Bookworm festival opens with 'Obama's poet' in Beijing

A Yi is one of the highlighted authors at the opening night of the Bookworm festival in Beijing.

The poet was invited to the 10th Bookworm Literary Festival on its opening night on Friday as one of the main draws to "give a taste" of what the festival is going to offer, according to festival director Peter Goff.

As a privately funded literary festival, Goff says the purpose of the festival is to "provide a platform for the promotion of great literature and the free and positive exchange of ideas".

Also present on the opening night were BBC broadcaster Bidisha, a reporter on asylum-seekers, who shared her experiences, and Australian award-winning writer Robert Drewe, who talked of stories he had written as a reporter in the 1970s and the experience of visiting China at the time.

Chinese writer A Yi, 40, won loud applause on the opening night as he detailed humorously the price he paid for writing and his status after being "abducted by writing".

Before turning a full-time author eight years ago, he was many things－a police officer, secretary and magazine editor. But all he ever dreamed of was to become a writer.

A Yi has published novels and collections of short stories, including the popular A Perfect Crime, which was published in English in 2015.

This year, the Bookworm festival features more than 180 writers and speakers from more than 30 countries, and is presenting 300 events in Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou through March 27.