Shanghaiist: Pencil this in: Literary Fest final weekend top picks

Rebekah Pothaar

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:54:43 +0700

JFK, ah, thanks for the heads up. Will read the interview. I recommend coming to the Zachary Mexico talk. I interviewed him and I enjoyed his book.

jfkmiller

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:45:24 +0700

Hey Rebekah - none that haven't been mentioned. But of the ones you've listed I'd say the top three are: Lynn Pan: always a crowd pleaser (and a lovely lady besides) Bill Zorzi ("The Wire" screenwriter); he gave a great interview so expect he will give a great talk: http://shanghai.urbanatomy.com/index.php/entertainment/shanghai-lit-fest/1198-inside-the-lit-fest-bill-zorzi and Stephen MacKinnon: the amount of China knowledge in the family thought bank is astounding... late wife Janice and daughter Rebecca (former CNN bureau chief in Beijing) both China experts as is Prof MacKinnon himself. Shaping up to be a good Lit Fest final weekend...

Rebekah Pothaar

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:27:55 +0700

@ JFK, liked the ABC guide AND the Urbanatomy site is looking good (redesigned when??). Any other sessions this weekend that you think will be good that have not been mentioned? Ya, I agree, Fenby is great. Missed the debate though cause went to see the Joe Stiglitz talk. Very good, btw.

jfkmiller

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:00:33 +0700

Thanks for the Urbanatomy plug. But we take back everything we said about Simon Schama - the man is a complete gadfly. We saw him at the FT debate and he had precious little insight into Obama, America, China, or anything that matters; an overweening liberal who was so gleeful at the demise of Bush & Co. that he was virtually drowning in a pool of his own wetness. Yuk. Otherwise a great panel with informed pundits - Jonathan Fenby, Lifen Zhang, Richard McGregor, Geoff Dyer. Jonathan Fenby is the man.