Acclaimed poet: Aoife Mannix poses with her poem collection Heritage of Secrets. — File Photo

HCM CITY (VNS) — Aoife Mannix, a recognisable voice on the UK live literature scene, has arrived in Viet Nam for the European Literature Days 2014 to begin in Ha Noi tomorrow.

Mannix held a workshop on creative writing yesterday with Vietnamese writers and readers at the British Council in HCM City, and will speak today at another workshop at the English department of the HCM City Foreign Languages and Information Technology University on how to use literature in English teaching.

She will look at how poetic language is used to celebrate the imagination and explore how writers develop their own voice.

Born in Sweden of Irish parents, Mannix grew up in Dublin, Ottawa and New York before moving to the UK.

She read English and sociology at Trinity College Dublin and has an MA in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London.

She has been a poet-in-residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live.

Her poetry has appeared in a number of anthologies and literary magazines, and she has toured the UK and abroad.

On Friday the author of four poetry collections and the novel Heritage of Secrets will also join other writers from France, Germany and Poland in a public talk on Female European Writers: Love for Literature and Life at the French Culture Centre in Ha Noi, and will also hold a creative writing workshop at the Goethe Institute in the capital city.

In addition, Mannix will take part in a talk on J. R. R. Tolkien's works (which are translated in Vietnamese) and speak about how this acclaimed British writer was inspired by a sense of place, especially by Oxfordshire where Mannix lives.

She will speak at the British Council in Ha Noi with highschool students studying literature at the Ha Noi University of Education. — VNS