Tuesday: After breakfast, sit with Guillaume and we talk about the development of my blog and how the Festival is evolving. Go to the computer room and put in some time to try to catch up to date. Betty Aridjis comes to check her email and she tells me that today (or did she say tomorrow?) is the anniversary of Kafka's death. Siri Hustvedt comes to check her email and we chat briefly about the Village Voice Bookshop and Shakespeare & Co - two great bookshops in Paris. She and I met in the Village Voice Bookshop after a talk she gave. She and Paul Auster will both be back in Paris in mid-June for the festival that Sylvia Whitman is organizing . (It will be her third literary festival; the first two were excellent.)
Milena Findeis gives me some photograph postcards she has produced. It features Jim Rubenstein standing next to me in the lobby of the Hotel Josef with Margaret Atwood in the background. Michael March and I talk about how the festival is doing. I tell him that I think yesterday's "1968:Czechoslovakia" was an important event. Michael agrees. He gives Vlasta most of the credit for making it a success. We also speak of last evening's international session and I report that I found it extremely stimulating. That I also found the invitation from the Canadian Ambassador, Michael Calcott, very generous. He invited the entire audience to stay and dine and drink with us. Congratulate Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke on her reading last night. Go to the computer room. Slavenka Drakulic is being interviewed. The journalist departs and I mention to Slavenka that we met after a reading she gave at the Village Voice Bookshop. I remember that she has a Swedish husband. Tell her that I have a Swedish son and a Swedish ex-wife. Somehow Dusan Makavejev is mentioned and we talk about him and Croatia. She and I make a tentative breakfast date for Thursday morning.
Go out for some fresh air and encounter Tariq Ali and Michael March. Join them and we have an excellent conversation about the movie, Gandhi. Tariq tells an amusing story about the film and Ronald Reagan. I tell Tariq about the evening I dined with Indira Gandhi in London in the mid-60s. Ask Tariq if he will be at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August and he says that he will be there.
Martin Belk suggests the tram is the best way to get to the Theatre Minor. Purchase two tram tickets from the concierge. Martin , Jonathan, Geraldine and I walk a short distance, board the No. 14 tram and within a few minutes, we are there. A fun and painless trip. The 17.00 hour New York University conversation, "The Taste of Man" features Slavenka Drakulic and Tariq Ali with Jiri Pehe serving as the moderator. Both Slavenka and Tariq are always worth listening to. Tariq mentions the fact that there are more and more separate religious schools in Britain for Christians, Jews and Muslins and that this is asking for trouble not only now but as time passes it will only get worse. I have long felt this was a major mistake. He suggests that the E.U. in Brussels should create a law banning these separate schools for all members of the Common Market and establish a common school policy. For all That if the religions wish to have special classes, these could take place when the schools are not performing their normal schedules. I agree.
The 18.00 hour Guardian conversation is entitled "1968: Change" and is moderated by Gary Younge. A large panel of participants: Homero Aridjis, Margaret Atwood, Graeme Gibson, Dimitris Nollas and Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke. Gary does another superb job. Stimulating once again.
At 20.00 hours we have another international evening of readings. Elena Schwarz from Russia, Graeme Gibson from Toronto, and Michael McClure from San Francisco.
Afterwards there is another Ambassador's party in the theatre to which the audience is invited. It is hosted by José Louis Bernal Rodriquez, the Ambassador of Mexico, and Catherine von Heidenstam, the Ambassador of Sweden. A delightful event. Delicious food. What a superb evening! Thank the lovely Catherine.
Ride the No. 14 tram with Martin Belk, Geraldine Sweeney, and Jonathan Pryce back to our neighborhood. Give Martin a copy of White Washing Fences and he gives me a copy of his Pretty Broken People, subtitled lipstick, leather jeans, a death of New York.
A bunch of people are sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Josef. Join them for a while and then head upstairs to the quiet of my room. It has been another full day.

read the blog on the Prague Writers' Festival Website