WELCOME TO WORLDS 2012 2

NORWICH UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURE 4

USEFUL INFORMATION 6

MEDIA 7

SCHEDULE 8

UEA CAMPUS MAP 10

PARTICIPANT BIOGRAPHIES 11

MEET WRITERS’ CENTRE NORWICH 26

NOTES 30

CONTENTS

1 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

3 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL2WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WELCOME TO WORLDS 2012,WRITERS’ CENTRE NORWICH’SANNUAL INTERNATIONALLITERARY SALON, AND WELCOMETO NORWICH, THE NEWESTUNESCO CITY OF LITERATUREAND THE FIRST IN ENGLAND!

Each year, we bring together a numberof fiction and non-fiction writers,poets, translators and teachers ofwriting and literature in order tosupport an extended conversationover four days about writing as an artand craft. There is a range of publicevents, readings and celebrations overthe course of Worlds, but at the heartof what we do is the private Salon.

The Salon is a space created and fed by the writers who take part, and is driven by a series of thoughts,provocations, essays and questionsfrom a selection of the writers present in the room. While the teamat Writers’ Centre, along with JonCook and the writers commissionedto present provocations have somesense of the shape of the discussionover the four days, we really have noidea where the conversation and thegroup might take us. We entrust thatdecision to each of you taking part.

In 2011 we enjoyed an amazing Salon on the theme of ‘Writing andInfluence’, with provocations from C K Williams, Gwyneth Lewis, Maureen Freely, Chris Merrill, JoyelleMcSweeney, Alfred Birnbaum andNatsuki Ikezawa.

You can read more about the 2011 Salon here: www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk/joiningtheworldssalon.aspx

Something that emerged strongly fromlast year’s Salon was a shared interestin the complex relationship betweenthe writer’s sense of self and theliterary art work: how that self isrecorded, re-recorded, (self) censoredand edited in writing and over time.When we started thinking about thisfurther and added the complexities ofgeography, nation, genre and what anysort of responsibility to truth mightmean to the mix, we realised quicklythat there was a whole new Salondiscussion there.

The 2012 Salon will comprise a seriesof conversations about ‘Fiction,Memoir and Truth’, the relationshipbetween biographical truth, itsrepresentation in prose or poetry and the idea of memoir. How is theself presented in fiction and memoir,and what does the writer’s choicemean for him or her as a public figure?What are the alternative traditions indifferent literatures? How might theact of translation sit between memoirand fiction?

Of course, the writers commissionedto offer provocations – think pieces,short essays – might take us in verydifferent directions indeed. You might,as a group, choose to move theconversation in any number ofdirections, and it’s partly this freedomthat makes the Salon such a pleasureto take part in.

The first day’s Salon sessions will be led by Dame Gillian Beer and John Coetzee. The second day willfeature contributions from Gail Jonesand Alvin Pang. Chika Unigwe willprovide the final provocation on thethird day of the Salon, and GeorgeSzirtes will help us collect somesummary thoughts and impressionsduring the final session. I’m delightedto say that Jon Cook will be acting as Chair of the Salon once again.

One of last year’s participating writers noted that:

“Worlds felt like a mental and

creative exfoliation of the mind

and soul; it was utterly rewarding

as a writer and therefore impacted

directly on my writing, and most

importantly, on how I go forward

as a writer.”

Another participant remarked:

“Never have I felt so stimulated by a

series of conversations, the substance

of which will certainly shape my

work. Indeed I embarked on a new

long poem, inspired by Worlds, which

has already taken me to heretofore

imagined places. I can’t wait to find

out where it will go next.”

I hope that the conversations this yearturn out to be as productive andenjoyable for you.

CHRIS GRIBBLEWRITERS’ CENTRE NORWICH

WELCOME TOWORLDS 2012

Landmarks of Norwich by Martin Figura

The Forum, Norwich courtesy of The Forum

3 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL2WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WELCOME TO WORLDS 2012,WRITERS’ CENTRE NORWICH’SANNUAL INTERNATIONALLITERARY SALON, AND WELCOMETO NORWICH, THE NEWESTUNESCO CITY OF LITERATUREAND THE FIRST IN ENGLAND!

Each year, we bring together a numberof fiction and non-fiction writers,poets, translators and teachers ofwriting and literature in order tosupport an extended conversationover four days about writing as an artand craft. There is a range of publicevents, readings and celebrations overthe course of Worlds, but at the heartof what we do is the private Salon.

The Salon is a space created and fed by the writers who take part, and is driven by a series of thoughts,provocations, essays and questionsfrom a selection of the writers present in the room. While the teamat Writers’ Centre, along with JonCook and the writers commissionedto present provocations have somesense of the shape of the discussionover the four days, we really have noidea where the conversation and thegroup might take us. We entrust thatdecision to each of you taking part.

In 2011 we enjoyed an amazing Salon on the theme of ‘Writing andInfluence’, with provocations from C K Williams, Gwyneth Lewis, Maureen Freely, Chris Merrill, JoyelleMcSweeney, Alfred Birnbaum andNatsuki Ikezawa.

