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Kate PullingerHandout

Editor's note: Over the course of the International Festival of Authors, some of the writers in attendance will be providing guest posts for our blog coverage. This one is by Kate Pullinger, whose novel The Mistress of Nothing has been nominated for a Governor General's Award. She will reading from her novel tonight and on Saturday.

I've been to IFOA a few times before and each time I realize afresh what an incredibly vibrant and hospitable festival it is. This time I arrive as a finalist for the Governor General's Awards, with my novel The Mistress of Nothing on the fiction shortlist, and, consequently, am suffering from a fabulous combination of nerves, excitement, trepidation, and jet lag.

I have lived outside of Canada for many years now but whenever I return I'm newly amazed by the literary culture here. There's a seriousness about books, and about the business of writing. Attention is paid to the idea of a national literature -- the idea of Canada that is both embellished and denied by the books that Canadians write. The project that is the GG Award -- seven categories in English, seven categories in French -- strikes me as wholy Canadian in its approach, inclusive, comprehensive, thoughtful, and of course, bilingual. Is there another set of prizes like it anywhere else in the world?

In London where I live, literary culture thrives, of course, though in an environment where new books struggle to find readers. Book shops are in a state of meltdown, with two major chains facing bankruptcy, and a third -- once a driving force in broadening the range and celebrating the excellence of writing in the UK -- reduced to peddling vast piles of the top 100 bestsellers to the exclusion of most other titles.

Despite this, access to the Internet means that readers have never had it so good, with a huge range of books available, including an enormous second-hand market that means that most books, in print or not, are easily available. But these second-hand or vastly discounted sales don't create income for writers, and the biggest challenge for writers and publishers now is to find ways to bring new books to the attention of readers.

But, despite this, I do believe that we are at the beginning of a great revolution in the way we tell and receive stories. Storytelling is a fundamental human instinct, one that has been with us since the dawn of time, since that cavegirl created the first ever PowerPoint presentation with those drawings she made on the cave wall while recounting her only slightly embellished story about the day's great hunt. Digital platforms afford new ways of reaching new audiences -- we writers need to grab hold of these opportunities before it is too late.

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