How a martini led to the Shanghai International Literary Festival

Tickets to the eighth annual Shanghai International Literary Festival (SILF) went on sale today. We got AsiaMedia’s Tina Kanagaratnam to track down her long-time friend, Shanghai International Literary Festival partner and M on the Bund founder, Michelle Garnaut, to put one of Shanghai’s most treasured literary events in perspective. 

Tina Kanagaratnam: How did it all start with the Shanghai International Literary Festival?

It was, like most great ideas, random and inspired. In 2002, Frank Moorhouse was in town, and although he’s a writer of serious fiction, he was working on something he called "The Martini in Literature." It was in the draft stage. We had just opened the Glamour Bar, and it clicked -- let’s have Frank come and talk about literary martinis while we sip martinis. 

We served a ton of martinis, everyone got smashed, and we thought, what a great idea! Let’s do this every year.

But in all seriousness, I had just started a program of culture and entertainment -- mostly music, classical and cabaret -- at the Glamour Bar (it was then on the seventh floor), because it seemed like there was a real need for it in Shanghai at the time. Doing something literary as part of that program fitted.

Tina Kanagaratnam: How did it grow from one man to the three week, 50-plus author extravaganza we have now?

It went fairly slowly, at first. In 2002, Frank Moorhouse did an event in Hong Kong that was part of the Hong Kong Literary Festival, and the following year we asked them if any authors were interested in coming to Shanghai. We had no money, so we told the authors that they’d have to fund themselves, but we’d put them up at the Metropole hotel. 

A few came, but our audiences were tiny (even Maxine Hong Kingston didn’t sell out) -- we literally had two paying customers at one session.

Tina Kanagaratnam: Why on earth did you carry on?

It was a fantastic experience. I loved it, Bruno (M on the Bund general manager Bruno van der Burg) loved it, the people who came loved it -- we just needed to figure out how to make it work. 

We grew organically; the consulates got involved, we started securing sponsors, and it became a cozy sort of cult experience, with a couple of big names each year -- Booker Prize winners like Thomas Keneally, Alan Hollinghurst and travel writer Pico Iyer. Everyone loved it -- the intimacy of those small audiences, the conversations we had. 

We, M on the Bund, handled everything from taking bookings to selling tickets. We had a tiny Lit Fest gang -- four people, including me -- who manned the door, liaised with authors, everything. 

Tina Kanagaratnam: Tell us about 2007.

We had some of the biggest stars in the literary world come in 2007: Gore Vidal, Amy Tan, Jan Morris, Simon Winchester, Kiran Desai and more in back-to-back sessions for three weekends. The phones were ringing off the hook -- no one could call in to make a reservation for dinner. We had lines out the door. It was great for the festival because so many people came, realized what we were doing and came to other sessions as well -- but it was overwhelming the restaurant, and our small group of organizers.

In 2008, we implemented two major innovations: Mypiao took over ticket sales, and we put together a group of volunteers to handle door duties and author liaison. It all became manageable again.

Tina Kanagaratnam: What’s in store for 2009?

A fantastic mix -- famous names (Scott Turow, Peter Hessler, Junot Diaz and Su Tong), newer authors, literary lunches, wine & poetry, workshops.

Tina Kanagaratnam: Going forward, what’s next for the Shanghai International Literary Festival?

Variety. We can’t really grow -- we’re limited by space (and we like it this size) -- but expect to see more workshops, panels, and Glamour Bar evening sessions mixed in with our daytime sessions.