You can read more about the 2011 Salon here: www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk/joiningtheworldssalon.aspx

Something that emerged strongly fromlast year’s Salon was a shared interestin the complex relationship betweenthe writer’s sense of self and theliterary art work: how that self isrecorded, re-recorded, (self) censoredand edited in writing and over time.When we started thinking about thisfurther and added the complexities ofgeography, nation, genre and what anysort of responsibility to truth mightmean to the mix, we realised quicklythat there was a whole new Salondiscussion there.

The 2012 Salon will comprise a seriesof conversations about ‘Fiction,Memoir and Truth’, the relationshipbetween biographical truth, itsrepresentation in prose or poetry and the idea of memoir. How is theself presented in fiction and memoir,and what does the writer’s choicemean for him or her as a public figure?What are the alternative traditions indifferent literatures? How might theact of translation sit between memoirand fiction?

Of course, the writers commissionedto offer provocations – think pieces,short essays – might take us in verydifferent directions indeed. You might,as a group, choose to move theconversation in any number ofdirections, and it’s partly this freedomthat makes the Salon such a pleasureto take part in.

The first day’s Salon sessions will be led by Dame Gillian Beer and John Coetzee. The second day willfeature contributions from Gail Jonesand Alvin Pang. Chika Unigwe willprovide the final provocation on thethird day of the Salon, and GeorgeSzirtes will help us collect somesummary thoughts and impressionsduring the final session. I’m delightedto say that Jon Cook will be acting as Chair of the Salon once again.

One of last year’s participating writers noted that:

“Worlds felt like a mental and

creative exfoliation of the mind

and soul; it was utterly rewarding

as a writer and therefore impacted

directly on my writing, and most

importantly, on how I go forward

as a writer.”

Another participant remarked:

“Never have I felt so stimulated by a

series of conversations, the substance

of which will certainly shape my

work. Indeed I embarked on a new

long poem, inspired by Worlds, which

has already taken me to heretofore

imagined places. I can’t wait to find

out where it will go next.”

I hope that the conversations this yearturn out to be as productive andenjoyable for you.

CHRIS GRIBBLEWRITERS’ CENTRE NORWICH

WELCOME TOWORLDS 2012

Landmarks of Norwich by Martin Figura

The Forum, Norwich courtesy of The Forum

courses, networking and competitions,reaches thousands of children throughinnovative school programmes,connects with readers through a successful summer reading campaign, and hosts a series of high-profile events throughout theyear. The Worlds internationalgathering of writers is held each Juneand offers a uniquely writer-focusedforum for discussion and debate aboutwriting and literature from a writer’sperspective. In March 2012, Writers’Centre Norwich was awarded £3million from Arts Council England’sCapital Investment Programme fund to develop the International Centrefor Writing (ICW). The ICW, inpartnership with Norwich CityCouncil, UEA and Norfolk CountyCouncil, will be a hub for excellence in literature from around the world.

6 A CITY OF WRITERS

Following a successful start with Ian McEwan, the Creative Writing MAat UEA has established itself as theforemost course of its kind in the UK and a global hub of national andinternational literature. Graduatesinclude three Booker Prize winners(Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and AnneEnright), as well as a number of othermajor prize-winners including TracyChevalier, Joe Dunthorne and NaomiAlderman. The British Centre forLiterary Translation at UEA, foundedby the renowned author W G Sebald,is Britain’s leading centre for thedevelopment, promotion and supportof literary translation from and intomany languages.

7 A CITY OF INDEPENDENT MINDS

Writers from Norwich have, quite

literally, changed the world. Born justsouth of Norwich, Thomas Painewrote Common Sense, a treatise thatinfluenced the course of the AmericanRevolution, and his Rights of Man isone of the most widely read books of all time. Harriet Martineau, anothergenuine radical, wrote for the causesof gender and racial equality, personalresponsibility, fair economics, evidence-based science and campaignjournalism. Celebrated polymathThomas Browne, prison reformerElizabeth Fry and, more recently,humorist Stephen Fry, have all calledNorwich their home.

8 A CITY OF REFUGE

Writers’ Centre Norwich establishedNorwich as the UK’s first City ofRefuge for threatened writers, and was a founding member of theInternational Cities of Refuge Network(ICORN). Norwich was also afounding member of the Shahrazadproject, which brought together sixCities of Refuge to open up a freespace for writers from all over theworld to connect and tell their stories.

9 A CITY OF PERFORMANCE

Norwich is the focal point for athriving live literature scene, and ishome to some of the most vibrantand creative performance poets in theUK. Aisle 16 was formed by a group of students at UEA in 2000 and hasdelighted audiences ever since, playinga central role in the development andpopularity of live literature at festivalsover the past decade. Foundingmember Luke Wright also set upNasty Little Press in 2009, dedicatedto publishing poetry from the UK’sbest loved live poets – including thelikes of Molly Naylor, Martin Figura,

Tim Clare, Hannah Walker and JohnOsborne, all Norwich residents.

10 A CITY OF FESTIVALS

Norwich is home to the oldest city arts festival in the country, theinternationally renowned Norfolk and Norwich Festival. At UEA, thebiannual International Literary Festivalregularly plays to packed houses of up to 500, and celebrated its twenty-second anniversary in 2012.Within an hour of Norwich are amultitude of other literature festivals,including the Aldeburgh PoetryFestival, Poetry-next-the-Sea andCambridge Wordfest.

