Tickets are selling out fast for the year’s most exciting literary event- the Galle Literary Festival to be held from January 28 to Feb 1 at the Fort, Galle. The impressive array of local and foreign authors attending includes Germaine Greer, Colin Thubron, Pico Iyer, Anne Ranasinghe, V.V.Ganeshananthan, M.J. Akbar, Moses Isegawa, Romesh Gunesekera, Vivimarie Vanderpoorten and the event promises some stimulating exchanges and discussion amidst a whole host of complementary events.
For more details and to book your tickets online, see the GLF website: www.galleliteraryfestival.com. Tickets are also available at Barefoot.
The Sunday Times is the print media sponsor of the festival once again.
Meet the authors
In our weekly ‘Meet the Authors’ series we feature some of the writers you can look forward to meeting in Galle:
Tarun J. Tejpal
When The Alchemy of Desire hit the book shelves in 2005, it caused a sensation around the world. The Nobel Laureate V.S Naipaul declared, “At last – a new and brilliantly original novel from India.” Critics described author Tarun J. Tejpal’s work as ‘a masterpiece’. The Times Literary Supplement, called him ‘one of the most attractive Indian writers in English of his generation’ and others declared him a serious challenge to the likes of Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh.
A journalist and publisher who formally edits India Today and writes for The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Financial Times and Prospect, Tarun started Tehelka.com, an internet news magazine which became known for its ground-breaking sting investigations against corruption and later re-launched it as a national weekly magazine, funded by the advance subscription of its supporters.
In December 2006 The Guardian listed Tarun Tejpal as being one of 20 who constitute India’s new elite.
V.V. Ganeshananthan
Expatriate Sri Lankan writer and alumna of Harvard College, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she specialized in arts and culture, V.V. Ganeshananthan grew up in Maryland and lives in New York City.
On the journalistic side, she has reported for The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Post. This past fall she was writer-in-residence at Skidmore College.
Her novel Love Marriage was published in North America in 2008.
Thomas Keneally
Australian Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize with Schindler’s Ark in 1982, the book that was later turned into Stephen Spielberg’s award-winning film Schindler’s List. Kineally has written ten works of non-fiction including his recent memoir ‘Searching for Schindler’ and the histories ‘The Commonwealth of Thieves’, ‘The Great Shame’ and ‘American Scoundrel’.
His books include ‘The Widow and her Hero’, ‘An Angel in Australia’ and ‘Bettany’s Book’.
‘The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith’, ‘Gossip from the Forest’ and ‘Confederates’ were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize and ‘Bring Larks and Heroes’ and ‘Three Cheers for the Paraclete’ won the Miles Franklin Award. |
E-mail