Chiang Mai literature meetup

June 26

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

To everyone who loves reading: You are cordially invited to join the Chiang Mai Literature Meetup in Food 4 Thought restaurant. Where a group of wonderful individuals come together to discuss literature in a relaxed setting. The key point is relaxed. This is a not a literature snob club and we love new people to join the event. We welcome everyone who likes reading. You do not have to be an expert and you don’t have to be a writer. If you want to come only to follow the discussion and not (yet) take part, that is also perfectly fine!

This event is for discussion about writing, in constructive and positive ways. To be more exact, this event has two purposes.

Firstly, we want to improve ourselves as readers. By joining this event you will be introduced to new kinds of writing and new ways to read. In our discussion of the texts, you will quite likely learn new ways to read things.

Every week we will have up to four different short texts to read. I will post these texts to this event page few days before the event, so everyone has time to read them before Sunday.

The texts will be presented anonymously and we ask you not to try to find out what they are. Just read them and think of the writing style, the themes, the story and how the text made you feel. Do you agree with the author on their key points. Did you find the text easy to read. And if you find any of the texts boring, feel free to stop reading. It’s the job of the writer to keep you reading, it’s not your job to read something if you don’t want to. Also, if you don’t understand something, it’s the problem of the writer, it’s not your fault. This is especially true if your first language is not English. Do not worry, we have many non native English speakers in the group.

The second purpose of this event is that we have members who are currently writing. They often submit their own writing for the group members to read. They want to improve themselves as writers and this group provides them with a way to get honest feedback and opinion of their writing. Because no one knows who wrote what, the feedback is going to be direct and very valuable to the writers.

That being said, this group is not about finding typos or grammar mistakes. We are about commenting the style of writing, the story, the flow, the voice, the themes, the realism and so on and so forth.

To make us better readers and better writers. Not to push anyone down but to improve all of us. Not to comment about any person but about the words and ideas on the paper. Not to comment about the ideas on the story but the ways they are presented. Not to comment about politics or current affairs, but to focus on what is written in the world of stories that you are given to read before each event.

Please notice some of the texts may contain adult themes, such as cursing and/or other kinds of offensive words and themes. Not because we want to offend anyone but because we want to discuss all kinds of literature. A character in a book saying something does not mean we as a group or anyone in the group agree with that statement – even if we choose to discuss that text in the event. If you have a problem with some text, you are free to not read it and free not to join the discussion about it.

The event is hosted at Food 4 Thought restaurant. It is located about 500 meters away from Maya shopping mall. The location is in Google Maps. This is a free event.

However, the restaurant is kindly offering their location for us to use without any reservation cost or fee. Therefore, I kindly ask everyone who joins the event to order something from the restaurant when joining to support the restaurant for providing us with this space to use. Me and other people will go to the restaurant early (3 p.m.) to eat before the event. Please feel free to join the pre-event meal with us.

You will also have time to read the printed version of the material if you come very early. However, reading the material beforehand at home is highly recommended. I will post the material to this event page at least two days before the event.

Chiang Mai can have traffic. Don’t let the traffic surprise you. It’s better to come early than late.