Sunday Times 2
Taste the local flavour once again at A&K lit. fest today
View(s):TheA&K (Annasi & Kadalagotu) Literary Festival will take the stage for the fifth year, today, October 20, (Sunday) at the Mount Lavinia Hotel with the theme ‘Simply Local, Simply Literature’.
This year’s programme opens up with Shakthika Sathkumara, no better person to discuss if literature should be censored. Two book launches will brighten up the morning, followed by an interesting panel on Sports and Literature. Kingsley Rathnayake, Prof. Neluka de Silva and Prof. Arjuna Parakrama will speak about ‘The flavour of Sri Lankan Literature’ while there will be workshops for children and a creative workshop for adults as well.
Then there’s ‘Anduru Lowin Eliyata’, a discussion with visually impaired writers, talking about their journey in writing and publishing.
Writers who have published for the first time will be included this year as well and an award-winning panel consisting of writers who have won national level literary awards will share their tips. Towards the afternoon would be ‘The Dot Com Games’ bringing together women and digital in literature.
The man who owns one of the world’s largest Barbie doll collections, Jian Yang will be present at A&K, and one might wonder why. In Sri Lanka on a business visit a few years ago, he stayed at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, the venue for A&K for the past three years. It was here that he began his #havetissuewilltravel project where he designed dresses for his dolls out of toilet paper. He will launch his book based on this project #flushablefashion.
Going back to the roots, there will be a performance discussion on Hitiwana Kavi, and the evening will wrap up with ‘Lankawe Hina’ looking at humour in popular local literary mediums, along with the local folk rock band Bambaroo, adding musical entertainment.
A&K Literary Festival has had a Love Letter writing competition running parallel to the festival this year and the winners will be announced at the closing ceremony on Sunday evening.
All this for a Rs. 100 entrance ticket.