Artscope | Online edition of Daily News

Marking six years in the scene, the Galle Literary Festival team had joined hands with HSBC to bring to the nation the HSBC Galle Literary Festival next year. The event will take place in the scenic beauty of Galle from January 18 to 22, 2012.

“GLF has always supported freedom of speech. It gives the opportunity for readers to become intimate with the writers. Our main purpose is to celebrate writing in English. There is a huge diaspora of English writers from Asia. A lot of good writing had come out of Sri Lanka too. We provide the opportunity for them and budding English writers to come into the limelight at the event,” said GLF founder Geoffrey Dobbs.

He also noted that Sri Lankan English writers will gain confidence to display their work to the global audience. This will be a boost to their creativity.

“English is a link language throughout the world. We have had people coming for day trips from various part of the isle. Foreign literary enthusiasts fly to Sri Lanka to take part in the discussions. Many locals and hotels benefit from the event because it is not only a great source of income but also because the foreigners are enthralled by the beauty of the country and wish to return to the island for holidays,” he added. HSBC GLF 2012 will hold a number of events for school children. Students from the Southern, East and Nothern provinces will flock together to take part in events. Certain writers will visit Jaffna after the festival to conduct workshops.

An air taxi will also fly from Colombo to Koggala will be a new addition for the event. Some programmes which have won much acclaim such as the paddy field lunch at Kurulbedda will be included in this year’s festivities along with whale watching in Mirissa.

Speaking at the press conference held to unveil the writers who will attend the HSBC GLF, the festival curator Shyam Selvadurai said that the festival is a platform to learn about cultures as well as to look back on ourselves in that setting.

“The festival will open with a debate on issues dealing with post-war Sri Lanka. There will be panels on Dr Martin Wickramasinghe, the Tamil Diaspora and a documentary discussion on the Burgher community. There will also be a duet series where two writers will spar off on a subject familiar to both. Readings, tea and poetry series, gourmet lunches and dinner, lunchtime concerts and late night musical revues will be on offer,” he said.

The GLF team is also hoping to hold the first Galle Children’s Festival at the end of October with the participation of over 1000 children.

Authors at HSBC GLF

Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish - I Shall not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey (2010)

Achinthya Bandara - Researcher

Randy Boyagoda - Governor of the Northern Province (2006), Beggar’s Feast (2011)

John Boyne - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006), The Absolutist (2011) and Noah Barleywater Runs Away (2011)

Dr Sandagomi Coperahewa - (Senior Lecturer in Modern Sinhala and Sociolinguistics at Colombo University). The Language Planning Situation in Sri Lanka (2009) and Sinhala Usage of the Twentieth Century: A Sociolinguistic Study (in Sinhala – 2010)

Meira Chand - House of the Sun (1989)

Robert Crowther - The Most Amazing Hide-and-Seek Alphabet Book, in 1978

Channa Daswatte - Architect, co-author Sri Lanka Style - Tropical Design and Architecture with Dominic Sansoni.

Richard Dakwins - The Selfish Gene (1976), The Ancestor’s Tale (2004), The God Delusion (2006) and The Magic of Reality (2011)

Josceline Dimbleby - Orchards in the Oasis (2010)

Rishma Dunlop - White Album (2008), Metropolis (2005), Reading Like a Girl (2004) and The Body of My Garden (2002 )

Roshi Fernando - Homesick (2009)

Aminatta Forna - The Memory of Love (2011)

Katherine Frank - A Voyager Out: the Life of Mary Kingsley (2005), Lucie Duff Gordon: A Passage to Egypt (2007) and Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth (2011)

Romesh Gunasekera - The Prisoner of Paradise (2012)

Githa Hariharan - When Dreams Travel (1999), In Times of Siege (2003), Fugitive Histories (2009) and Sorry, Best Friend! (1997)

Alistair Horne - But What Do You Actually Do (2011)

Ranjit Hoskote - 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008) and the first India Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011)

Irfan Husain - Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam and the West (2011)

Manju Kapur - Difficult Daughters (1999), A Married Woman (2004), Home (2006) and The Immigrant (2009)

Katie Kitamura - The Longshot (2009), Gone To The Forest (2012)

Jason Kouchak - Pianist, performer

Hari Kunzru - Transmission (2004), My Revolutions (2007) and Gods Without Men (2011)

Simon Sebag Montefiore - Jerusalem: The Biography (2011)

Juliet Nicolson - The Great Silence, 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of The Great War (2010)

Ruth Padel - Where the Serpent Lives (2010)

DBC Pierre - Ludmila’s Broken English (2006) and Lights Out In Wonderland (2010)

Jeeva Ragunath - Story teller and author of children’s books

Sunethra Rajakarunanayake - Author, translator and tele-script writer

Anura Ratnavibhushana - Creating Simplicity (2009)

Nayantara Sahgal - Jawaharlal Nehru: Civilizing a Savage World (2010)

Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu - Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)

Sakuntala Sachithanandan - On the Streets and Other Revelations (2010)

Ingo Schulze - One More Story (2010) and Adam and Evelyn (2011)

William Shawcross - Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother: The Official Biography (2009), and Justice for the Enemy- From Nuremberg to Khalid Sheik Mohammed (2011)

Lemn Sissay - The Emperor`s Watchmaker (2002) and Listener (2008)

Tom Stoppard - Written the screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum, and a new English version of Chekov’s Ivanov (2008)

Meera Syal - Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee (1999)

Joanna Trollope - The Other Family (2010) and Daughters-in-Law (2011)

Wordsmiths take to Galle