Catherine Platt, quite literally, reads for a living. But there's so much more that she does as director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, as she reveals in Tatler’s weekly series that looks into the daily lives of arts tastemakers.
Catherine Platt has been focused on one thing for most of her working life: books. Before joining the Hong Kong International Literary Festival (HKILF) as the director last April, she managed the Bookworm International Literary Festival in Chengdu for four years, and co-founded and directed the Montclair Literary Festival in the US for four years.
Read more: 6 Writers Not to Miss as Hong Kong's Biggest Literary Festival Returns
“I have produced a literary festival every year for the past ten years, and it’s a joy to bring readers and writers together at events that inspire and amplify the love of reading,” Platt says. “The HKILF is my dream job because it unites my passions for literature in general and for Chinese culture in particular. Of course, I wasn’t expecting a pandemic to shake things up so dramatically!”
Not even a total of eight weeks in quarantine could prevent the bookaholic from travelling to the city for the festival, that runs from November 5 to 15; needless to say, her key to surviving quarantine was having a stack of books to read. Now that she’s back out and about, here’s how Platt spends her days.
