Get Ready for "Not the London Book Fair" at the Book Lounge
Alert! The travel chaos ash cloud that has fallen over South African writers and publishers and their plans for the London Book Fair has witnessed the gleam of a silver lining, rapidly expanding in Cape Town, in the form of the Not the London Book Fair event, set to take place at the BOOK Lounge on Monday, 19 April, starting from 6pm.
Currently, the event’s headline acts include Antjie Krog, Imraan Coovadia, Fiona Snyckers, Victor Dlamini, Modjaji Books and Arthur Attwell. Helen Moffett is organising it – and BOOK SA will hold a lucky draw with three copies of the recently-launched Home Away to win. Leopard’s Leap will be on hand, too, to film a message from SA Lit punters for the London book crowd; and Kalk Bay Books‘ The Annex restaurant will be sending over snacks from the deep South.
- Visit the Not the London Book Fair Facebook page for programme info/updates and to RSVP
- Help promote the event by tweeting with #NTLBF
As tweeter TO Molefe said earlier today:
TOMolefe RT @readsa: Check out the official page for the Not the London Book Fair event happening in CPT on Monday #lbf10 #NTLBF: http://bit.ly/9 …
Well put indeed.
BOOK SA will liveblog the event, of course – and, like Leopard’s Leap, we’ll send photo and video material to the London Book Fair for use in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s South Africa market focus activities.
Here’s the official NTLBF press release:
Press release
ATTENTION ALL MEDIA
Determined not to be daunted by a little bit of volcanic ash, South Africa’s grounded authors, publishers and literati who were headed for the London Book Fair this weekend, have pulled together to organize Not The London Book Fair — a scintillating literary event scheduled for Monday evening, at indie bookstore The Book Lounge.
This event has the blessing of the official London Book Fair — which had picked South Africa as its market focus country for 2010. Readings, panels, debate and interviews will be live-reported through to the LBF, so those at the LBF will still get a sense of the richness and freshness of our talent. Reportage will take the form of podcasts, live-tweeting, live-blogging, and hopefully a video link-up directly to the London Book Fair. Possibilities for Skype-ing are also being investigated.
Some local authors and many organizations and publishers have indeed made it to the LBF, and volunteers are manning echoing stalls — but sadly, the writers already abroad are mostly already established authors with international recognition. The intention of NTLBF is to offer a platform to all those affected by the flight embargo, especially fresh, fascinating and alternative voices. We know how innovative, energetic and fabulously creative our writers are, and we want the world to see them shine.
The line-up, already a literature lover’s dream, so far includes:
* Antjie Krog, whose most recent book Begging To Be Black winds up questions this acclaimed poet, journalist, award-winning author and iconoclast began asking in Country Of My Skull;
* Imraan Coovadia, who’ll talk about his tour de force novels, including his recent High Low In-between;
* Fiona Snyckers, author of the bubbly, witty chick-lit-with- heart Trinity series;
* Entrepreneur and cultural connoisseur Victor Dlamini will bring his expertise to the interviewing panel;
* Arthur Attwell of Electric Book Works, joint winner of the international Young Publisher of the Year award and electronic publishing guru;
* Colleen Higgs of Modjaji Books, rapidly filling a niche as South Africa’s premier publisher of quality poetry, fiction and memoir by women, with a frontlist of exciting new books;
* Ben Williams, writer, web journalist and driving force behind BOOK SA (http://bookslive.co.za).
This line-up is subject to change as we add more writers and voices… come prepared to be surprised and delighted.
Food and drinks are being sponsored by Kalk Bay’s The Annexe, Leopard’s Leap Wines, Electric Book Works, Modjaji Books, Fiona Snyckers and The Book Lounge.
Venue: The Book Lounge, cnr of Roeland and Buitenkant Street, central Cape Town.
Time: 6pm till late.
Ends
See you there!
Apr
