Writing Through Difficult Times

Hong Kong International Literary Festival
  • Sun 14-11-2021 10:30 AM - 1 h

The Jockey Club Studio Theatre


Free Admission

Synopsis

As writers, film-makers and other artists around the world consider the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hear from Hong Kong writers whose recent work reflects the Hong Kong experience.  Lockdown Lovers by Michael O’Sullivan follows six humans and a pangolin as they navigate the social pressures of lockdown and quarantine in Hong Kong, China and Ireland.  From wry observations and passionate encounters to the pain of separation from loved ones, this novel reminds us how human contact will never cease to be mankind’s saving grace through the darkest times.  Collier Nogues’s lyric essay “A Clock for Seeing” (from the forthcoming Cart Noodles Press anthology Writing in Difficult Times) considers how our experience of time has changed under the communal and private duress of the pandemic, and how writing and photography help us both keep pace with ourselves and keep company with those we love.  Poet Florence Ng’s bilingual poetry collection Wild Boar in Victoria Harbour looks at what it’s like living in a society that is changing rapidly and becoming more polarised, while her recent eco and nature poetry builds on topics from the collection.  Karen Cheung’s work, including her essay in Writing in Difficult Times and her forthcoming book, examines the absurdity of contemporary life in Hong Kong, and the quiet, ordinary moments in between the events that have made international headlines.

This event is supported by the Consulate-General of Ireland

Featuring
Michael O’Sullivan
Michael O’Sullivan is a writer and academic based in Hong Kong and Ireland.  He has published 15 books, and Lockdown Lovers is his first novel.  His poems and essays appear in Asian Cha, Asian Signature, and Hong Kong 20/20: reflections on a borrowed place.

Collier Nogues
Collier Nogues is Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at the University of Hong Kong.  Her poetry collections are The Ground I Stand On Is Not My Ground (Drunken Boat, 2015) and On the Other Side, Blue (Four Way, 2011).

Karen Cheung
Karen Cheung is a writer from Hong Kong.  Formerly a news reporter, she now writes about music, politics and books.  Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, Foreign Policy, The Offing and others.

Florence Ng
Florence Ng lives in Hong Kong.  She is the author of the bilingual poetry collection Wild Boar in Victoria Harbour (Kubrick, 2019) and editor of the online poetry journal Pause for Paws.
 
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