5 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

NORWICHUNESCO CITYOF LITERATURE

IN MAY 2012, NORWICHCONSOLIDATED ITS POSITION AS ENGLAND’S FOREMOSTLITERARY CITY BY BECOMING ITS FIRST UNESCO CITY OFLITERATURE, JOINING AN ELITEINTERNATIONAL NETWORKCOMPRISING EDINBURGH,MELBOURNE, IOWA CITY, DUBLIN AND REYKJAVIK.

Here are ten reasons to be proud ofNorwich’s literary influence:

1 A CITY OF LITERATURE

Norwich has been a literary city for 900 years: a place of ideas wherethe power of words has changed lives, promulgated parliamentarydemocracy, fomented revolution,fought for the abolition of slavery andtransformed the literary arts. Today, it remains the regional centre forpublishing and is home to five per centof the UK’s independent publishingsector. People in Norwich spend moreper capita on culture than anywhereelse in the UK, and Norwich remains a destination for poets, novelists,biographers, playwrights, translators,editors, literary critics, social critics,historians, environmentalists andphilosophers. It is a place for writers as agents of change.

2 A CITY OF FIRSTS

The first book written by a woman in the English language came from the pen of Julian of Norwich in 1395,when a series of visions led her tocompose Revelations of Divine Love –an extraordinary contemplation ofuniversal love and hope in a time ofplague, religious schism, uprisings andwar. In the sixteenth century, the firstpoem in blank verse was written hereby Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. The first English provincial library(1608) and newspaper (1701)followed, and Norwich was also first to implement the Public Library Act of 1850. More recently, in 1970,Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilsonfounded the UK’s first Creative WritingMA at University of East Anglia (UEA),of which Ian McEwan was the firstgraduate. In 2006, Norwich became

the first (and is still the only) UK cityto join the International Cities ofRefuge Network, which was formed to promote free speech and supportimperilled writers.

3 A CITY OF LIBRARIES

The Norfolk and Norwich MillenniumLibrary, housed in the magnificentForum in the heart of Norwich, hasbeen the most-visited public library in the UK for the past five years andlends more items than any other in thecountry. Across the city, the Cathedrallibrary is home to more than 20,000books (some dating back to thefifteenth century), while the John InnesCentre hosts a remarkable collectionof natural-history and rare books.

4 A CITY OF INDEPENDENTBOOKSHOPS AND PUBLISHERS

The Jarrold family arrived in the East of England in the seventeenth century,bringing with them the art of printingand bookbinding. They published AnnaSewell’s global bestseller Black Beauty

in 1877, and today the Jarroldsdepartment store contains one of the foremost independent bookshopsin the UK. Norwich’s newest addition,The Book Hive, opened in 2009 tonational praise and in 2011 was namedby The Telegraph as the Best SmallIndependent Bookshop in Britain.

5 A CITY FOR WRITERS AND READERS

Formed in 2004, and the force behindNorwich’s UNESCO bid, Writers’Centre Norwich is a literaturedevelopment agency that works locally, nationally and internationally. It provides professional developmentfor writers through workshops,

4WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Worlds writers, 2009 by Facundo Arrizabalaga

courses, networking and competitions,reaches thousands of children throughinnovative school programmes,connects with readers through a successful summer reading campaign, and hosts a series of high-profile events throughout theyear. The Worlds internationalgathering of writers is held each Juneand offers a uniquely writer-focusedforum for discussion and debate aboutwriting and literature from a writer’sperspective. In March 2012, Writers’Centre Norwich was awarded £3million from Arts Council England’sCapital Investment Programme fund to develop the International Centrefor Writing (ICW). The ICW, inpartnership with Norwich CityCouncil, UEA and Norfolk CountyCouncil, will be a hub for excellence in literature from around the world.

6 A CITY OF WRITERS

Following a successful start with Ian McEwan, the Creative Writing MAat UEA has established itself as theforemost course of its kind in the UK and a global hub of national andinternational literature. Graduatesinclude three Booker Prize winners(Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and AnneEnright), as well as a number of othermajor prize-winners including TracyChevalier, Joe Dunthorne and NaomiAlderman. The British Centre forLiterary Translation at UEA, foundedby the renowned author W G Sebald,is Britain’s leading centre for thedevelopment, promotion and supportof literary translation from and intomany languages.

7 A CITY OF INDEPENDENT MINDS

Writers from Norwich have, quite

literally, changed the world. Born justsouth of Norwich, Thomas Painewrote Common Sense, a treatise thatinfluenced the course of the AmericanRevolution, and his Rights of Man isone of the most widely read books of all time. Harriet Martineau, anothergenuine radical, wrote for the causesof gender and racial equality, personalresponsibility, fair economics, evidence-based science and campaignjournalism. Celebrated polymathThomas Browne, prison reformerElizabeth Fry and, more recently,humorist Stephen Fry, have all calledNorwich their home.

8 A CITY OF REFUGE

Writers’ Centre Norwich establishedNorwich as the UK’s first City ofRefuge for threatened writers, and was a founding member of theInternational Cities of Refuge Network(ICORN). Norwich was also afounding member of the Shahrazadproject, which brought together sixCities of Refuge to open up a freespace for writers from all over theworld to connect and tell their stories.

