Free the Word! London 2009


A Heavenly Celebration of World Literature

16 - 19 April 2009


Make a date to come and meet the great writers you know and the great writers you don't at Free the Word!, the UK's only festival of world literature, returning to London for its second year this spring for an exciting and explosive weekend of storytelling, discussion and debate.

Staged by International PEN, the worldwide writers' association, the festival, sponsored by Bloomberg and supported by Arts Council England, will take place at a variety of venues around London's Southbank and Bankside over one long weekend in mid April 2009 and will take the theme of 'Heaven and Earth'.

Showcasing the best writing from around the globe, the festival will feature world renowned writers such as Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer, Mexican journalist and human rights activist, Lydia Cacho, and Iranian novelist and academic Azar Nafisi, alongside emerging voices such as Petina Gappah, a remarkable new talent from Zimbabwe, and French literary sensation, Florian Zeller.

The festival also features a new strand of work, 'FELT PEN', with events for children and their families, and will present the first public performance of Malawian writer and poet, Jack Mapanje's, first play, The President's Tobacco.

'Free the Word! is International PEN in spirit and action - a four-day festival for authors and readers to make sparks across the divide between national literatures,' says Sir Tom Stoppard, International PEN author advocate.

'Free the Word! is a celebration of the best in world literature,' comments Caroline McCormick, Executive Director of International PEN, 'and illustrates International PEN's commitment to removing barriers to engaging with literature; whether they be freedom of expression, or literature in translation.'

Festival highlights include:


Other writers taking part in Free the Word! 2009 include Karen King-Aribisala (Guyana/Nigeria), Sylvia van Ommen (The Netherlands), Peter Beaumont (UK), Amit Chaudhuri (India/UK) and Keith Waithe (Guyana/UK).

The festival will take place at Shakespeare's Globe, Southwark Playhouse and the Young Vic. In keeping with a festival format, there will be multiple events taking place during the day and evening. Tickets can be booked direct with each venue.

International PEN is the worldwide writers association, which represents the conscience of world literature, defends freedom of expression and promotes the development of a community of writers across cultures and languages. It is committed to giving insight into other worlds through the power and value of literature and as such, Free the Word! aims to showcase the best in world literature, promote literature in translation, and give a platform to both eminent and emerging writers. From October 2009, the festival will become an international relay of events across world cities beginning with Free the Word! in Linz, Austria, staged by Austrian PEN in partnership with International PEN. It will then travel to up to 10 countries throughout 2010 including the third London festival. Each Free the Word! will be united every year by a shared theme, promoting local and national writing as well as the best in world literature and literature in translation.

For further information including full festival listings and press tickets for events, please contact:

Amanda Johnson
Email: amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com
Tel: 07715 922 180
Or
Jessica Jackson
Email: jessica@amandajohnsonpr.com
Tel: 07866 675 877


Notes to Editors

About International PEN:

 

Tickets and Booking

Tickets can be booked directly with the venues:

Shakespeare's Globe
020 7401 9919
www.shakespeares-globe.org/freetheword

Southwark Playhouse
020 7407 0234
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Young Vic
020 7922 2922
www.youngvic.org

Event Listings Information

Thursday 16 April

Beyond Faith and Reason
Thursday 16 April at 7.30pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Main Stage
Nadine Gordimer, Tariq Ali, Samir El-youssef and Tahmima Anam
Tickets: £12, £9, £5
When cultures meet is it possible to find a place for understanding? With Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer, novelist, historian and political campaigner Tariq Ali, Palestinian writer Samir El-youssef and 2008 Commonwealth Prize winner for Best First Book, Tahmima Anam from Bangladesh. The writers will read from their work and discuss their experiences of their own cultures; meeting places of religion and state, where belief and the law are intertwined. The event is chaired by Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor of The Independent.

Friday 17 April

Telling Secret Lives
Friday 17 April at 7.30pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Underglobe
Azar Nafisi, Lee Stringer and Wen Huang
Tickets: £5
From the secret lives of women in Iran, to the story of one man's crack cocaine years on the streets of New York, to an account of a village teacher in China, the extraordinary is often hidden behind the everyday. Azar Nafisi, author of the international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran and her new memoir about her childhood Things I've Been Silent About, is joined by New Yorker Lee Stringer and Wen Huang, the translator of one of China's most well-known writers, Liao Yiwu. Together they explore what it means to be invisible in the realms of heaven and earth. The writers will be in conversation with acclaimed author and musician Amit Chaudhuri.

The Insulting Cabaret
Friday 17 April at 10pm
Southwark Playhouse
In association with the hub
Catherine Millet, Karen King-Aribisala, Christian Jungersen, Lee Stringer and many more!
Tickets: £6
Under the watchful night sky, join us for 'The Insulting Cabaret'; it's a secret world somewhere between heaven and earth. The strangest things will be banned and pre conceptions will be blurred. After its sell-out success last year, the Free the Word! cabaret returns for more late night word play, vocal trickery, comic truths and some good old-fashioned fun. A perfect end to a day's festival-going or the perfect start to a night out where anything could happen ...

Saturday 18 April

Around the Globe
Saturday 18 April at 12pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Watkins Rooms
Tickets: £5 Ages 4 - 6
From the weird to the wonderful, storyteller Deborah Newbold comes armed with a bucketful of traditional and original tales and spellbinding songs from all over the world. Help her tell these stories by sharing them with your family, whispering them to your neighbour or just shouting them right across the Thames. This event is part of FELT PEN.

