Author David Vann never refuses a festival invitation in a new place.
Author David Vann never refuses a festival invitation in a new place. Photo: Robert Caplin/New York Times

After flocking to the Perth and Adelaide writers' festivals and touring Australia, some international authors regathered in Wellington for this week's New Zealand Writers Week. In Perth, I was struck by the itinerant life of many authors. American David Vann, who is surprisingly cheerful for an author focused on suicide and disaster, lives in England and New Zealand, and in Perth he was endlessly greeting friends he had made at other festivals. He said he never refuses a festival invitation in a new place. It is a cheap way to see the world.

 Lionel Shriver wrote in the New Republic last year about how hard it is to write amid the demands of publicity. ''Now that every village in the United Kingdom has its own literary festival, I could credibly spend my entire year, every year, flitting from Swindon to Peterborough to Aberdeen, jawing interminably about what I've already written - at the modest price of scalding self-disgust.'' But there she was in Perth talking about her novels, her family, obesity, religion and euthanasia. She went on to speak in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Byron Bay; nine events and many interviews. She gave 100 per cent. I hope she has some writing time between coming commitments in Indiana, Bath and the rest.