9 A CITY OF PERFORMANCE

Norwich is the focal point for athriving live literature scene, and ishome to some of the most vibrantand creative performance poets in theUK. Aisle 16 was formed by a group of students at UEA in 2000 and hasdelighted audiences ever since, playinga central role in the development andpopularity of live literature at festivalsover the past decade. Foundingmember Luke Wright also set upNasty Little Press in 2009, dedicatedto publishing poetry from the UK’sbest loved live poets – including thelikes of Molly Naylor, Martin Figura,

Tim Clare, Hannah Walker and JohnOsborne, all Norwich residents.

10 A CITY OF FESTIVALS

Norwich is home to the oldest city arts festival in the country, theinternationally renowned Norfolk and Norwich Festival. At UEA, thebiannual International Literary Festivalregularly plays to packed houses of up to 500, and celebrated its twenty-second anniversary in 2012.Within an hour of Norwich are amultitude of other literature festivals,including the Aldeburgh PoetryFestival, Poetry-next-the-Sea andCambridge Wordfest.

5 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

NORWICHUNESCO CITYOF LITERATURE

IN MAY 2012, NORWICHCONSOLIDATED ITS POSITION AS ENGLAND’S FOREMOSTLITERARY CITY BY BECOMING ITS FIRST UNESCO CITY OFLITERATURE, JOINING AN ELITEINTERNATIONAL NETWORKCOMPRISING EDINBURGH,MELBOURNE, IOWA CITY, DUBLIN AND REYKJAVIK.

Here are ten reasons to be proud ofNorwich’s literary influence:

1 A CITY OF LITERATURE

Norwich has been a literary city for 900 years: a place of ideas wherethe power of words has changed lives, promulgated parliamentarydemocracy, fomented revolution,fought for the abolition of slavery andtransformed the literary arts. Today, it remains the regional centre forpublishing and is home to five per centof the UK’s independent publishingsector. People in Norwich spend moreper capita on culture than anywhereelse in the UK, and Norwich remains a destination for poets, novelists,biographers, playwrights, translators,editors, literary critics, social critics,historians, environmentalists andphilosophers. It is a place for writers as agents of change.

2 A CITY OF FIRSTS

The first book written by a woman in the English language came from the pen of Julian of Norwich in 1395,when a series of visions led her tocompose Revelations of Divine Love –an extraordinary contemplation ofuniversal love and hope in a time ofplague, religious schism, uprisings andwar. In the sixteenth century, the firstpoem in blank verse was written hereby Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. The first English provincial library(1608) and newspaper (1701)followed, and Norwich was also first to implement the Public Library Act of 1850. More recently, in 1970,Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilsonfounded the UK’s first Creative WritingMA at University of East Anglia (UEA),of which Ian McEwan was the firstgraduate. In 2006, Norwich became

the first (and is still the only) UK cityto join the International Cities ofRefuge Network, which was formed to promote free speech and supportimperilled writers.

3 A CITY OF LIBRARIES

The Norfolk and Norwich MillenniumLibrary, housed in the magnificentForum in the heart of Norwich, hasbeen the most-visited public library in the UK for the past five years andlends more items than any other in thecountry. Across the city, the Cathedrallibrary is home to more than 20,000books (some dating back to thefifteenth century), while the John InnesCentre hosts a remarkable collectionof natural-history and rare books.

4 A CITY OF INDEPENDENTBOOKSHOPS AND PUBLISHERS

The Jarrold family arrived in the East of England in the seventeenth century,bringing with them the art of printingand bookbinding. They published AnnaSewell’s global bestseller Black Beauty

in 1877, and today the Jarroldsdepartment store contains one of the foremost independent bookshopsin the UK. Norwich’s newest addition,The Book Hive, opened in 2009 tonational praise and in 2011 was namedby The Telegraph as the Best SmallIndependent Bookshop in Britain.

5 A CITY FOR WRITERS AND READERS

Formed in 2004, and the force behindNorwich’s UNESCO bid, Writers’Centre Norwich is a literaturedevelopment agency that works locally, nationally and internationally. It provides professional developmentfor writers through workshops,

4WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Worlds writers, 2009 by Facundo Arrizabalaga

USEFUL INFORMATION

YOUR ACCOMMODATION ATBROADVIEW LODGE

Your accommodation is in BroadviewLodge, at the heart of the picturesqueUEA campus with easy access tocampus shops, restaurants, banks andbars. Check-in is from 2pm on the day of arrival.

The Broadview Lodge reception ismanned from 8am – 10pm each day.

ACCESSING THE INTERNET

If you would like to access the internetfrom your room, you can purchase BT Openzone cards from thereception. Computers with internetaccess will be available in the CouncilChamber (Salon venue) between 8am and 6pm each day and are freeto use. Please note that these will notbe linked to a printer.

CATERING DURING WORLDS

All meals are provided for the durationof your stay. Details of lunches anddinners during the week can be foundin the schedule.

English and Continental breakfast forguests staying in Broadview Lodge isserved from 7.30am each morning inthe Zest restaurant. To receive yourbreakfast, simply present the cashierwith your room key-card. INTO andZest are marked on the campus map(page 10).