Dream Journeys
Saturday 18 April at 2pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Watkins Rooms
Tickets: £5 Ages 3 - 6
Interweaving storytelling with Ghanaian song, Cora and dreamy Guyanese flute melodies, celebrate the connections between heaven and earth, between what we see and touch and our own dream journeys. With Keith Waithe, Sandra Agard and Jo Jo Yates. This event is part of FELT PEN.

Sweets
Saturday 18 April at 3.45pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Watkins Rooms
Tickets: £5 Ages 6+
Do they have sweets in heaven? Joris and Oscar think so. Dutch illustrator, writer and animator, Sylvia van Ommen reads Sweets, a story about a cat and a rabbit and their thoughts about heaven and earth. Come and create your own animated animal characters and talk about what sweets you would like to eat in heaven. This event is part of FELT PEN.

Hell on Earth
Saturday 18 April at 6pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Underglobe
Lydia Cacho, Christian Jungersen and Carolin Emcke
Tickets: £5
A writer in a conflicting world, whether real or imagined, can take unheard and untold stories and experiences and re-tell them with such powerful honesty that there is no choice but to listen. Yet it can literally be hell on earth. Mexican author Lydia Cacho, recipient of the 2007 Amnesty International Ginetta Sagan Award for Women and Children's Rights and the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2008, was arrested and threatened for her book Los Demonios del Edén (Demons of Eden) in which she accuses high profile politicians of being involved in a ring of child pornography and prostitution. As an editor and war correspondent for German newspaper Der Spiegel, Carolin Emcke has reported on human rights violations and war crimes in places such as Lebanon, Colombia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Christian Jungersen is a Danish author of two prizewinning and bestselling novels, his latest being The Exception, a work which takes place in a small fictitious organisation, The Danish Centre for Genocide Information. This event is chaired by Peter Beaumont, Foreign Affairs Editor at the Observer whose new book, The Secret Life of War, is available in May.

International Futures
Saturday 18 April at 7.45pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Underglobe
In association with PEN International Magazine
Kamila Shamsie, Betrand Besigye, Petina Gappah and Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
Tickets: £5
A sold-out event last year, ‘International Futures' is back to celebrate the eminent writers of tomorrow. Kamila Shamsie, the acclaimed author of numerous novels including her latest, Burnt Shadows, talks on the subject of heaven and earth with some of the brightest contemporary international voices whose work already heralds stellar international futures: Bertrand Besigye (Norway), Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe) and Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih (India).

Sunday 19th April

Thirteen Secrets of Poetry: A cabaret for children based on the poems of Adrian Mitchell
Sunday 19 April at 11am
By Adrian Mitchell with Sasha Mitchell
Young Vic, Maria Theatre
Tickets: £5 Ages 8 - 11
If you have ever wanted to write a poem but couldn't get started, this is the show for you. Using music and poetry, the performers reveal thirteen helpful secrets of poetry. Some poems are scary, some are sad, some are downright daft! Enjoy a musical and poetic cabaret that ranges from classical music to rap, that celebrates a variety of lyrical poetic styles but, most of all, that shows everyone how much fun poetry can be. Performed by Sasha Mitchell and Nick Pyall.

Literary Lunch
Sunday 19 April at 1pm
Festival Highlights
Young Vic, The Cut Bar
Free but tickets must be reserved
The great British tradition of the long Sunday lunch meets the best in world literature. Treat yourself to some of the delights on offer from The Cut Bar while you chew on the words of some of the writers at this year's festival. With Jack Mapanje paying tribute to Harold Pinter; Chinese poet Han Dong; a celebration of the life and work of Adrian Mitchell; and Lydia Cacho, Leila Aboulela and Moris Farhi all reading from their work. Plus many more surprise extras!

The President's Tobacco
Sunday 19 April at 3.30pm
Young Vic, Maria Theatre
In association with Bilimankhwe Arts
A rehearsed reading and Q&A with Jack Mapanje
Tickets: £5
In a fictional African country, ordinary farmers are competing to grow and sell tobacco against the big people in the Party and Government. One small farmer, Mtema, appears to be able to run a profitable farm and pay his men well. But when competition escalates, he is imprisoned for embezzling the president's tobacco, leaving Mrs Mtema to face an uncertain and dangerous future ...
Celebrated Malawian writer and poet Jack Mapanje unveils a rehearsed reading of his first play, The President's Tobacco, in an exclusive public performance for Free the Word!

Heavenly Pleasures
Sunday 19 April at 7.30pm
Shakespeare's Globe, Underglobe
Catherine Millet, Florian Zeller and Leila Aboulela
Tickets £5
‘Heavenly Pleasures' explores representations of love across cultures: from East to West, from the physical to the spiritual. Featuring French writer Catherine Millet, whose internationally best-selling memoir, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, was dubbed ‘ ... a manifesto of our times', and Florian Zeller, who explores the relationship between the West and Islam from the point of view of a young man on a quest for pleasure in his novel, The Fascination of Evil. Joining them is Leila Aboulela, a Sudanese writer whose celebrated novel The Translator looks at the difficulty of loving someone of another faith. This event is chaired by Lisa Appignanesi, award-winning author of Freud's Women and Unholy Loves and President of English PEN.


Sponsored by:

Bloomberg Arts Council England