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Jessie Cammack. Photo: Jonathan Wong

New manager hopes to grow the HK literary festival

New manager Jessie Cammack has plans to help the HK International Literary Festival grow, writes Kate Whitehead

LIFE

Jessie Cammack, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival's new manager, has lived in Hong Kong little more than a year, but already it feels like home.

Recently married, she arrived as a trailing spouse and spent the first four months doing an intensive Cantonese course. It was a chance encounter with the ' Angela Mackay, who is on the festival's board, that led her to volunteer for last year's festival. She was tasked with going to the airport to meet the Scandinavian authors who were the highlight of last November's event and showing them to their hotel.

Talking to authors comes naturally to the 26-year-old. After graduating in English from New York's Columbia University in 2009, Cammack joined a literary agency specialising in science fiction and worked with writers to get them published and to develop their careers. So in April this year, when the manager position became open, the American jumped at the chance.

We want this to be something that people come to for their whole lives and having students able to come to the festival hopefully will mean they are able to keep coming and staying involved

The festival has had four managers in as many years, but Cammack says she intends to stick around and help grow the festival. Her background has taught her the importance of nurturing relationships. "In book publishing you will be talking for years and years and then finally something comes together. You need that for the festival. You need to have relationships with publishers and agents and the people who can talk the authors into coming - all that takes time to build up."

Time is something she doesn't have vast amounts of right now. She hit the ground running and began sending out invitations to authors at the beginning of June. This year's festival - which runs from October 31 to November 9 - will host 15 international authors (fewer than last year's 20) and about 15 Hong Kong-based writers.

Aside from an all-new team - there are now three staffers working out of the festival's Stanley Street office, one more than last year - the event won't be vastly different in approach from last year. The line-up of writers will be announced on Tuesday, but Cammack can reveal the headlining name will be war correspondent Kate Adie, who recently released a new book on women at the frontlines during the second world war. Adie will launch the festival at a fund-raising dinner.

And the festival needs funds. It lost its title sponsor - the Man Group investment management business - in 2011 and last year became a registered charity. But despite the tight budget, Cammack says they are working hard to keep ticket prices affordable. Most tickets will cost about HK$200 with a 50 per cent discount for students.

"We want this to be something that people come to for their whole lives and having students able to come to the festival hopefully will mean they are able to keep coming and staying involved," she says.

Other writers committed to attending include one Pulitzer Prize winner, a Pulitzer nominee and three Booker Prize nominees, as well as some emerging writers.

Deciding on the line-up of authors is a group process with input from the festival's board and a large group of advisers as well as booksellers, librarians and teachers. "We all get together and come up with a list based on everything that has come out in the last couple of years and what people are talking about and excited about, and we send out invitations to them and go from there," says Cammack.

In the past, some authors have complained they felt isolated at the festival, with few events laid on for them or opportunities to meet other writers, but this won't happen this year, says Cammack. "I'm hoping to make sure there is a congregation point where everyone can go to the same café after the events so everyone can chat and mingle, and maybe take a picture with your favourite author or maybe just the authors will hang out in a corner and chat with each other," she says.

Her years as a literary agent have made her aware that writers are often fans of other writers, just as readers are fans of a writer, so she will be sure to create opportunities for the authors to mix and mingle.

Cammack has added the Museum of Medical Sciences, a heritage building in her Sheung Wan neighbourhood, to the usual venues of the Fringe Club, Kee Club and the Helena May. "The lecture theatre on the ground floor has about 50 seats. I believe it's the old lecture theatre of the medical school," she says.

Most of the events will be held over two packed weekends, with others on weekday evenings. The festival is looking for volunteers to help - directing authors to events, taking tickets on the door and other errands. If you would like to volunteer, Cammack would be happy to hear from you.

"I want it to be a good experience for the authors and our audiences and that's about having interesting and lively events, fun opening and closing parties, and a good mix of authors who want to talk to each other and are interested in each other's work."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Nurturing instinct
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