Our monthly 'Meet the Haymaker' series shares stories of the change-makers at the heart of Hay Festival and the impact it has had on their lives. This month, get to know Hay Festival Artist Liaison Assistant Meg Grantham.
What does Hay Festival Global mean to you?
It's always been about discovery, stepping into this alternate space. I started coming to the Festival as a child, and even then I think I was aware of just how singular and special Hay Festival is - always different, always changing.
What’s your favourite Festival memory?
Last year, I was lucky enough to join the Hay Academy team and got the opportunity to experience the Festival in entirely new ways. It was whirlwind eleven days, spent with a brilliant group of people - many of whom I now call my friends!
The schools days were a favourite - and the outreach programme at the Festival is something I'm particularly passionate about. Some of my favourite memories were made back-stage, peering out at hundreds of students and watching as they re-found a long-lost love for literature.
Have you ever changed your mind on something having been to a Hay Festival event?
All the time! I think it's a staple Hay Festival experience - and some of my most memorable moments have happened unexpectedly at Festival events.
One which sticks with me is After Hours in Birmingham last year, an event which aims to bring the 'Festival in one night' to new locations. Seeing Hay Festival's ability to re-invent itself in a new space (and in my hometown!) whilst still bringing it's characteristic charm was an extraordinary thing. Familiar Brum voices like Casey Bailey and Bradley Taylor were included in the line-up, alongside journalist Helen Lewis and thinker Margaret Heffernan. It was a packed with big conceptual ideas, about brains, culture, obsession, and asking for a light in the beer garden - and I loved it all.
Who was the best speaker or performer you saw on a Hay Festival stage?
Joelle Taylor. One of the greatest performance poets, also, all-round ice cool hero.
It's a gift to hear Joelle read, and hear how beautifully words lift off pages to become incandescent portals into some of our warmest, most pivotal moments of queer history. She was discussing women in fiction with Małgorzata Lebda, also a brilliant poet, at last years' festival - an event I was interning on. And I'm not entirely sure my (of course, very!) professional exterior was disguising my excitement to be around someone I admired so much.
What advice do you have for a first-timer at the Festival?
Get carried away, splurge on the first book you're drawn to (and the last), sit in the sun and look up at the hills, go to events you think you'll dislike - they may just become favourites, talk to everyone, and leave plenty of time later for a debrief in the three tuns.
Sum up Hay Festival Global in five words or less…
A promise of more.