Back to 80: My literary life

Chapter 243 IWP’s opening ceremony

It was already twelve noon when we arrived in Iowa City.

Fang Minghua got off the train with his travel bag and was not in a hurry to return to the hotel. Instead, he ate a corn dog, a specialty of Iowa, at a fast food restaurant near the train station, which is cornbread wrapped in sausage and fried.

But this thing tastes just like that to Fang Minghua.

After dinner, Fang Minghua asked about the location of the First National Bank. The check Sun Lizhe gave was issued by this bank.

First National Bank is the largest bank in Iowa City. Fang Minghua rushed there. He originally thought that as a Chinese, it would be troublesome to open an account in a foreign country, but he did not expect that opening an account would become difficult because he took out his passport and participated in the IWP. Very simple.

He took out Sun Lizhe's check and deposited it into his own account together with the winning bonus. Of course he would not forget to take out a 1000 US dollar bill and put it in his wallet for daily use.

After finishing all this, Fang Minghua took a taxi and rushed to the hotel on Ferson Street. He looked at his watch and it was almost two o'clock. According to the training arrangement, today was the opening ceremony of the "Writing Project". I heard that the president of the University of Iowa I also want to come and congratulate you.

Fang Minghua hurried back to his room, but it was empty. Zhang Xianliang seemed to have gone.

He simply packed up his things, took his notebook and just walked out of the room when he almost bumped into Alyssa.

"You'll know just when you go and take a look."

So he apologized and said: "Mr. Spielberg, I am very interested in your ideas, but I will attend our IWP class opening ceremony soon. We will discuss it in detail after it is over, okay?"

Chinese people are relatively familiar with the films he directed, such as "Jaws", "ET", "Jurassic Park", etc.

Lisa said a few words to the man, who immediately smiled and extended his right hand: "Hello, Mr. Minghua, congratulations on winning this year's Nebula Award. I am Hollywood director Steven Spielberg."

After saying that, he stood up and said to Lisa.

Fancy this one?

"Minghua, you came back just in time, someone is looking for you." The girl looked excited.

Steven Spielberg?

"Mr. Minghua, Spielberg is a famous director in my country. The movie "ET" he made the year before last was so good. This movie was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director the year before last. This is the third time he has won Nominated for an Oscar for directing.”

After Lisa said this, Fang Minghua noticed that the corners of Spielberg's mouth twitched, but he didn't say anything and still let Lisa introduce him.

Seeing Fang Minghua come in, the two of them immediately stood up.

"Thank you, hello." Fang Minghua held the other person's hand.

This is an American boss-level director.

But come sooner or later, I'm going to attend the opening ceremony right away.

Fang Minghua had no choice but to follow the girl to the west end of the corridor and entered a reception room. He saw a middle-aged man wearing glasses and ear-length hair sitting inside, and there was a young man next to him who looked like his assistant.

I ran with him three times in a row, and I don’t know whether to be happy or sad when I tell you.

After Lisa finished her introduction, Spielberg got straight to the point and stated the purpose of his trip: "Mr. Minghua, I am very interested in the science fiction novel "Solar Catastrophe" you wrote. I want to buy the rights to adapt it for film and television. Movie."

"Who?"

According to Spielberg's style of making movies, he will probably make this one.

After shaking hands, the two took their seats. Lisa next to her immediately began to introduce Spielberg to Fang Minghua.

Fang Minghua felt a little funny in his heart.

"Lisa, take me to the conference room quickly. I don't want Professor Nie to say I'm rude."

"Oh well."

"goodbye!"

After Fang Minghua finished speaking, he smiled at Spielberg and apologized, then hurried out with Lisa, leaving Spielberg confused. how so?

"Mr. Spielberg, do we still have to wait?" the assistant asked cautiously. He could already see that the other party was a little unhappy.

Spielberg was also a little angry.

Yesterday morning I flew from Los Angeles to Iowa to find Fang Minghua to buy the rights to adapt the novel.

In fact, he has already fallen in love with this novel, but the author is far away in China on the other side of the ocean and wants to buy it, but he can't see him in person.

The night before yesterday, I heard that the author appeared on the podium at the Chicago Nebula Awards. When I woke up in the morning, I read the newspaper and learned that Fang Minghua was attending the IWP held in Iowa. He immediately took his assistant and flew from Los Angeles to Iowa.

As a result, the other party was not here, but he was still wandering around Chicago!

After waiting for more than a day, I finally waited for me. After saying a few words, I was told that I was going to attend some class opening ceremony!

Aren’t Chinese people very humble?

Why is this man so arrogant?

But what can be done?

"Wait, since you have been waiting for more than a day, do you still care about these hours?" Spielberg crossed his legs and picked up the newspaper next to him to read.

In fact, Fang Minghua really did not mean to neglect this famous director, but wanted to participate in today's opening ceremony. It is indeed a bit unreasonable to be late for the first official event of IWP.

The opening ceremony was held in a conference room facing the lake. Fang Minghua hurried over with Lisa and saw only twos and threes by the lake, all members of IWP participating in this session.

There were still a few minutes left before the opening ceremony, and everyone was admiring the reeds and birds in the distance by the lake.

Zhang Xianliang saw Fang Minghua approaching in a hurry, and walked up to him and asked in a low voice: "Did you win the prize?"

"Um"

"Great!"

"What's so great?" Zhang Ling, who was playing with the bird with Yi Shu nearby, asked quickly when she heard it.

"The article "Rural Teacher" written by Minghua won this year's Nebula Award for Best Short and Novelette." Zhang Xianliang continued to explain.

"What is the Nebula Award?" Zhang Ling seemed to have no idea.

"It's quite impressive, equivalent to the Nobel Prize for Literature in the science fiction world." It was Yi Shu who spoke, and he said to Fang Minghua.

"Minghua, if you go to Xiangjiang, my brother will definitely welcome you."

"Your brother also writes science fiction, the "Wesley" series." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"Yes, but his writing is not as good as yours."

While the two were chatting, they saw several people walking over.

It turned out that the principal of Iowa had arrived.

The principal of Iowa is called Johns, an old man with gray hair. In the conference room, he welcomed the writers and families present. He reviewed the glorious history of IWP. For native American writers, here is the award. The world's first master's degree in creative writing. The famous Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver have studied here. So far, more than 20 Pulitzer Prize winners and seven poet laureates have studied here. I would like to teach at Aida University, which is unmatched by prestigious liberal arts schools such as Harvard, Yale and Columbia University.

In addition to the principal's speech, the opening ceremony also includes a very important activity - self-introduction by members.

In addition to Fang Minghua from mainland China, Yi Shu from Xiangjiang, and one writer each from Pakistan and India.

A poet came from the UK, a writer came from Argentina, and the rest came from South Korea and Japan, all relatively young.

When Fang Minghua heard this, he felt happy.

The IWP members are so well chosen this time.

It’s really not that enemies don’t meet, they are all writers from countries that have conflicts with each other.

But now, everyone seems gentle and polite.

At around four o'clock, the opening ceremony ended. Fang Minghua, Zhang Xianliang and others returned to their rooms in the hotel chatting and laughing, and then suddenly remembered that Spielberg was still waiting for them in the conference room.

(End of this chapter)