Presented by the much-loved indie bookstore, The Book Lounge, and with over 100 authors coming together from around the world Open Book Festival in Cape Town has become the literary highlight of the year.
The excitement begins on 15 September when the international authors start arriving in the country, and builds from there. Bookworms and all lovers of reading should clear their calendars from the 17– 21 September. First on the list of must-reads is the 2014 Programme, which has just been released.
Mervyn Sloman of Open Book Festival says: “We are extremely proud of this year’s programme. It includes a list of impressive local and international authors that will participate in more than 100 events over the five days. We are grateful to be working with the French Institute of South Africa, the British Council, the Netherlands Dutch Foundation of Literature, and various publishers, that have all contributed to make this year our most impressive yet.”
Programme highlights not to miss:
• Geoff Dyer, Rabih Alameddine, Deon Meyer and Henrietta Rose-Innes will be speaking at Surprising Diversions where they will share one of their passions that isunrelated to their work as writers. Festivalgoers can expect to discover something new about the authors they love.
• The legendary fantasy author Raymond E. Feist will be in discussion with Deon Meyer and Andrew Salomon about why crime is at the heart of fantasy and why crime fiction often ends with fantasy – Greg Fried will chair this event.
• Although we cannot share the finer details of the event yet, another unexpected but equally exciting addition to the programme is the Daily Maverick Mini-Gathering that will have South Africa’s influential politicians in discussion and is based around the same format as previous Gatherings.
• Speaking of influential politicians, Zelda la Grange will be speaking to Marianne Thamm about her experiences as Nelson Mandela’s private secretary depicted in her book, “Good Morning Mr Mandela”; this is the official Cape Town launch of the book
Other highlights include Zukiswa Wanner elaborating on her recent blog post regarding black authors in South Africa, Sheng Keyi(Open Book Festival’s first Chinese author) in talks with Anthony Loewenstein and Futhi Ntshingila, Ray Hartley (former Editor of the Sunday Times) discussing his new book “Launch of Ragged Glory” and a themed event that will require you to dress up as a zombie called Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.
Other authors to look forward to meeting are: André P. Brink, City Press Non-fiction award winner Maria Phalime, Mike Carey, ZukiswaWanner, ThandoMgqolozana, Jacob Sam-La Rose and Felicitas Hoppe.
For the little ones children’s authors: Satoshi Kitamura and Adam Stower will also be sharing their love of words.
Festival details:
WHERE: The Fugard Theatre, Corner Caledon & Lower Buitenkant Street, Cape Town 8001
and The Book Lounge, Corner Buitekant & Roeland Street, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: 17 – 21 September 2014 Time: 10:00 – 21:00
TICKETS: visit
