Here is a list of all the amazing events you can look forward to at the Franschhoek Literary Festival this year! Because there are so many wonderful events we have decided to split them into 3 blogs (one for each day of the festival).
Leadership and Corruption
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: School Hall
Njabulo Ndebele (Fine Lines from the Box), David Lewis of Corruption Watch and A D Miller discuss these crucial issues of our time, chaired by Shaun Johnson of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
World War II
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Church Hall
Distinguished war historian Antony Beevor (The Second World War) engages with French academic and novelist Laurent Binet (HHhH), chaired by Professor Bill Nasson of Stellenbosch (South Africa at War 1939-1945).
SOS Africa
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Julian Rademeyer (Killing for Profit), Jacques Pauw (Rat Roads) and Jamala Safari (The Great Agony and Pure Laughter of the Gods) wrestle with the extent of some of our continent’s problems, chaired by Ray Hartley, former editor of the Sunday Times and The Times.
Drug Muled
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Council Chamber
By the time Vanessa Goosen had spent 16 terrible years in a Thai prison, a lot of publishers were after her story – but newbie Melinda Ferguson prevailed.
Literary Lionesses of False Bay
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Ann Donald of Kalk Bay Books, who knows them well, talks to novelists Finuala Dowling (Homemaking for the Down-at-Heart), Diane Awerbuck (Home Remedies) and Claire Robertson (The Spiral House).
Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Poets Antjie Krog and Ingrid de Kok in conversation and reading new work.
Alexander McCall Smith
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: School Hall
Michele Magwood engages with this most engaging of authors, polymath creator of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and more than a hundred books (and counting) translated into over 45 languages.
Does patriarchy lead to sexual violence?
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Church Hall
… or are submissive or absent mothers also at fault? A crucial debate for our troubled time between Redi Thlabi, Anchien Troskie and Casey B Dolan (An Appetite for Peas), chaired by Eusebius McKaiser (A Bantu in my Bathroom).
Found in translation
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Editor Lynda Gilfillan asks Afrikaans authors Ingrid Winterbach (The Book of Happenstance/Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat), Eben Venter (Wolf Wolf) and Carel van der Merwe (Shadow /Skaduwee) whether translations do their original versions justice.
Shock/horror
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Lauren Beukes, winner of the 2012 Arthur C Clarke Award, delves into the underworld of techno-terror with the co-authors of The Mall and The Ward, Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg.
Karoo mosaic
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
Tim Cohen talks to writers whose books give intimate glimpses into Karoo lives: poet and activist Sydda Essop (Karoo Kitchen), poet Isobel Dixon (The Tempest Prognosticator) and Carol Campbell (My Childen Have Faces, about karretjie people).
Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: The Screening Room
Oswald Mtshali in conversation with Tessa Dowling about the republication of Sounds of a Cowhide Drum , now with Zulu translations
How to fix South Africa
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: School Hall
This Sunday Times book is a collection of articles written by leading South Africans who suggest solutions. Dennis Davis talks possibilities with Moeletsi Mbeki, Hlumelo Biko and the former editor who commissioned them, Ray Hartley.
Bestsellers
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Church Hall
Bestsellers Kate Mosse (Languedoc Trilogy, of which Labyrinth was the first) and Anthony Horowitz, polymath author of over 35 books as well as many TV and movie scripts, plays and journalism, talk to Jenny Crwys-Williams.
Pulp Fiction
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Enter the exciting world of African graphic novels as Sean O’Toole exchanges notes with enthusiasts Katie Reid, Stacy Hardy and Ashraf Jamal.
Peacocking
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Council Chambers
UCT linguists Rajend Mesthrie and Tessa Dowling rap about South Africa’s rich compost of languages, including township slang.
Favourite Poems
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Four poets – Finuala Dowling (I Flying), Ingrid de Kok (Other Signs), Karen Press, (Slowly, as if) and Danie Marais (In die buitenste ruimte) – present their favourite poems.
New Voices
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Sue Grant-Marshall of Radio Today talks to crime novelist Amanda Coetzee and medical specialist Mtutuzeli Nyoka who has written a first novel, A Hill of Fools.
Ambassadors
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: School Hall
SA’s representatives come from both sides of the political divide. Mike Wills talks diplomacy with Melanie Verwoerd, former ambassador to Ireland (The Verwoerd who Toyi Toyied) and Tony Leon who took on Argentina (The Accidental Ambassador).
What do publishers want?
