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Interview by Ekaterina Shmeleva, conducted at the Bookworm, Chengdu, January 2019.

The Woman Behind Spittoon Chengdu

Annie Leonard is a writer, teacher, dancer, translator, and the organiser without whom Spittoon Chengdu would not exist. She was first approached by Matthew Byrne in Beijing in 2016 to head the Chengdu branch. The first event was held at Mado Bar that year. It didn’t happen again for another six months. From February 2017, it became a regular monthly event — and hasn’t stopped since.

Getting It Off the Ground

On the early days: “The first Spittoon Chengdu reading night was held in 2016 in Mado Bar. The only people who knew what happened were the ones who were there. The event didn’t happen again for another good six months. It was February 2017 when we finally started doing it regularly, every month.”

On building a team: “In the beginning it was just me doing all the organising, and then finally we were able to overcome that by building a team.”

On growth: “We have all matured as writers, and we are all becoming much more consistent. The pieces that are shared up on the stage are clean, tight, impactful and engaging.”

Splitting Poetry and Fiction

On why the events split: “I started to have a lot of people signing up, so I had to turn people away. The easiest way to solve this problem was to split the event into two, poetry and fiction, which is how they run it in Beijing. It also allows me to delegate more — different people organising the fiction and poetry parts gives the whole event a different flavour.”

On the different vibes: “Fiction night is inevitably slower paced. Poetry night moves faster, it is snappier. Although both events are laid back, and at both you are going to hear content that is pushing boundaries. For people who are keen readers, a fiction night is a great way to get your literary fix. You don’t have to commit to reading a whole book — you just get that story delivered to you in a very fresh and interesting way.”

The Literary Tour

On the 2017 Spittoon Literary Tour: “The Literary Tour was something that Matthew was really keen on doing. We had events like a translation workshop, a poetry night, a fiction night, and Spittunes, and each one was better than the last. The coolest thing is that we were live streaming the events, and halfway through the fiction panel, Peter Goff whispers in my ear: ‘You guys better make sure you are using microphones because there are around 2000 people watching you on the live stream.’ I was like, really? 2000 people? It was a big moment for Spittoon Chengdu.”

Who Can Participate?

“Everyone. Participating is not just performing but also being the audience, and anyone can come. The only requirement is that it’s your own work. We don’t turn people away because they are not published authors, and if it’s the first time you ever shared your writing with anyone, I fully encourage you to come. It’s not about that sort of divide — it’s about inclusion.”

The Chengdu Team

By January 2019, Spittoon Chengdu had grown well beyond Annie. The organising team included Penney, co-host of the poetry night and organiser of Spittunes; Lorna, a writer from London with Jamaican roots who performs prose and monologues; Lella, host of the poetry night and designer of event materials; Jacob, backup host, contributor, and regular performer of poetry, prose, and original songs; and Ekaterina, who had been performing at Spittoon Chengdu since its first birthday and wrote this article.

What Annie Loves Most

On what keeps her going: “The community that has grown from this. I love people, I love seeing people get together, and I love even more than that seeing people realise their potential. I love nurturing and fostering people and watching them blossom.”

Originally published January 2019 on the Spittoon WeChat channel. Article written by Ekaterina Shmeleva.