Irrawaddy Literary Festival

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival is an annual not-for-profit event which celebrates Burmese and international writers. It is planned to take place annually in Mandalay, Burma/Myanma.r It has been described by former British Foreign Secretary William Hague as having “achieved more for freedom of speech in one afternoon than most of us manage in a lifetime.”[1]

Aung San Suu Kyi, Festival Patron, and Jane Heyn, Festival Founder

Previous venues include the Inya Lake hotel in Yangon, and Mandalay Hills Resort Hotel in Mandalay. The 2016 festival, now being planned, will take place in November 2016, in Mandalay.

The Festival was founded by Jane Heyn, wife of the former British Ambassador to Myanmar, in 2013, and is supported by Festival patron and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. It is organised by an independent Board of Directors comprising Burmese and non-Burmese members.

All events are free with entry on a first-come, first-served basis. The Festival presents three days of discussion panels, workshops and individual talks from the authors, along with a variety of cultural activities: film screenings, photography and art exhibitions and street entertainers. Local businesses join the three-day event by setting up food and handicraft stalls. The participating international authors' books are imported and available at the Festival's abundance of bookstalls alongside the works of hundreds of Burmese writers.

Writing Competitions in the months preceding the Festival and ‘Speakers’ Corner’, which is open to anyone throughout the Festival, encourage active participation from attendees.

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival has received significant attention from global news and journalism organisations such as the BBC,[2] CNN,[3] Wall Street Journal,[4] the Guardian,[5] the New York Times,[6] and the New York Review of Books.[7]

2013

Aung San Suu Kyi's arrival

In 2013 the first Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place from the 1st to the 3rd of February in the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was the Festival’s key note speaker. Other participants included Wild Swans author Jung Chang, A Suitable Boy author Vikram Seth, and historian William Dalrymple. Burmese writers included Thant Myint-U, author of The River of Lost Footsteps, and Pascal Khoo Thwe, author of From the Land of Green Ghosts. Also in attendance was BBC journalist Fergal Keane, and photojournalist Thierry Falise.

The Festival drew a crowd of approximately 10,000 attendees, and was considered a significant indication of the relaxation of Burmese censorship laws: a process which had begun in the preceding two years, following the release in November 2013 of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

2014

The second Irrawaddy Literary Festival hosted an equally high profile list of participants, with Aung San Suu Kyi, Jung Chang, and Fergal Keane returning as keynote speakers, along with newcomers Louis De Bernieres (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), Polly Devlin (All Of Us There) and Caroline Moorehead (Martha Gelhorn: A Life).

The event was initially due to take place in the Kuthodaw Pagoda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Mandalay, however, permission that had previously been granted was retracted a day before the opening of the Festival. The ILF was then relocated to the Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel, where the event opened less than one hour behind schedule.

2015

The third Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place in Mandalay — at Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel — from 28 to 30 March 2015. International award winning authors and journalists took part, including Louis de Bernières (Captain Corelli's Mandolin), Anne Enright, (The Gathering), Barnaby Phillips (Another Man's War), Ratna Vira (Daughter by Court Order), Colin Falconer and Margaret Simons. They were joined by scores of Burmese writers of every genre many of whom travelled from all parts of the country to take part alongside their international counterparts. Just some of the highly respected names included Pe Myint, Khin Maung Nyo, U Nay Oke, Soe Lin, Thantzin, Nay Phone Latt, Nyein Way, Aung Gyi, Thint Naw, Thin Ma Ma Khaing and many more. A team of thirty volunteer interpreters again provided simultaneous translation for audiences throughout the Festival's three day packed programme.

External links

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival has been featured in:

References

  1. ↑ http://irrawaddylitfest.com/
  2. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21322997
  3. ↑ http://travel.cnn.com/aung-san-suu-kyi-draws-thousands-myanmars-first-literary-festival-137776
  4. ↑ http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2013/02/01/myanmars-reforms-lead-to-its-first-literary-festival/
  5. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/03/burma-literary-festival
  6. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/world/asia/07iht-letter07.html?_r=0
  7. ↑ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/burma-new-start-mandalay/
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