It really does feel like Open Book is just around the corner! If you haven’t already blocked off the dates, the festival is happening from the 17th to the 21st September this year. Five days of Cape Town at its most literary – the books, the authors, the ideas…don’t miss it.
There are some great events coming up before September though…
The second SA PEN/Open Book Dialogue, The Politics of Publishing and Book Selling, will take place at the Book Lounge on the 19th of May (17.30 for 18.00). Margie Orford (wearing her SA PEN hat) will be talking to the always delightful Niq Mhlongo, local publisher Ingeborg Pelser (Jonathan Ball) and Mervyn Sloman (Book Lounge). Please RSVP to booklounge@gmail.com or 021 462 2425.
Niq Mhlongo at Open Book 2013
June will see us joined by Vaughan de la Harpe and Sean Disney, the authors of Poles Apart. They will be at Leopard’s Leap farm in Franschhoek on the evening of the 13th of June and will also be visiting three schools to wow high school learners. RSVP details will follow.
Part of the reason the year has passed so quickly from our side is all of the events we’ve been involved in already – three mentoring programmes for aspiring writers…three fund raising Food Jams (thank you Jade de Waal!)…the first SA PEN/Open Book Dialogue…Archbishop Desmond Tutu reading Let there be Light to hundreds of people at Central Library…the third edition of Pulp Fiction…the list goes on!
An amazing ride so far!
Last, but certainly not least, there are the authors without whom Open Book wouldn’t exist (cue drum roll). We’ve mentioned Mike Carey, Raymond E Feist, Felicitas Hoppe, Antony Loewenstein and children’s authors, Satsoshi Kitamura and Adam Stower…we can now add Kader Abdolah (courtesy of the Dutch Institute for Literature), Rabih Alameddine, Sefi Atta, Francesca Beard (thanks to the British Council), Geoff Dyer and Philip Hensher. Locals who we look forward to welcoming back to the Open Book stage include Caine Prize shortlistee, Diane Awerbuck, Lauren Beukes and Damon Galgut and for the first time, Ivan Vladislavic. Open Book is going to rock!
If you would like further details about the festival or events through the year, please contact Frankie (frankie@openbookfestival.co.za).
More news soon!
The Open Book Team
Find us on facebook
Twitter @OpenBookFest
Open Book is organised in partnership with The Fugard Theatre, The District 6 Museum, The Townhouse Hotel, Equal Education, The Bookery, The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, British Council, The Dutch Institute for LIterature, The French Institute, Central Library, SA PEN, The Goethe Institute, Nederlands Letterfonds, UCT Creative Writing Department and sponsored by The City of Cape Town, Leopard’s Leap, Penguin Books, Pan Macmillan, Random House Struik, NB Publishers and Jonathan Ball.