The 5th annual Franschhoek Literary Festival is on from 13 to 15 May this year, and there are various events designed for younger book fans.
In A Real Tweet on Friday 13 May at 11:30, Sam Wilson (Editor-in-Chief of Women's Lifestyle at 24.com) will chair a wide-ranging discussion about cellphone fiction and other new ways to reach out to new and would-be readers. With Steve Vosloo, founder of the Shuttleworth Foundation's m4Lit project, Kontax scriptwriter Sam Wilson and education specialist Michael Rice.
Also at 11:30, two serious women and two very funny men discuss contemporary comic art in Serious vs Hilarious, facilitated by Andy Mason (What’s so Funny?). Starring Marguerite Abouet, author of the award-winning Aya graphic novels set in Côte d’Ivoire; Colin Cotterill, bestselling crime writer and comics blogger based in South East Asia; Jeremy Nell, maverick South African cartoonist; and Leonora van Staden, an Afrikaans graphic novelist with a feminist axe to grind.
At 13:00 Sarah Lotz (Tooth & Nailed), Lauren Beukes (Zoo Story) and science fiction artist Mer Roberts explore dystopian narratives and technological upheavals in Speculative Fiction, chaired by Delphi Carstens who is writing a PhD on the subject.
Also at 13:00, the Stellenbosch rapping professor Leon de Kock will have some of the poets and rappers in the Umuzi book Letters to South Africa performing their SA versions of Allan Ginsberg’s famous Letter to America.
On Saturday 14 May at 10:00 in Blood, Guts, Sweat & Tears, three doctors who also write – Rosamund Kendal (The Angina Monolgues), Dawn Garisch (Trespass) and James Clelland (Deeper Than Colour) – put aside their stethoscopes to talk about their books with crime writer Jassy Mackenzie.
Also at 10:00, SAFM’s Karabo Kgoleng knocks some myths about young reading on the head in Young, Black and Reading as she talks to literary magazine editor Phakama Mbonambi, Marguerite Abouet and romance imprint Nollybooks publisher Moky Makura.
For anyone who is part of – or trying to understand – the subspecies “teenager’, Sally Partridge (Fuse), Edyth Bulbring (Melly, Mrs Ho and Me) and Sarah Lotz (Tooth & Nailed), share their secrets about reaching the plugged-in generation with Fiona Snyckers in What’s Different About Writing for Teens? on Saturday at 11:30.
Colleen Higgs of Modjaji Press talks romance with Fiona Snyckers (Trinity on Air), Nani Mhlanga (Her Forever After), Sapphire Press editor Lindsay van Rensburg and Nollybooks publisher Moky Makura in Love Stories at 14:30.
Other events of special interest include Off the Wall Poetry at BICCCS Café on Friday, an open mic evening with Hugh Hodge, Karin Schimke, local and Cape Town poets and Youth Affair’s Voices From Our Valley poetry-in-motion theatre production at 18:30 on Friday and Saturday evenings.
There are a number of accommodation options available for students who want to spend the weekend in Franschhoek. See www.flf.co.za, join the Franschhoek Literary Festival on Facebook, or follow the FLF on Twitter @FranLitFest.
The FLF is presented in association with Porcupine Ridge Wines and the Sunday Times, and is further made possible through the generosity of Franschhoek guest house owners and voluntary workers who give their time and energy to make it an event to remember. Ticket proceeds and other donations go towards the FLF Library Fund. The full FLF programme is available on www.flf.co.za. Bookings are open and tickets can be booked on www.webtickets.co.za. Ticket prices remain unchanged at R60 per event, unless otherwise indicated.
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