BOOKS

Books by authors appearing at Worlds,as well as a wide range of academicand popular titles, will be stocked by the Waterstones bookshop onUEA Campus.

LEAVING NORWICH

Check-out time on the day of yourdeparture is 10am. A £10 charge forlate check-outs may apply. If you have a car parked at UEA, you can validateyour parking ticket at the BroadviewLodge reception. Alternatively, there is a validating machine on the wall ofthe accommodation corridor.

If you require a taxi to the train station or airport, Writers’ CentreNorwich would be happy to organisethis for you. Please ask a member ofthe WCN team.

USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS

Writers’ Centre Norwich (between 9am – 5pm): (0044) 1603 877177

Broadview Lodge reception: (0044) 1603 591918

Security Lodge / First Aid:(0044) 1603 592352

Security (emergencies only): (0044) 1603 592222

In a medical emergency: 999

To urgently contact the Worlds team:

Chris Gribble: (0044) 1603 670997

Mitchell Albert: (0044) 7746217193

Laura Stimson: (0044) 7904 401183

MEDIA

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO RECORDING

Photographs and short videorecordings will be taken throughoutthe week and will be used for publicitypurposes. If you would prefer not tohave your photograph taken, please letWriters’ Centre Norwich know.

AUDIO RECORDING

Writers’ Centre Norwich may ask to audio record your events with us. Audio will be used for non-profitpurposes only. Recordings will includethe provocations given during Salonsessions but exclude the Salondiscussion, which will not be recordedfor public use.

Images, video and audio may beshared following Worlds viawww.writerscentrenorwich.org.ukwww.newwriting.net

TWITTER

If you tweet we are using the hashtag#worlds12 for this event.

6WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL 7 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

The Salon by Martin Figura

The Salon by Martin Figura

USEFUL INFORMATION

YOUR ACCOMMODATION ATBROADVIEW LODGE

Your accommodation is in BroadviewLodge, at the heart of the picturesqueUEA campus with easy access tocampus shops, restaurants, banks andbars. Check-in is from 2pm on the day of arrival.

The Broadview Lodge reception ismanned from 8am – 10pm each day.

ACCESSING THE INTERNET

If you would like to access the internetfrom your room, you can purchase BT Openzone cards from thereception. Computers with internetaccess will be available in the CouncilChamber (Salon venue) between 8am and 6pm each day and are freeto use. Please note that these will notbe linked to a printer.

CATERING DURING WORLDS

All meals are provided for the durationof your stay. Details of lunches anddinners during the week can be foundin the schedule.

English and Continental breakfast forguests staying in Broadview Lodge isserved from 7.30am each morning inthe Zest restaurant. To receive yourbreakfast, simply present the cashierwith your room key-card. INTO andZest are marked on the campus map(page 10).

BOOKS

Books by authors appearing at Worlds,as well as a wide range of academicand popular titles, will be stocked by the Waterstones bookshop onUEA Campus.

LEAVING NORWICH

Check-out time on the day of yourdeparture is 10am. A £10 charge forlate check-outs may apply. If you have a car parked at UEA, you can validateyour parking ticket at the BroadviewLodge reception. Alternatively, there is a validating machine on the wall ofthe accommodation corridor.

If you require a taxi to the train station or airport, Writers’ CentreNorwich would be happy to organisethis for you. Please ask a member ofthe WCN team.

USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS

Writers’ Centre Norwich (between 9am – 5pm): (0044) 1603 877177

Broadview Lodge reception: (0044) 1603 591918

Security Lodge / First Aid:(0044) 1603 592352

Security (emergencies only): (0044) 1603 592222

In a medical emergency: 999

To urgently contact the Worlds team:

Chris Gribble: (0044) 1603 670997

Mitchell Albert: (0044) 7746217193

Laura Stimson: (0044) 7904 401183

MEDIA

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO RECORDING

Photographs and short videorecordings will be taken throughoutthe week and will be used for publicitypurposes. If you would prefer not tohave your photograph taken, please letWriters’ Centre Norwich know.

AUDIO RECORDING

Writers’ Centre Norwich may ask to audio record your events with us. Audio will be used for non-profitpurposes only. Recordings will includethe provocations given during Salonsessions but exclude the Salondiscussion, which will not be recordedfor public use.

Images, video and audio may beshared following Worlds viawww.writerscentrenorwich.org.ukwww.newwriting.net

TWITTER

If you tweet we are using the hashtag#worlds12 for this event.

6WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL 7 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

The Salon by Martin Figura

The Salon by Martin Figura

THURSDAY 21 JUNE

12.30 – 2.30pm(venue to be confirmed)

LUNCH

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at the BroadviewLodge reception at 12pm to escort you to lunch.

3 – 5.30pmStarting at: Norwich Cathedral, Tombland

NORWICH UNESCO CITY OFLITERATURE TOURGet to know England’s first UNESCOCity of Literature with a tour of someof its literary heritage sites.

6pmThe Last Wine Bar

DINNER

7.30 – 8.30pmNorwich Playhouse

AN EVENING WITH MICHAELONDAATJE AND KAMILA SHAMSIEWorlds Keynote, with Michael Ondaatjeand Kamila Shamsie sharing an eveningof readings and conversation. In association with Refugee Week.

