FGLF 2016: The countdown begins
Here are a few things you should know so you can start planning your attendance at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2016: The programme will be out by the end of this month; the festival itself will sprawl over three consecutive weeks, opening in Kandy (January 8 – 10), moving on to Galle (January 13 – 17) and ending in Jaffna (January 23 -24); tickets go on sale in December on wow.lk as well as other outlets in Colombo, Galle, Kandy and Jaffna.
Festival founder: Geoffrey Dobbs
At a news conference last week, the organisers of the festival announced that it would feature eminent British author Sebastian Faulks, comedian and actress Meera Syal, award winning nature and travel writer Hugh Thomson and PEN Ackerley Prize winner Sonali Deraniyagala among as many as 50 others.
The author of Narcopolis, Jeet Thayil, and Anuradha Roy whose latest book Sleeping on Jupiter earned her a place on the Man Booker Prize long-list, are on the list of invitees.
Sri Lanka is well represented by a host of award- winning writers, poets and translators, counted among whom are Shehan Karunatillake, Vivimarie Vanderpoorten, Ariyawansa Ranaweera, Elmo Jayawardena, Jayatillaka Kammallaweera and Ayathurai Santhan.
Poetry “heavy weights”, the winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Gregory Pardio and Forward Prize winner Claudia Rankine will be there, as will best-selling historians Tom Holland and Mark Tully.
Long-time partners of the festival, the British Council and the Goethe Institut will be bringing down renowned science writer Kenan Malik and Andrea Maria Schenkel, author of the very successful German crime novel Murder Farm. (A full list of the writers is up on the FGLF site.)
Festival Director Amrita Peiris
Festival founder Geoffrey Dobbs announced the organisers’ intentions to support art forms other than literature, bringing artists, dramatists and musicians into the programme in a big way. “We’re back after four years, and it’s not so much a literary festival as an arts festival,” he said.
Participants range from individuals such as thespian Fiona Shaw (who is famous for her work on Broadway, but will likely be most easily recognised by local fans as Petunia Dursley from the Harry Potter films) to companies such as The Grassrooted Trust (known for their work in raising awareness around gender based violence and for their staging of the Vagina Monologues in Colombo).
By hosting not one but two literary prizes, FGLF will cement its reputation in the region. The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, with its fat purse of US$ 50,000 will be announced here, but local writers may be more excited by the opportunity represented by the Fairway National Literary Award that will honour writing in Sinhala, Tamil and English.
Telling assembled media that the jury had received some 89 submissions, Shivanka De Zoysa, COO of Fairway Holdings said the company would like to be associated with the festival in the longer term “in the hope of not only recognizing the best literary efforts in Sri Lanka but also to promote Sri Lankan arts and culture to the world.”
Notably, the Festival’s outreach activities in partnership with the Serendipity Trust are more ambitious than even before.
A community outreach event in collaboration with MAS Holdings will run in Galle, Kandy and Jaffna over the month of January and is expected to include School’s Day events, teacher training and what may very well be the largest Galle Children’s Festival.
Both students and teachers can avail themselves of concessionary ticket rates, all details of which are on the site. The sessions in Jaffna will fall under the outreach programme, with tickets being issued free.
Announcing that Jetwing would be opening a hotel there, Managing Director Shiromal Cooray said she thought the festival would be welcomed with open arms: “People in Jaffna are hungry for such opportunities,” she said.
More information available on: www.galleliteraryfestival.com
| Meet two writersOur new series gives you the opportunity to get to know the writers, poets and artistes who will be here in JanuaryWith the announcement of the authors who will be at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2016, The Sunday Times kicks off our new mini-series. Over the course of the next seven weeks we will introduce you to the visiting authors through our column. Keep reading and you will also stand to win two full festival passes in our draw. All you need to do is answer the questions we will pose during our series. In the meantime, get acquainted with the authors and plan for the sessions you simply do not want to miss. Tom Holland Tom Holland is an award winning historian and the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (winner of the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History) and Persian Fire, a history of the Graeco-Persian wars (winner of the Runciman Award in 2006). As the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Making History he has explored interests as diverse as Roman beards, Catholic martyrs, and the role Pluto, Bambi and Dumbo played in the allied invasion of France in 1944. Holland is also known for his writings on contemporary politics and Islam. He argued in an extremely controversial piece for the New Statesman in March this year that the ‘religious roots’ of the Islamic State could not be ignored, saying in interviews: “We should not ignore the influence of Islamic scripture on aspects of Islamic behaviour we find reprehensible.” His other writings include Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, which was published in the autumn of 2008. In the Shadow of the Sword, which covers the collapse of Roman and Persian power in the Near East, he also writes about the emergence of Islam. Dynasty, about the first Caesars, was published in 2015. He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. Anuradha Roy Anuradha Roy’s latest book, Sleeping on Jupiter was long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2015, making her the only Indian to be considered for the honour. Subsequently, she told interviewers that the book’s plot wasn’t a response to the recent reports of violence against women in her motherland, instead “I started out writing a book about friendship, and the central relationship in the book was for me the one between two children in the ashram.” Her previous works have been critically acclaimed. She won the Economist Crossword Prize for fiction for her The Folded Earth. Her first novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing has been widely translated and picked as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post and the Seattle Times. It has been named by World Literature Today as one of the 60 most essential books on modern India and was shortlisted for the Crossword Prize. Roy won the Picador-Outlook Non-fiction prize in 2004 for her essay “Cooking Woman.” The lyrical essay explored her earliest memories of her home and dwelled on the food her widowed aunt would make for the family – ‘The more long-winded the recipe, the more she seemed to relish it.’ Roy said in an interview that her next project had nothing to do with literature, instead she and her friend would be spending November making pots in their own kiln. |
| Fairway National Literary Award shortlist on Nov. 27The shortlist of the Fairway National Literary Award 2016 will be announced on November 27 at the Hilton Residencies, Colombo. Along with this announcement of the shortlisted entries for the three language categories, the panels of judges for each of the three languages will be revealed. This award was initiated by Fairway Holdings to recognise writers of our country and to ensure that their skills will be appreciated with an award and an attractive cash prize. There was an overwhelming response from writers and publishers, with 89 entries being received. Novels published in 2014/15 in the two national languages and English are eligible to win this prize. Three to five publications from each language will be shortlisted and the best novel comprising of the most excellent and creative work from each language will win the cash award of Rs. 500,000. Additionally, every book that has been shortlisted will receive Rs. 100,000. Fairway Holdings Chairman Hemaka de Alwis stated, “We are proud to have taken this step to recognise the literary skills of our own writers. Our purpose is to recognise, promote and encourage Sri Lankan authors to strive for literary excellence. We are happy with the overwhelming response we have received, 89 entries in all. The rewards and recognition offered for the chosen works are attractive and we are confident that they will encourage more and more budding writers to submit their work in the coming years.” The Fairway National Literary Award ceremony will be held in Galle on January 15 for the first time to coincide with the Fairway Galle Literary Festival. |