AN ACCLAIMED Asian writer is encouraging Redbridge residents to showcase their talents as part of a London library drive. Meena Kandasamy, author of When I Hit You, is taking part in the City of Stories, an initiative designed to encourage participation at short stories workshops across various London-based libraries. Run 42 will host the free workshops which will be led by 11 writers including poet and fiction writer Kandasamy. She will be in residence at Redbridge Central Library and Museum. “As Redbridge is a diverse London borough, I want to bring out a sense of being in Britain, but a Britain that is not Covent Garden or Canterbury,” she said. “Since I moved to London two years ago, libraries have been fundamentally important to my work. They are the last of the spaces that are still genuinely public.” She added that she believes the fight against library closures needs to carry on, noting her appreciation of the fact that anyone can visit them. “Books may appear to be staid, but they can move you, make you another person,” she said. “Their influence is tremendous, and there is no better place to gain access to them than in libraries.” The City of Stories workshops will be running in June in various locations.
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