The Mail & Guardian Johannesburg Literary Festival (Draft) Programme
Alert! The previously-speculated-upon and increasingly circulated word on the street about the Mail & Guardian‘s forthcoming literary festival was made flesh today in the newspaper’s Friday supplement, which carried both a notice of the fest – officialy called the Mail & Guardian Johannesburg Literary Festival – and a summary of its programme.
The festival will take place on 3, 4 and 5 September at 44 Stanley – specifically in venues provided by Art on Paper and, via Il Giardino Degli Ulivi restaurant, The Room – and will feature a host of well-known South African writers, but very few faces that we don’t often see around these parts.
Certain big names in world lit that had previously been tossed around – including that of JM Coetzee – seem to be absent, but the final programme will be published only on 27 August. Watch out for a specially-dedicated Friday section in the M&G on that date.
Today’s published programme corresponds strongly with a draft circulated a few days ago; we’ve edited the latter to conform with what’s been printed and present it here.
Summary programme: 2010 Mail & Guardian Johannesburg Literary Festival
Friday – 3 Sept
Venue for all events: 44 Stanley Avenue
7 pm – Keynote address: Speaker M&G Editor Nic Dawes.
Saturday – 4 Sept
Coffee and ticket sales from 8:00
9:00 – 10:30
Session 1: Word-count: The State of Fiction in South Africa
Chair: Craig MacKenzie (Professor of English, UJ)
Panellists: Leon de Kock, Jane Rosenthal,
10:30 – 11:30
Book signing/mini launch: David Attwell and Chabani Manganyi on their Mphaphlele book, Bury Me at the Marketplace.
11.30 – 13.00
Session 2: Native Nostalgia: Laughter, Forgetting and Airbrushing (Parallel with Session 3)
Chair: Leon de Kock (Professor of English, Stellenbosch)
Panellists: Deon Maas (Witboy in Africa), Chris van Wyk (Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch), Zukiswa Wanner (Men of the South)
11.30 – 13.00
Session 3: After the Fall: The Postcolonial Hereafter (Parallel with Session 2)
Chair: David Attwell (Chair of Postcolonial Studies, University of York)
Panellists to include Imraan Coovadia (High Low In-between)
13.00 – 14:30
Break for lunch (Launch: Judith Mason book at Art on Paper)
14:30 – 16:00
Session 4: The ABCs of RSA: So where to, education?
Chair: David Macfarlane (M&G)
Panellists to include Salim Vally
15:00 – 16:30
Session 5: Difficult Writing: Writers respond to Murambi: The Book of Remains
Chair: Pamela Nichols (Wits Writing Centre)
Panellists: Veronique Tadjo (Ivorian novelist and Head of French Studies at Wits) and Boris Boubacar Diop (Senegalese author of Murambi: The Book of Remains; currently a WISER Fellow at Wits)
This session comprises a brief discussion between Tadjo and Diop, moderated by Nichols, followed by a reading of writings from a workshop of eight young writers run before and during the festival by Nichols and Diop.
16.00 – 16:30
Break for refreshments
16.30 – 18:00
Session 6: Mail & Guardian at 25
Chair: Shaun de Waal (M&G)
Panellists: Anton Harber, Nic Dawes
19.00 for 19.30
Penguin Prize for African Writing: announcement of winners in non-fiction and fiction.
Sunday – 5 Sept
9:30 – 11.00
Session 7: Being Here: South Africans in 2010
Chair: Nic Dawes (M&G)
Panellists: Max du Preez, Kopano Matlwa, Kevin Bloom
11.00 – 11.45
Refreshments break (author event?)
11.45 – 13.00
Session 8: Scene of the Crime: Writing crime in South African fiction and non-fiction
Chair: Anthony Egan
Panellists will include Andrew Brown (Cold Sleep Lullaby, Refuge, police reservist memoir) and Sifiso Mzobe (Young Blood)
13.00
Festival concludes
~ ~ ~
The entrance fee for all events will be R20 (R10 for students and pensioners) and Boekehuis will be on hand to sell books.
The festival is organised jointly by M&G books editor Darryl Accone and Boekehuis’ Corina van der Spoel.
Watch for further BOOK SA reports on this new festival dotting our literary landscape as developments merit!
Book details
- Bury Me at the Marketplace: Es’kia Mphahlele and Company. Letters 1943–2006 edited by N Chabani Manganyi, David Attwell
Book homepage
EAN: 9781868144891
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Bury Me at the Marketplace: Es’kia Mphahelel and Company: Letters 1943 – 2006
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- Bodyhood by Leon de Kock
Book homepage
EAN: 9781415200995
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- Witboy in Africa: Travels on the Dark Continent by Deon Maas
Book homepage
EAN: 9780624048336
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Witboy in Africa: Diary of a Troublemaker
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- Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch by Chris van Wyk
EAN: 9781770101739
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- Men of the South by Zukiswa Wanner
Book homepage
EAN: 9780795702983
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- High Low In-between by Imraan Coovadia
Book homepage
EAN: 9781415200704
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- Murambi: The Book of Bones by Boubacar Boris Diop
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EAN: 9780253218520
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- Pale Native: Memories of a Renegade Reporter by Max du Preez
EAN: 9781770220607
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- Spilt Milk by Kopano Matlwa
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EAN: 9781770097919
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- Ways of Staying by Kevin Bloom
EAN: 9781770101609
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- Refuge by Andrew Brown
EAN: 9781770220621
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- Young Blood by Sifiso Mzobe
Book homepage
EAN: 9780795702938
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