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Church Hall
Random House Struik MD Steve Connolly quizzes Melinda Ferguson (M F Books, a Jacana imprint with a focus on black women’s stories), Debra Primo (UKZN Press) and American Ron Irwin, a UCT academic who teaches creative writing and doubles as a literary agent
Prodigal Daughters
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Palesa Morudu talks to Annemarie Wolpe, Gonda Perez and Ruth Carneson about their exiled lives during the Struggle, with editor Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Bell and Elizabeth Trew standing by.
Social Issues In Fiction
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Lauren Beukes talks to Rebecca Davis about her new thriller, The Shining Girls, and using inventive fiction to explore big issues in an engaging way.
Where’s the Chicken?
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
With a foreword by Mamphela Ramphele, this brief practical book with fresh perspectives on creating a safer society in South Africa is by two academics who know what they’re talking about: John Cartwright and Clifford Shearing. Ndumiso Ngcobo asks the questions.
Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: The Screening Room
Then/Now: Michael Cope (Ghaap; Sonnets from the Northern Cape) in an illustrated multimedia conversation with Bev Rycroft (missing).
Don’t touch me on my dog
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: School Hall
How do we grow beyond the racism that still blights our country? Francis Wilson probes for answers from political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi, Eusebius McKaiser and Zapiro, the cartoonist who can make us cringe with a few pen strokes.
A sense of place
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Church Hall
Christopher Hope engages with three authors whose recent novels have a strong sense of place: Ken Barris on growing up in PE, Alistair Morgan who sets The Land Within on a former family farm in the Karoo, and Ron Irwin who writes about an obsession with rowing in an American boys’ school.
Researching war and cities
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Antony Beevor in conversation with Vivian Bickford-Smith of UCT.
Critics on critics
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Council Chamber
Sean O’Toole in conversation with Margaret von Klemperer, books editor of the Witness, and Fred de Vries (The Fred de Vries Interviews).
Haunted by waters
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
A treat for trout fishermen: John Maytham talks to Duncan Brown (Are Trout South African?) with doyen Tom Sutcliffe in attendance.
Author to author
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Jo-Anne Richards in conversation with Rachel Zadok.
Patricia Glyn …
Time: 17h30 – 18h30
Venue: The Screening Room
… presents her riveting TEDx talk about what she learnt on her journey into the Kalahari with the late Khomani San leader, Dawid Kruiper, and his family.
10h00 – 15h00
“Live news” sessions (Protea Hotel) (pay at the door)
Editor Martin Welz will chair four activistexperts talking about hot news stories. See poster in the Town Hall during the FLF or www.noseweek.co.za for details.
Concert Schubert I: ‘Withered flowers’ (NGK Church) R90, pay at the door
Pianist Albie van Schalkwyk joins Liesl Stoltz (flute) and Christopher Duigan to play Schubert’s Trockne Blumen for flute and piano and Fantasia in F minor for four hands at one piano. (70 minutes)
Ingrid Winterbach as writer and visual artist (IS Art Gallery)
A conversation between Ingrid and Lize van Robbroeck. Bookings: 021 876 8443. (Free event)
10h00 – 12h00
Flash Memoir Workshop (Double Event)
Learn tools to access the core of your life story – giving equal weight to the facts and the poetry of the matter – with Dawn Garisch.
11h30 – 12h30
Taken Captive by Birds
John Maytham talks to the author of this childhood memoir Marguerite Poland and bird illustrator Craig Ivor, some of whose work will be exhibited.
18h00
Sunday Times Literary Awards Shortlist announcement (Le Coq Restaurant, Huguenot Square) (By invitation only).
18h00
Concert Voices for Africa FREE concert (NGK Church)
A celebratory event featuring some of Cape Town’s most established operatic voices, including Beverley Chiat (soprano) with new talent from Anzwi Omzansi Africa National Singing Competition, a project initiated by London–based baritone Njabulo Madlala. The local Simunye Choir also feature in a selection of traditional songs Everyone welcome. (70 mins)
19h00 for 19h30
Dinner with talk show host and author Jenny Crwys-Williams at Pierneef à La Motte restaurant, R45 Main Road, Franschhoek Valley.
Enjoy dinner with some of the best authors around and Porcupine Ridge wines. Phone Jade Horn on 076 780 6383 or email justjenny@iafrica.com
19h30
Sunday Times dinner at Reuben’s
Join Sunday Times for a literary evening at Reuben’s Restaurant & Bar: Alexander McCall Smith and Kate Mosse in discussion with Michele Magwood. Tickets: R550 each for four courses with a welcome drink of Porcupine Ridge wine. To book, email goodtimes@sundaytimes.co.za
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