Lucashenko, Wright announced for inaugural Bangkok literary festival

Australian authors Melissa Lucashenko and Clare Wright will feature among 25 speakers at the inaugural Neilson Hays Bangkok Literature Festival, running from 16–17 November.

Lucashenko will speak at the festival’s opening panel discussing how writers react to oppression and suppression, as well as on a panel about the influence of sexual orientation and gender on writing. Wright will discuss historical writing and ‘tracing how the past shapes our economies, our cities, our politics, and our societies today’. Lucashenko and Wright will both discuss the under-representation of women in literature.

Other panels will examine subjects such as the relationship between writers and translators; the long-term effects of censorship and jail-time for writing; and the new political forces espousing the hatred of immigrants and minorities.

Thai speakers include Duanwad Pimwana, author of Bright (Brow Books), and her translator Mui Poopoksakul; Silkroad Publishers Agency managing director and author of The Happiness of Kati (A&U) Jane Vejjajiva; and Veeraporn Nitiprapha, winner of the 2018 Southeast Asian Writers Award for The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth (Prestel).

International speakers at the festival include American Pulitzer Prize-winner Adam Johnson, Canadian First Nations author Darrel J McLeod, Singaporean playwright Haresh Sharma, Japanese author Kanako Nishi and Indian author Raghu Karnad.

The Neilson Hays Library is launching the literary festival to mark its 150th birthday. First established in 1869 as the Bangkok Ladies’ Library Association, the library contains the largest selection of English-language books in Bangkok.

The festival will also include an art and craft market, various workshops and film screenings. For the full program, see the website here.

Category: Festivals Local news