New Ideas
"This is the first time the festival will feature crime writing as well as graphic novels and pulp fiction," says Galle Literary Festival Director Sunila Galapatti.
The festival in its fourth year, has experimented with genres: graphic novels – a complete novel in comic form, usually dealing with mature themes, and pulp fiction.
Pulp fiction originated from the cheap, short fiction magazines of the 19th century, known for their sensational stories and covers.
Blaft Publications – an Indian independent publishing house will introduce the work of pulp fiction authors of the Hindi, Urdu, and Tamil languages as well as a short storytelling of folktales from Tamil Nadu, and a slideshow of pulp cover art.
New graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee who authored a graphic novel on the scandals of 18th century Calcutta, will conduct a workshop on making comic books.
Other writers like Gillian Slovo will talk of growing up in apartheid South Africa, while historian Anthony Beevor will talk on the rise of conspiracy theories in history.
SriLankan writers Ameena Hussain, Michelle de Kretser, Shyam Selvadurai, Ashok Ferrey and Ru Freeman are also slated to participate.
The festival is to be held from January 28 to February 1, 2010.
Tourism draw-card
Each year 3000 visitors travel to the Southern Sri Lankan city of Galle for the literary festival. Organisers hope they will attract similar numbers again, if a hotly contested election for Sri Lankan president does not intervene.
The festival was moved by a day on account of the election being held on January 26.
"No writers have cancelled on account of the election," Galapatti said.
Hotels in Galle meanwhile, already in peak tourist season, are expected to run at close to full capacity – promising signs for an industry just recovering from the effects of a three decade war.
Addressing criticism that high ticket prices keep most locals away, organisers say they will introduce more free and discounted events.
Currently, the festival makes just 15 percent of its costs through ticket sales, with the balance covered by sponsorships.
On the sidelines of the festival will be a series of outreach programmes, promoting reading and creative writing in 25 schools in rural Sri Lanka.
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