poets, playwrights, activists and academics, representing nine of the eleven official spoken languages. This is the biggest and most varied festival of South African writing ever to take place outside South Africa.
The Market Focus programme, now in its seventh year, was first created in 2004 for London Book Fair to draw attention to certain countries and highlight the trade links with this territory, its publishing industry and the opportunities for conducting business with the rest of the world. In the first year of the initiative, the countries highlighted were Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, followed in 2005 by Australia and New Zealand, in 2006 by Mexico, in 2007 by Spain, in 2008 by the Arab World and in 2009 by India.
The British Council is now in its third year as the Cultural Programme Partner and it is their aim to highlight the brightest ideas and most creative voices from South Africa to audiences’ right across the UK, and will also be travelling to Birmingham, Wales, Liverpool, Newcastle and Scotland, showcasing new writings and offering author readings, creative writing workshops and discussions. By touring this festival of South African authors the British Council gives readers access to new experiences of literature and aims to promote understanding between cultures.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. They work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Working in the arts, education, science, sport and governance, last year over 128 million people benefited from their projects. They are a non-political charitable organisation which operates at arm’s length from government.
Susie Nicklin, Director of Literature, British Council, says, “It is wonderful to see this range of writers, partners and venues on our cultural programme for South Africa. By listening to such a variety of voices we are initiating a conversation which will result in South African audiences re-engaging with British writing, as we have done in India and the Arab World, through live literature performances, contemporary literature in the English Language Teaching classroom and curriculum work with higher education partners.”
