A salient idea in a year of quarantines and social distancing that interrogate notions of community mindedness, loneliness, mental health, our need for physical and emotional human interaction and what intimacy could resemble in the time of social distancing and the lack of human contact. How has this scenario changed our understanding of our relationships with ourselves, others, and the environment?
The 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.
Taking place from 30 Oct to 8 Nov 2020, Sing Lit Station is proud to co-present a suite of programmes at SWF 2020:
31 Oct, 10am: “Transcreation: Translating A Language You Don't Know?” with Alvin Pang, Joshua Ip and Teo Xiao Ting, moderated by Wahid Al Mamun
31 Oct, 5.30pm: “Vis a Visibility” with Ramón C Sunico, Khairani Barokka and Jane Ngarmpun Vejjajiva
31 Oct, 7pm: “Intimate Pairings: Questions Over Dinner” with Dadolin Murak and Vitalia Ze
1 Nov, 2pm: “A Home Is Not A House” with Mikael Johani and Hafiz Jelir, moderated by Charlene Shepherdson
2 Nov, 7.30pm: “Ctrl + Shift: Reclaim Your Writer Journey” with Hafiz Hamzah, Erni Aladjai and Aditi Rao, moderated by Suffian Hakim
3 Nov, 7pm: “Intimate Pairings: Questions Over Dinner” with Leila and Rain Chudori
4 Nov, 7.30pm: “Go So Far But Write So Near” with Balli Kaur Jaswal, Glenn Diaz and Kyoko Yoshida, moderated by Michelle Aung Thin
5 Nov, 7pm: “The Southeast Asian Novel Is A Thing” with Glenn Diaz and Erni Aladjai, moderated by Daryl Qilin Yam
5 Nov, 8.30pm: “A Labour of Love I: A Spotlight on Tagalog”
6 Nov, 8.30pm: “A Labour of Love II: A Spotlight on Bengali”
8 Nov, 1pm: “Freestyle Versus Final Form” with So Phina, Mikael Johani, Annaliza Bakri
8 Nov, 5.30pm: “These Stories Have Old Bones” with Aditi Rao, Erni Salleh and Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. moderated by Wesley Leon Aroozoo
VENUE: SISTIC Live
LINK: To be provided to all ticket-holders
EVENT WEBSITE: Singapore Writers Festival
DATE AND TIME
30 Oct-8 Nov 2020. Free / $20.