Rowan Hisayo Buchanan joins the prestigious line-up of authors on the panel of the Sarum Symposium, 22 October, from 6.30 to 8pm at Salisbury Guildhall.
In an interview about her debut novel Harmless Like You, Buchanan says: ‘A lot of what the book is about is how pain shape-shifts down the generations. There is nothing more personal than family, and yet families are so profoundly affected by political decisions.’
Barney Norris, a Salisbury native who writes books and plays. In Turning for Home, he writes: ‘Isn’t the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? People live in the space between the realities of their lives and the hopes they have for them. The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams.’
Lionel Shriver is best known for her explosive novel about a teenager who committed a school massacre, We Need to Talk About Kevin. In The Mandibles, a satire of economic collapse, she writes: “Plots set in the future are about what people fear in the present. They’re not about the future at all.’
The panel is chaired by Erica Wagner, who teaches Creative Writing at Goldsmiths and frequently judges literary prizes.
‘I love to listen to stories as well as read them, and seek out fine storytellers from all over the world.’
Tickets are £10 (£5 for U25s), available from Sarum College. Contact Alison Ogden on aogden@sarum.ac.uk or telephone 01722 424826.
