GEORGE TOWN, Oct 31 — This year’s George Town Literary Festival (GTLF) will feature a long list of daily panel discussions, showcase readings, workshops and performances over a four-day period from November 21 to 24.
There will be 80 prominent names including renowned personalities such as Eliot Weinberger and Goenawan Mohamad.
There will also be one-to-one conversations with famed authors such as 2019 Man Booker International Prize winner Jokha Alharthi and Saras Manickam.
The festival, themed “forewords/afterwords”, will revolve around new beginnings and transitions, with a strong emphasis on history, and timely discussions on the ecological crisis and the future of the planet.
This year the festival will have a special focus on language and translation with highlights on the Malay language and Mahua literature.
GTLF, produced by Penang Convention and Exhibition Bureau (PCEB), will be led by festival co-directors Pauline Fan and Sharaad Kuttan.
This year Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya signed on as the official festival bookstore so it will set up a booth at UAB Building from November 22 to 24.
Books by the festival’s featured authors and speakers will be available for sale at the booth in UAB Building during those two days.
In a run-up to the festival, GTLF held an outreach programme “B-Side: Free Creative Writing Workshops”, in collaboration with Penang Public Libraries Corporation, in public libraries all over Penang in October.
The event saw 100 students taking part to create personal essays, stories and comics with the help of local writers and educators.
The GTLF events will be held at various locations such as UAB Building, BlackKettle, Hikayat, Nook Books & Coffee and Loft 29.
The final programme will be released over the festival’s social media accounts in the next few weeks. Find out more at georgetownlitfest.com.