GETTING BACK: If you would like to return to your accommodation following this event thensomeone from Writers’ Centre Norwich wouldbe happy to arrange a taxi for you.

9.30am – 1pmUEA Council Chamber

SALON DAY THREE: WITH PROVOCATIONS FROM CHIKA UNIGWE AND PLENARY SESSIONFollowed by LUNCH

FOR INTERNATIONAL GUESTS: Following the Salon from 1.30pm a member of the finance teamwill be present to process any outstanding travelclaims. Please bring your receipts for travel andexpenses form with you if you would like toprocess a claim.

2 – 3.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AFTERNOON READS: STRANGE LANDSThis afternoon reading exploresthemes of loss, otherness and home.Featuring Catherine Cole (Australia),Jonty Driver (UK), Samantha Harvey(UK), Robin Hemley (US), Sjón(Iceland) and hosted by Kate Griffin of the BCLT.

7.30 – 9pmUEA Drama Studio

LAUNCH OF GRANTA 119: BRITAIN

In celebration of Granta Magazine’s

launch of Granta 119: Britain. Three contributors, Edmund Clark,Rachel Seiffert and Andrea Stuart, will explore British identity throughreadings, conversation and a Q&Asession chaired by Granta’s editor, John Freeman.

9pmSainsbury Centre for

Visual Arts Restaurant

DINNER: IN CELEBRATION OF NORWICH UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURETo mark the end of Worlds andcelebrate Norwich’s new status as a City of Literature.

FRIDAY 22 JUNE

SCHEDULE

MONDAY 18 JUNE

7 – 8.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AN EVENING WITH DAME GILLIAN BEER, JO SHAPCOTT AND JEANETTE WINTERSONThree inspirational writers discuss theirwork and the relationships betweenfiction, memoir, and the self. Curated byDame Gillian Beer, and featuring twowriters at the peak of their careers, thisevening promises to be an inspirationaland unforgettable experience.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 6.45pm at theBroadview Lodge reception to escort you to this event.

9pmThe Sainsbury Centre

for Visual Arts Restaurant

DINNER

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will escort you to dinnerfollowing that evening’s event.

TUESDAY 19 JUNE

9.30am – 1pmUEA Council Chamber

SALON DAY ONE: WITH PROVOCATIONS FROMDAME GILLIAN BEER AND J M COETZEEFollowed by LUNCH

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 9am at theBroadview Lodge reception to escort you to theSalon venue, where tea and coffee will be served.

FOR INTERNATIONAL GUESTS: Following the Salon from 1.30pm a member of the finance teamwill be present to process any outstanding travelclaims. Please bring your receipts for travel andexpenses form with you if you would like toprocess a claim.

2 – 3.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AFTERNOON READS: LANGUAGE & EXPERIMENTThe first of the week’s reading seriesfeatures Joe Dunthorne (UK), AlvinPang (Singapore), Manon Uphoff(Netherlands), Yoko Tawada (Japan)and Valerie Henitiuk (British Centre forLiterary Translation) as host.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will escort you to the DramaStudio following the Salon lunch.

7.30 – 9.30pmNorwich Playhouse

AN EVENING WITH J M COETZEE,ANNA FUNDER AND TIM PARKSThree of the finest fiction and non-fiction authors read from their work atwhat promises to be an unforgettableevening showcasing the best incontemporary literature.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 6.45pm at theBroadview Lodge reception and escort you to the event.

9pmThe Last Wine Bar

DINNER

WEDNESDAY 20 JUNE

9.30am – 1pmUEA Council Chamber

SALON DAY TWO: WITH PROVOCATIONS FROMGAIL JONES AND ALVIN PANGFollowed by LUNCH

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 9am at theBroadview Lodge reception to escort you to theSalon venue, where tea and coffee will be served.

2 – 3.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AFTERNOON READS: TRUTHSFeaturing Eleanor Catton (NewZealand), Goretti Kyomuhendo(Uganda), Frances Leviston (UK),Alex Miller (Australia), Chika Unigwe(Nigeria) and hosted by MitchellAlbert of WCN.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will escort you to the DramaStudio following the Salon lunch.

6.30 – 7.30pmNorfolk and Norwich

Millennium Library

WORLD VOICES WITH TEJU COLEAND VESNA GOLDSWORTHYIn celebration of Refugee Week, Teju Cole and Vesna Goldsworthyexplore ideas of exile, displacementand acceptance in their writing.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at the BroadviewLodge reception at 5.45pm to escort you to the event.

8pmPulse Restaurant

DINNER

8WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL 9 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Worlds writers, 2009 by Facundo Arrizabalaga

THURSDAY 21 JUNE

12.30 – 2.30pm(venue to be confirmed)

LUNCH

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at the BroadviewLodge reception at 12pm to escort you to lunch.

3 – 5.30pmStarting at: Norwich Cathedral, Tombland

NORWICH UNESCO CITY OFLITERATURE TOURGet to know England’s first UNESCOCity of Literature with a tour of someof its literary heritage sites.

