This year, the Singapore Writers Festival invites you to join them in considering all the ways in which the verbal, physical and visual languages we use every day affect how we see the world. Language heals and language hurts. Language can tie down and language can transform. In a world that is so simultaneously connected and fractured, who has language left behind? What has language taught us about the past, and how must language evolve to accommodate a changing humanity?
Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), which celebrates its 22nd edition this year, is regarded as one of Asia’s premier literary events. Founded in 1986 as Singapore Writers’ Week, it is one of the few literary festivals in the world which is multi-lingual, celebrating works in Singapore’s four official languages –English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil – as well as other languages.
Over the years, SWF has become an exciting meeting point of writers and thinkers in a choice spread of lectures, panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses and performances in 10 days. It has hosted literati the likes of Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian, Whitbread Book Awards First Novel winner Tash Aw, British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Nebula winner Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer Prize winners Michael Cunningham and Vijay Seshadri. This year, the Festival will be housed in the Empress Place district among historic buildings such as The Arts House, National Gallery Singapore and the Asian Civilisations Museum.
Sing Lit Station is a programme partner of this year’s Singapore Writers Festival. Our programmes include:
2 Nov, 1.30pm: CONVERSATIONS: Asia Dreaming, feat. Martin Villanueva, Fairoz Ahmad, Hwang Jungeun
2 Nov, 8pm: READINGS: Epic International Reading Night, feat. Sharon Bala, Waubgeshig Rice, Martin Villanueva, Duanwad Pimwana, Selja Ahava, Grace Chia, Hanna Alkaf, Topaz Winters
3 Nov, 3pm: LAUNCH: 11 x 9: Collaborative Poetry from the Philippines and Singapore, feat. Joshua Ip, Martin Villanueva
3 Nov, 7.30pm: CONVERSATIONS: Navigating the SEA, feat. Martin Villanueva, Christine Chia, Pauline Fan
10 Nov, 1.30pm: CONVERSATIONS: The Spaces Between, feat. Stephanie Dogfoot, Jennifer Anne Champion, Zakir Hossain Khokan
For more information on the programmes / tickets, click on the event link provided below.
VENUE: The Arts House
ADDRESS: 1 Old Parliament Ln, Singapore 179429
EVENT WEBSITE: Singapore Writers Festival
DATE AND TIME
1–10 Nov 2019, various times