Event 2 Wednesday 10 March 2.30pmAl Ras 3‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’ claimed the renowned American inventor Thomas Edison. But how does that apply to writers?  And where does inspiration – that initial stimulus to creative thought – come from?  Can it be ‘encouraged’ by leading a disciplined life in the writer’s study with designated hours dedicated to writing?  Is the image of the starving writer in his garret waiting for inspiration to strike valid or do authors need to seek inspiration from the outside world? If inspiration is ‘the process of being mentally stimulated…to do something creative’ can it be taught or learned – and can an inspirational teacher encourage young writers?
Our panel trio of highly-acclaimed writers, each with a distinctive style and wildly differing subject matter,  will be letting us into the secrets of how they write and what inspires them.

Yann Martel obtained a degree in Philosophy from Trent University in Ontario, then worked variously as a tree planter, dishwasher and security guard before taking up writing full-time from the age of 27.  He leaped to public attention in 2001 when his second novel, Life of Pi, won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. An epic survival story, with an over-arching religious theme, it tells the story of Pi Patel, the son of an Indian family of zookeepers, who is shipwrecked and left in a lifeboat in the company of a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger.

Bahaa Taher was born in Cairo, Egypt, but spent many years in exile in Switzerland before returning to his homeland.  His novel Sunset Oasis won the inaugural International Prize for Arab Fiction in 2008 and, as with his previous five novels, covers the themes of love, death and exile.  Now one of the most widely-read authors in the Arab world, Bahaa has also received the Egyptian State’s Award of Merit in Literature.

Pakistan-born, Scottish educated and now dividing her time between Mumbai and London, Imtiaz Dharker describes herself as a Scottish Muslim Calvinist and is a distinguished poet, as well as a documentary film-maker and artist.  All of her poetry shares themes of home, freedom, journeys, geographical and cultural displacement and gender politics.  Her latest collection is Fingerprints (2009). She will be reading her poem Inspiration as part of this event.

This session will be moderated by Paul Blezard.

tell a friend about this item

back

Permalink: Bahaa Taher, Yann Martel, Imtiaz Dharker