Margaret Drabble won’t be attending
Celebrated author Margaret Drabble will not be attending the Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2017 due to pressing personal issues, the Festival organisers announced in a press release issued earlier this week. “Ms. Drabble expressed her deep disappointment at not being able to come, as she was truly looking forward to being in Sri Lanka and being part of the Festival. She made every effort to try and make her visit possible but, in the end, this was not possible. Roma Tearne is also unable to attend the Festival. Anyone wanting to exchange tickets or process refunds for tickets purchased for these events should email tickets.fglf@gmail.com,” the release said.
“We are delighted, however, to announce three new additions to the programme,” the release states:
“Kate Tempest is an acclaimed musician, poet, novelist and playwright. Her epic poem, Brand New Ancients, won the 2012 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. Her album Everybody Down was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Music Prize. Tempest’s work refuses to recognise genre boundaries, moving with verve through performance poetry, rap-style narratives against a backdrop of electronic music, a novel and plays. During her visit to the Festival, she will perform from her new album Let Them Eat Chaos, a long form poem. Half-spoken, half-rapped, the 13 tracks on Let Them Eat Chaos follow the inner and outer journeys of some inhabitants of London, as they leave their private worlds to eventually discover each other’s existence – catch her at her Thinking Out Loud session on Friday January 13 from 9.30-10.30 a.m. and when she joins Dinah Jefferies for their Literary Dinner on Friday January 13 at Tamarind Hill. To learn more about this author check out her website: www.katetempest.co.uk
“Nayanjot Lahiri, whose talk on the Emperor Ashoka sold out within hours of the box office opening, has offered do a second talk for disappointed festival-goers who didn’t get into her Ashoka event. Her new talk, titled Finding Forgotten Cities: How The Indus Civilization was Discovered, will be on Thursday January 12 from 4 p.m. – 5 p.m.In it, this acclaimed award winning historian will bring to life the people, processes and puzzles that led up to the unearthing of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, and also give us wonderful glimpses into this great, lost civilization.
As a tribute to Anne Ranasinghe, the beloved German-Sri Lankan poet who passed away last week, Sri Lankan writers and participants at the Festival including Ashok Ferrey, Shyam Selvadurai, Afdhel Aziz, Tracy Holsinger, Jean Arasanayagam and Sunila Galappatti will read one of her poems during their sessions.”
Since the box office opened two weeks ago, the Festival has had record-breaking sales and quite a few events are sold out.
Tickets are available online @ mydeal.lk/fairway-glf-2017 or FGLF box offices, open Monday – Friday 9 a.m.-6.30 p.m. & Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.at: Colombo–740 Galle Road, Bambalapitiya and Galle — 25, Leyn Baan Street Galle Fort.