6pmThe Last Wine Bar

DINNER

7.30 – 8.30pmNorwich Playhouse

AN EVENING WITH MICHAELONDAATJE AND KAMILA SHAMSIEWorlds Keynote, with Michael Ondaatjeand Kamila Shamsie sharing an eveningof readings and conversation. In association with Refugee Week.

GETTING BACK: If you would like to return to your accommodation following this event thensomeone from Writers’ Centre Norwich wouldbe happy to arrange a taxi for you.

9.30am – 1pmUEA Council Chamber

SALON DAY THREE: WITH PROVOCATIONS FROM CHIKA UNIGWE AND PLENARY SESSIONFollowed by LUNCH

FOR INTERNATIONAL GUESTS: Following the Salon from 1.30pm a member of the finance teamwill be present to process any outstanding travelclaims. Please bring your receipts for travel andexpenses form with you if you would like toprocess a claim.

2 – 3.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AFTERNOON READS: STRANGE LANDSThis afternoon reading exploresthemes of loss, otherness and home.Featuring Catherine Cole (Australia),Jonty Driver (UK), Samantha Harvey(UK), Robin Hemley (US), Sjón(Iceland) and hosted by Kate Griffin of the BCLT.

7.30 – 9pmUEA Drama Studio

LAUNCH OF GRANTA 119: BRITAIN

In celebration of Granta Magazine’s

launch of Granta 119: Britain. Three contributors, Edmund Clark,Rachel Seiffert and Andrea Stuart, will explore British identity throughreadings, conversation and a Q&Asession chaired by Granta’s editor, John Freeman.

9pmSainsbury Centre for

Visual Arts Restaurant

DINNER: IN CELEBRATION OF NORWICH UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURETo mark the end of Worlds andcelebrate Norwich’s new status as a City of Literature.

FRIDAY 22 JUNE

SCHEDULE

MONDAY 18 JUNE

7 – 8.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AN EVENING WITH DAME GILLIAN BEER, JO SHAPCOTT AND JEANETTE WINTERSONThree inspirational writers discuss theirwork and the relationships betweenfiction, memoir, and the self. Curated byDame Gillian Beer, and featuring twowriters at the peak of their careers, thisevening promises to be an inspirationaland unforgettable experience.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 6.45pm at theBroadview Lodge reception to escort you to this event.

9pmThe Sainsbury Centre

for Visual Arts Restaurant

DINNER

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will escort you to dinnerfollowing that evening’s event.

TUESDAY 19 JUNE

9.30am – 1pmUEA Council Chamber

SALON DAY ONE: WITH PROVOCATIONS FROMDAME GILLIAN BEER AND J M COETZEEFollowed by LUNCH

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 9am at theBroadview Lodge reception to escort you to theSalon venue, where tea and coffee will be served.

FOR INTERNATIONAL GUESTS: Following the Salon from 1.30pm a member of the finance teamwill be present to process any outstanding travelclaims. Please bring your receipts for travel andexpenses form with you if you would like toprocess a claim.

2 – 3.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AFTERNOON READS: LANGUAGE & EXPERIMENTThe first of the week’s reading seriesfeatures Joe Dunthorne (UK), AlvinPang (Singapore), Manon Uphoff(Netherlands), Yoko Tawada (Japan)and Valerie Henitiuk (British Centre forLiterary Translation) as host.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will escort you to the DramaStudio following the Salon lunch.

7.30 – 9.30pmNorwich Playhouse

AN EVENING WITH J M COETZEE,ANNA FUNDER AND TIM PARKSThree of the finest fiction and non-fiction authors read from their work atwhat promises to be an unforgettableevening showcasing the best incontemporary literature.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 6.45pm at theBroadview Lodge reception and escort you to the event.

9pmThe Last Wine Bar

DINNER

WEDNESDAY 20 JUNE

9.30am – 1pmUEA Council Chamber

SALON DAY TWO: WITH PROVOCATIONS FROMGAIL JONES AND ALVIN PANGFollowed by LUNCH

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at 9am at theBroadview Lodge reception to escort you to theSalon venue, where tea and coffee will be served.

2 – 3.30pmUEA Drama Studio

AFTERNOON READS: TRUTHSFeaturing Eleanor Catton (NewZealand), Goretti Kyomuhendo(Uganda), Frances Leviston (UK),Alex Miller (Australia), Chika Unigwe(Nigeria) and hosted by MitchellAlbert of WCN.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will escort you to the DramaStudio following the Salon lunch.

6.30 – 7.30pmNorfolk and Norwich

Millennium Library

WORLD VOICES WITH TEJU COLEAND VESNA GOLDSWORTHYIn celebration of Refugee Week, Teju Cole and Vesna Goldsworthyexplore ideas of exile, displacementand acceptance in their writing.

GETTING THERE: Representatives from Writers’ Centre Norwich will meet you at the BroadviewLodge reception at 5.45pm to escort you to the event.

