Philip Pullman is to speak in a talk entitled The Golden Compass: A Conversation With Philip Pullman at the Times Centre in New York City on October 30th. This is a limited ticket venue, and it is believed there are only about 400 tickets for this event which are already sold out. This is one of a select number of engagements Pullman is carrying out in North America.
He will also be appearing at Trinity College, University of Toronto on October 26th to partake in a discussion entitled Particles of Narrative, which “will explore the richness of scientific words and concepts for interpreting the power of children’s books to engage our minds”. This talk is also sold out.
WHY AMERICA!!!! I’ve never herd of any events happening with philip pullam in the UK and now i do hear about an event, its in bloody america, Jeees
How are the tickets already sold out? Where was this announced?
Not that I could ever get to NY, but still…
Not sure where – but according to George Beahm, he’s had a ticket for ages – so I guess it’s been in the pipeline for a while.
Christy: Pullman is in the UK all the time. He’s speaking in Oxford next Monday. He spoke in Oxford several times earlier this year. If you don’t listen, you don’t know things are happening…
he’s also at several bookfairs throughout the year…
why is it that the one time he comes to my home town, i’m not home?
Bugger…the Toronto conference is full too.
ARGH. If I still went to U of T I probably would’ve known about this sooner. Maybe I’ll find a way to sneak in.
Regarding the availability of tickets for the Pullman talk in the U.S., I didn’t get the word until long AFTER the event had sold out, but I kept checking daily, with the hope that someone would cancel and not get his ticket, which is presumablly what happened. I was able to go online and get a ticket, but not two of them: only one ticket was available, so I bought it.
Scholastic.com was the only website that put up a link saying tickets were for sale. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY mentioned a Pullman tour but gave no details.
Given that only a few hundred tickets were available — in a city with several million people — you can see how easy it was to sell out the entire allotment, probably in a day (or less).
Frankly, I just lucked up. No special connections, no insider trading. Just plain, dumb luck.
Pullman will be in conversation with Canon Brian Mountford at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford on Monday 22nd October, the topic being “writings, myths and religion”. Drinks 7PM, discussion 7.30PM.
He’ll also be attending a fundraising evening (details here: http://events.oxfordmail.net/disp.asp?i=26258) in support of the redevelopment of Pegasus at the Pegasus Theatre (of which he is a patron) at 7.30PM on November 17th. What his involvement will be isn’t specified. Wine and light refreshments included!
Have had my ticket for about 2 months now…I get updates from NYTimes about their talks
Is philip pullman ever actually going to get himself back to desk and do some WRITING!! Isn’t he a WRITER!?
Hopefully you’re joking, pitchender.
Pullman has been limiting his events for a while now. He has done much more than this in the past, and I know that I, as a fan, appreciate the fact that he does these things, even if I haven’t been able to attend any of them yet.
I take your point, but really do not agree. It seems he is doing nothing to cut down his onslaught of public engagements. JK Rowling is the most popular and in-demand writer in the world, yet you don’t hear of her dropping everything to attend events left, right and centre. Instead, she prioritises her writing time, as all writers should. Since The Amber Spyglass in 2000, he has produced Lyra’s Oxford (a beautiful book, but essentially a short story) and the Scarecrow and his Servant (again, wonderful book). So, in 7 years, a short story and an illustrated work. Hardly prolific. By contrast, JK Rowling has produced three novels and two companion books (the novels alone totalling over 2000 pages!). I am sure you do appreciate his public appearances, but wouldn’t you appreciate a wonderful new novel to enjoy even more? Think of the work he is denying himself, and the world…
In this case, I would say quality over quantity. I’m perfectly content to wait, and there -is- a short story coming out in the spring.
Fair point – let us hope then that when the much-touted “Book of Dust” finally appears, it will be more than a short story, and nothing short of extraordinary! I doubt though that he’ll ever get back to his 2000 words a day quota, which is a shame (The Book of Dust has been 4 years coming as far as I can make out, gestating for even longer). Being a full-time writer myself, I would be dismayed if in seven years I had produced one substantial novel – I would wonder what I was doing with myself. Let’s wait and see, till then we have the movie to tide us over…
The toronto Conference was freakin awesome. never have ive been so close to him and how he drew upon the importance of such a small idea was great, who would have thought about thwe act of pouring a liquid could mean so much and deliver context. one annoying thing was questions , in particular , this one UofT snobby person who was typically reading an essay before he proposed a question. But in all favour 3rd row Was awesome
sorry to post again but Pullman draws upon intellect that just blaitenly stating points, he challenges the reader to think as opposed to JK Rowling who I have noticed, writes more plot than descriptions and development also note the size of her books are seemingly increasing . (except the development of snape)