New names added to headliners for 19th Singapore Writers Festival
Photo by: Singapore Writers Festival Facebook
Returning for its 19th instalment, the Singapore Writers Festival on Friday (26 Aug) announced four additions to its lineup of authors who will be headlining the annual 10-day literary festival in November.
Writers Okky Madasari (Indonesia), Philip Terry (UK), Gerdur Kristny (Iceland) and Frank Dikotter (US/Hong Kong), will be joining Joanne Harris, the award-winning author of “Chocolat”, YouTuber Evan Puschak from The Nerdwriter, Atia Abawi (US), A Yi (China), Eka Kurniawan (Indonesia) and Singapore’s O Thiam Chin, among others, during the festival, which runs from 4 to 13 Nov.
(Clockwise from top left) Okky Madasari, Frank Dikotter, Philip Terry and Gerdur Kristny. (Photo by: Singapore Writers Festival)
In an interview with Yahoo Singapore, festival director Yeow Kai Chai, 48, said the newly announced authors further represent the diversity of the festival, from ensuring a strong Southeast Asian presence, to including writers of not just fiction, but non-fiction as well.
“We are not just a literary festival but we also celebrate ideas and thinkers. We do have very strong journalists and writers who write about issues,” Yeow said.
Modern Chinese history expert Frank Dikotter and foreign news correspondent Atia Abawi are some examples of such writers who will be featured in the festival, which is themed “Sayang”, a word used in various contexts in the Malay language, such as expressing love, a sense of pity, regret, and also loss.
On Dikotter, the author of “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976”, Yeow said, “The cultural revolution, if anything, is the epitome of Sayang, you lose a lot of culture, you lose lives, you kill people, you kill off tradition.”
As a tribute to the 400th death anniversary of legendary poet William Shakespeare, Yeow has also added writer Philip Terry as a fitting choice due to his well-known poetry collections, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Besides Singaporean O Thiam Chin, who recently won the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015 for his novel “Now That It’s Over”, homegrown writers Leong Lieu Geok and Jennifer Anne Champion will also be at the event.
While international writers continue to dominate the festival’s headline, Yeow assures that he always makes sure local writers take up the lion share of the programmes.
“Every year we will see that about two-thirds of them will be Singaporeans,” said Yeow, who expects a 20,000 turnout for this year’s festival, a slight bump from last year’s 19,000 visitors.
The full programme lineup, ranging from panel discussions to meet-the-author events, will be announced on 6 Sept.
Those interested can start purchasing advance sales festival passes from now till 5 September via SISTIC.
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‘Chocolat’ author among speakers unveiled for 19th Singapore Writers Festival
