Sri Lanka's Galle Literary Festival 2012 from 18 to 22 January

18th January 2012, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka's HSBC Galle Literary festival kicks off Wednesday with award winning writers, historians and poets from Canada, England, Germany, India, Ireland, Palestine, Singapore, United States and Sri Lanka taking part.

At this year's festival, the sixth year it is being held, Joanna Trollope, DBC Pierre, Tom Stoppard and Shahi Tharoor are on the program.

Author and scientist Richard Dawkins will bring questions of faith and science and Izzeldin Abuelaish (author of I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctors Journey), a Palestine doctor who lost three daughters due to Isreali shelling are key draws.

Several authors connected to India, Nayanthara Saghal, Githa Harihan, Manju Kapur as well as Shashi Tharoor will feature in a 'Spotlight on India: From Midnight to Millennium' section of the festival.

"I was not planning to do a spotlight this year, however I did get my dream list of Indian authors," says festival curator Shyam Selvadurai.

"It goes through time of Nehru and the turbulence of half a century."

Organizers are expecting more visitors to the festival this year with a new expressway cutting down travel time to almost a third and visitors no longer dependent on accommodation around Galle to attend the festival.

Festival director Amrita Pieris says more than 4,000 tickets have been sold already, higher than last year. The event with Richard Dawkins has already been sold out though tickets are available to many of the events in the Hall de Galle which can hold up to 350 people.

Galle is a former Dutch Fort city with a historic fort still intact.

The festival features several panel discussions, including on post war Sri Lanka.

It has several outreach programs including a visit by festival authors to war torn Jaffna and book readings for less privileged school children in Galle.

The festival which runs till January 22, starts off Thursday afternoon featuring Sri Lankan writes Roshi Fernando, Ashok Ferry and Romesh Gunasekera.

The Galle Literary Festival - Programme

Galle Literary Festival Free iPhone App : This iPhone app details the Galle Literary Festival programme and Participants and will help you find hotels, shops and restaurants near the Festival events.


Related Info :

• Galle Literary Festival 2011 Expects Largest Participation in 5 Years for 5 Day Event from 26 - 30 January