Saturday, January 03, 2009

The island of the gods beckons again ...

A FRAGMENT of wonderful news from Janet De Neefe, the festival director of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. The literary goddess of Ubud has announced a tentative line-up of 80 authors for 2009, including Adelaide-based Booker Prize-winner and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee (Disgrace, Life & Times of Michael K); Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka (You Must Set Forth at Dawn), the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature; Hari Kunzru (My Revolutions, Transmission, The Impressionist); Ed Husain (The Islamist); 2007 Orange Prize-winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (The Thing Around Your Neck, Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus); Nuruddin Farah (Knots, Links, Sweet and Sour Milk, From a Crooked Rib); and Australian novelists Geraldine Brooks (People of the Book, March, Year of Wonders) and Michelle de Kretser (The Lost Dog, The Hamilton Case, The Rose Grower). Now in its sixth year, the festival will run from October 7-11, 2009, with the theme Sorrow and Joy, examining the strength of the human spirit to triumph over adversity and other impossible odds.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What an amazing line-up!

Friday, January 02, 2009 11:53:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh boy. If I didn't know any better, I'd think this was some kind of divine intervention ENSURING I'm there this year.

Friday, January 02, 2009 11:54:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has always been a good short-story writer despite her success as a novelist. She has published many of her stories in The New Yorker. It is good to know that she will be coming out with her first collection of stories, The Thing Around Your Neck, in April 2009. I look forward to reading them.

Saturday, January 03, 2009 6:18:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the cool dude looks like Morgan Freeman ... now i remember

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 5:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMIGOD! Wow! I don't know what to make of this. On the one hand that guarantees my attendance, but on the other, it would be very disappointing to meet my idol and not have anything intelligent to say. Hope one would have the opportunity to simply bask in his brilliance!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 2:59:00 PM  

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