that i come from was not a compliment ... *s*

of course i did not leave immediately after the reading, there was some poetry talk with several people before valerio and i walked all the way back to karlsplatz, and i caught the last underground train home.

the only problem was – i could not get in my front door. my key would not fit. hm. now – right door. right key. not drunk. okaaaay. deep breath. try again. the key wouldn't go in any further than about a centimetre. my downstairs neighbour joined me, having been on the last train as well. we tried her key. nothing. hm. not good. we tried again and again. so the question was, of course, what do you do when you cannot get into your house at 1 a.m.? there were no lights on in any of the apartments facing the street. so who were we going to wake to get in? i was soooo glad that i was not alone – and so was petra. we were just about to get a little desperate when a light went on on the first floor, so we rang and rang the doorbell, and petra's neighbour opened the door for us. whoever went in last before us, might have left the door open, you know ... that would have been a smart move.

i was too high on good lit fest vibes to go to bed immediately – all the wonderful feedback and the buzz and the other performances and connecting with new people had me up until well past 2.


day 2 and many photos to follow, i have to get some work done now. i am already beginning to panic when i think of what's coming this week ... teaching, translation work, prep work, socialising, doctors' appointments ...


song of the day: this is the life by amy macdonald.