Sunday Times 2
FGLF is round the corner: Watch out for these writers, events
View(s):Amitav Ghosh, Sebastian Faulks, Meera Syal, Sonali Deraniyagala, Tom Holland and Gregory Pardlo- they are all going to be here this January for the Fairway Galle Literary Festival along with a host of other writers, poets and artistes who promise a veritable feast of literature.
Festival Curator, Shyam Selvadurai: The list is diverse, full of engaging thinkers and writers
With barely a week to go before the 2016 Festival begins, tickets are moving fast. The Festival which starts off in Kandy January 9 and 10) and moves to Galle (January 13- 17) will have its final weekend in Jaffna (January 24-25) at the Jaffna Public Library where all programmes will be absolutely free.
Tickets are now on sale for the Festival through the wow.lk website and at the box offices: In Colombo – at Wow.lk, 176/1, Thimbirigasyaya Road, Colombo 5; In Kandy – at The Empire Cafe, Temple Street, Kandy; in Galle at 27, Leyn Baan Street, Galle Fort.
The box office hours are 9.30 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. Monday to Saturday. “The list is a great one and very diverse, full of engaging thinkers and writers. I am proud to present all of them to our audience. I am sure that festivalgoers will have no problem picking out well known writers like among others. But I wanted to draw people’s attention to some other writers and events it would be a real shame to miss,” Festival Curator, Shyam Selvadurai said sharings his thoughts on writers and events festivalgoers might want to consider when making their choices of which events to attend.
Among the writers and participants that Selvadurai suggests people consider are the following: Hugh Thomson, because he is a vivid speaker and his talk on Nanada Devi is a must see at the Festival. Jeet Thayil whose award winning book Narcopolis was one Selvadurai gave away constantly as a gift. Fiona Shaw: Sri Lankans might not be very aware of her because theatre is so geographically specific, but she is famous on the stages of London and New York. Anuradha Roy: Selvadurai says that, if he had to name one Indian writer to watch out for, it would be this award winner. Matt Haig, whose wonderful memoir Reasons to Stay Alive is about overcoming depression, an illness some Sri Lankans suffer from in silence, because of the taboo around mental illness here. Kenan Malik, because there is nothing so wonderful for an engaged mind as sitting in a room and listening to a great thinker work out a complex argument. Nayomi Munaweera, so beloved among Sri Lankan readers, many of who will get to meet her for the first time at the GLF; Andrea Maria Schenkel because one can always count on European writers to take a genre, like the thriller, from pot boiler to art.
Sonali Deraniyagala
While declaring that it is really hard for him to select among the many wonderful and diverse events at the Festival, Selvadurai does suggest that festivalgoers not miss the following: The Galle Literary Festival Panel Out on Main Street: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning (LGBTIQ) Lives and Realities in the World. These issues have never been discussed at the Festival before and what makes this panel really engaging is its fine panelists and the fact that the focus is on lives lived by LGBTIQ people in non-Western countries.
Selvadurai also recommends The Fairway Celebration of Sri Lanka panel on Contemporary Trends and Achievements in Sinhala Literature. Selvadurai listened to a similar panel at the A&K Litfest and was amazed by how much he could follow with his Simple Pass in O Level Sinhala. He is delighted that festivalgoers will get a chance to hear the wonderful way Sinhala writers play with the English language and portray modern realities; and he hopes they will get past their insecurities around understanding Sinhala and attend.
Some of his other picks:
*The Fairway Celebration of Sri Lanka Panel on Contemporary Tamil Poetry will introduce non-Tamil speakers to the rich and varied tradition of modern Tamil poetry. The discussion will be in English but the poems will be read in Tamil and then also in translation.
Hugh Thomson
*The Galle Literary Festival Panel, The Art of the Thriller and Mystery Novel because who doesn’t love a good thriller? It would enhance one’s understanding of the genre to listen to some really fine practitioners reveal the secrets of their craft.
*Poetry Pharmacy: Very limited seats but this will be a fun event.
*Rohini Mohan and Samanth Subramanian on Sri Lanka’s War and Peace through Indian Eyes. Selvadurai, who thought he knew about Sri Lanka’s civil war, was both enlightened and moved by their books.
*The Galle Literary Festival Panel on Historical Fiction. A genre that, most critics agree, is currently in its golden age, judging from its popularity and the number of prize winning novels out there. Once again, a chance to see how the genre works. The panel is also unique because it looks at the genre as it applies to South Asia.
Anuradha Roy
*Saba Douglas-Hamilton on The Secret Life of Elephants. These magnificent beasts are so much a part of our life, our landscape and culture. This is a great opportunity to get to know them in a much deeper way.
*David Lough on Churchill and His Money. A truly great biography is one that reveals an iconic figure in a completely different light. Who would have thought the curmudgeonly Churchill was a spendthrift!
For the full programme pls see www.galleliteraryfestival.com. See also the Sunday Times Plus for more on the FGLF