Delegates announced for Edinburgh World Writers' Conference

The Edinburgh International Book Festival today announced the delegates who will attend sessions in the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference this August.  The Edinburgh events of this worldwide conference, which is an ambitious programming partnership between the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the British Council, will involve 50 delegates from 25 different countries discussing and debating the role of fiction in society with a public audience, who will have a unique opportunity to meet this stellar line up of world renowned writers and join in the debate.

 

Every day, from Friday 17 August to Tuesday 21 August, the conference will discuss a topic originally tabled at the seminal 1962 Edinburgh Writers’ Conference, in front of an audience who will then be invited to join the debate.    On Friday 17 August eminent Egyptian writer, Ahdaf Soueif will ask Should Literature Be Political? in a session chaired by leading Turkish author, Elif Shafak.  On Saturday 18 August Ali Smith will address Style vs Content in an event chaired by American writer Nathan Englander and on Sunday 19 August Scotland’s own Irvine Welsh will discuss whether there should be A National Literature? with Ian Rankin.  On Monday 20 August Patrick Ness will tackle Censorship Today and freedom of speech moderated by Belgian-Nigerian author Chika Unigwe and, to close the conference on Tuesday 21 August, science fiction and fantasy writer China Miéville will address The Future of the Novel in a session chaired by Denmark’s Janne Teller.

 

A further 40 delegates, from as far afield as Pakistan, Russia, Australia and the Dominican Republic, will join the keynote speakers and the public audience to debate the daily topic and to discuss how writing and the imagination are an essential component of society today.  Internationally renowned authors including Dag Solstad from Norway, Xi Chuan and Xiaolu Guo from China, Jose Rodridgues dos Santos from Portugal, Samar Yazbek from Syria and Andrei Astvatsaturov from Russia, who will all be appearing exclusively at the Writers’ Conference, will be joined by leading British writers including Ben Okri, Nick Laird, Owen Sheers, John Burnside and Jackie Kay. 

 

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival said, “The Writers’ Conference is a fantastic opportunity for Edinburgh audiences to meet and mingle with a phenomenal line up of international authors, and to get involved in a debate which we believe will reverberate around the globe.”

 

Susie Nicklin, British Council Director of Literature, said “In 1962 the British Council participated in the Writers’ Conference by bringing delegates from around the world to Edinburgh. It is fitting that in this Olympic year when we are co-convening a meeting of international culture ministers in Edinburgh we should also be taking literary debate out to the world from the UK. We are looking forward to infusing the global conversation with the traditional wit and engagement of Edinburgh’s lively audiences.”

 

Edinburgh World Writers Conference Sessions at the Edinburgh International Book Festival run from 3.00pm to 5.00pm daily from Friday 17 to Tuesday 21 August.  Tickets, priced at £10 (£8 concessions) are available from www.edbookfest.co.uk or through the Box Office on 0845 373 5888.  Each session will also be broadcast live on-line on www.edinburghworldwritersconference.org.

 

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For further information please contact:

 

Frances Sutton, Press Manager, Edinburgh International Book Festival

 

0131 718 5654 or 07841 579481 or frances@edbookfest.co.uk

 

or

 

Alex Bratt, Senior Press Officer, British Council

 

020 7389 4872 or Alex.Bratt@britishcouncil.org

 

 

 

Editors Notes:

 

The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference is a major programming partnership between the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the British Council and is supported by The Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, Creative Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and EventScotland. 

 

Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference Delegates:

 

Scottish Delegates:   Alan Bissett, Theresa Breslin, John Burnside, Sophie Cooke, Keith Gray,  Kirsty Gunn, Kapka Kassabova, Jackie Kay, Aonghas MacNeacail, Denise Mina, Nicola Morgan,  Ewan Morrison,  Ian Rankin, James Robertson, Ali Smith, Irvine Welsh.

 

Other UK delegates:  Melvin Burgess, Alan Gibbons, Hari Kunzru, Nick Laird, Patrick Ness, China Miéville, Ben Okri, Owen Sheers.

 

International Delegates:  Andrei Astvatsaturov, Bernardo Atxaga, Xi Chuan, Junot Díaz, Nathan Englander, Carlos Gamerro, Xiaolu Guo, Manu Joseph, Margo Lanagan, Michel Le Bris, Yiyun Li, Garth Nix, Joyce Carol Oates, Elliot Perlman, Matthias Politycki, Jose Rodrigues dos Santos, Preeta Samarasan, Elif Shafak, Kamila Shamsie, Kyung-Sook Shin, Dag Solstad, Ahdaf Soueif, Janne Teller, Kim Thuy, Chika Unigwe, Binyavanga Wainaina, and Samar Yazbek.

 

 

 

International Events:

 

The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference will travel to Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago and Turkey.

 

 

 

1962 Writers’ Conference

 

The format of the 2012-2013 Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference mirrors the notorious event that took place 50 years ago in 1962. That year, the radical publisher John Calder worked with the impresario Jim Haynes to bring some 70 authors to Edinburgh. The guests included US authors Norman Mailer and Henry Miller alongside Scottish writers Hugh MacDiarmid and Muriel Spark, and several lesser-known authors, including William S. Burroughs, who would become famous as a result of the Conference. John Calder argued at the time that ‘the novel enriches mankind by its ability to rouse the senses, to stimulate the intellect and to excite the imagination’. The 2012 Writers’ Conference takes as its starting point the same five topics that were discussed in 1962.