And now make way for the written word
DESPITE the gloom in the political arena, South African authors and publishers continue to produce a wide array of high-quality, topical books.
The Wordfest programme, which runs from July 1 to 7, is jam-packed with an extensive variety of genres and event formats, which allow the audience to interact with the authors.
Chris Mann, convenor of Wordfest, says this is the strongest festival yet, featuring several national and international award-winning publications: Nkosinathi Sithole’s Hunger Eats a Man won the Sunday Times Literary Award for fiction in 2016; Justice Dikgang Moseneke’s My Own Liberator and Darwin’s Hunch by Christa Kuljian are shortlisted for this year’s Sunday Times Literary Award for non-fiction.
The timeless insights of The Book of Joy, placed second on The New York Times bestseller list, will be delved into by Christian and Buddhist representatives.
Aspiring writers are also catered for, with a writing workshop focusing on narrative non-fiction writing, and for those who feel ready to have their writing scrutinised in an intimate tutoring session, multiple awardwinning visiting Singaporean poet Edwin Thumboo will invite festivalgoers to join him for a number of sessions.
The Wordfest venue will become a hub for established and aspiring poets. Open mic sessions will offer a daily opportunity for poets to present their work to an audience, and established poets like Brian Walter, Harry Owen and Amitab Mitra will present their work.
Wordfest – the festival within a festival – has grown from strength to strength since inception over a decade ago, remaining true to its original vision to promote a culture of quality reading and writing in South Africa. As it continues to expand, it has welcomed the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences on board as a new funder.
Wordfest provides a platform to new talent and a diversity of voices, drawing on the over 50 000 festival-goers who flock to the National Arts Festival every year.
Rhodes University facilitates Wordfest as an outreach and community engagement project. Annually, a grant from the National Arts Council allows Wordfest to host around 100 multilingual writers from Eastern Cape urban and outlying areas, promoting social cohesion, offering networking opportunities to community-level writers, and affording them exposure to writers who are well-known in indigenous South African languages.
It is held in the Eden Grove building on Rhodes University campus.
To download the detailed programme visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za-programme2017 on the National Arts Festival website www.nationalartsfestival.co.za. For updates, visit the Facebook page at Wordfest South Africa.