8pmPulse Restaurant

DINNER

8WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL 9 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Worlds writers, 2009 by Facundo Arrizabalaga

UEA CAMPUS

11 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

JEFFREY ANGLES

Jeffrey Angles is an associate professorof Japanese and translation at WesternMichigan University. He is the authorof the academic study Writing the Love

of Boys (University of Minnesota Press,2011). He is also an award-winningtranslator who has translated dozensof Japan’s most important modernwriters. In particular, he focuses on Japanese modernist texts andcontemporary poetry, which he feels have been largely ignored by the English-speaking world. His recenttranslations include Killing Kanoko:

Selected Poems of Ito Hiromi (ActionBooks, 2009); Forest of Eyes: Selected

Poems of Tada Chimako (University ofCalifornia Press, 2010); and numerousother works of prose and poetry. In 2008 he was awarded grants fromboth the PEN American Center andthe National Endowment for the Arts(US). He is also the recipient of theJapan–US Friendship CommissionPrize for the Translation of JapaneseLiterature (2009) and the LandonTranslation Prize from the AmericanAcademy of Poets (2010). He alsowrites poetry, primarily in Japanese, his second language.

GILLIAN BEER

Gillian Beer is King Edward VIIProfessor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, and was President of Clare Hall College there from1994–2001. She is a Fellow of theBritish Academy and of the RoyalSociety of Literature, a ForeignHonorary Member of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary International Member of the American Philosophical Societyas well as past President of the BritishComparative Literature Associationand of the British Literature andScience Society. In 1998 she was made Dame Commander for servicesto English literature. She has twicejudged the Man Booker Prize forfiction. From 2009–11 she was theinvited Andrew W. Mellon SeniorScholar at the Yale Center for BritishArt. She holds honorary doctoratesfrom Oxford University, University of London and the Sorbonne, and has been awarded medals from theMassachusetts Institute of Technologyand Universidad Nacional Autónomade México. The General Editor of theseries Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth

Century Literature and Culture, she hasalso written studies of Charles Darwinand Virginia Woolf. She is, at present,finishing a study of Lewis Carroll’s Alice

books in the context of nineteenth-century intellectual controversies. Her collected and annotated editionof Carroll’s poetry is forthcoming fromPenguin Classics in July 2012.

CHRISTOPHER BIGSBY

Christopher Bigsby is an academic,novelist, biographer and broadcaster.For eighteen years he chaired theBritish Council’s Cambridge Seminar,and for twenty-one years, the ArthurMiller Centre International LiteraryFestival at the University of East Anglia.(Four volumes of interviews based on this series have been published.) At UEA, he is responsible forinternational developments in theFaculty of Arts and Humanities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts.

Western M

ichigan University

10WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

UEA CAMPUS

11 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

JEFFREY ANGLES

Jeffrey Angles is an associate professorof Japanese and translation at WesternMichigan University. He is the authorof the academic study Writing the Love

of Boys (University of Minnesota Press,2011). He is also an award-winningtranslator who has translated dozensof Japan’s most important modernwriters. In particular, he focuses on Japanese modernist texts andcontemporary poetry, which he feels have been largely ignored by the English-speaking world. His recenttranslations include Killing Kanoko:

Selected Poems of Ito Hiromi (ActionBooks, 2009); Forest of Eyes: Selected

Poems of Tada Chimako (University ofCalifornia Press, 2010); and numerousother works of prose and poetry. In 2008 he was awarded grants fromboth the PEN American Center andthe National Endowment for the Arts(US). He is also the recipient of theJapan–US Friendship CommissionPrize for the Translation of JapaneseLiterature (2009) and the LandonTranslation Prize from the AmericanAcademy of Poets (2010). He alsowrites poetry, primarily in Japanese, his second language.

GILLIAN BEER

Gillian Beer is King Edward VIIProfessor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, and was President of Clare Hall College there from1994–2001. She is a Fellow of theBritish Academy and of the RoyalSociety of Literature, a ForeignHonorary Member of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary International Member of the American Philosophical Societyas well as past President of the BritishComparative Literature Associationand of the British Literature andScience Society. In 1998 she was made Dame Commander for servicesto English literature. She has twicejudged the Man Booker Prize forfiction. From 2009–11 she was theinvited Andrew W. Mellon SeniorScholar at the Yale Center for BritishArt. She holds honorary doctoratesfrom Oxford University, University of London and the Sorbonne, and has been awarded medals from theMassachusetts Institute of Technologyand Universidad Nacional Autónomade México. The General Editor of theseries Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth

Century Literature and Culture, she hasalso written studies of Charles Darwinand Virginia Woolf. She is, at present,finishing a study of Lewis Carroll’s Alice

books in the context of nineteenth-century intellectual controversies. Her collected and annotated editionof Carroll’s poetry is forthcoming fromPenguin Classics in July 2012.

CHRISTOPHER BIGSBY

Christopher Bigsby is an academic,novelist, biographer and broadcaster.For eighteen years he chaired theBritish Council’s Cambridge Seminar,and for twenty-one years, the ArthurMiller Centre International LiteraryFestival at the University of East Anglia.(Four volumes of interviews based on this series have been published.) At UEA, he is responsible forinternational developments in theFaculty of Arts and Humanities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts.

Western M

ichigan University

10WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

13 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL12WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

JEAN BOASE-BEIER

Jean Boase-Beier is Professor ofLiterature and Translation at theUniversity of East Anglia, where she has taught Literary Translation,Linguistics, Literature and Stylisticssince 1991. She runs the MA inLiterary Translation, is an ExecutiveCommittee member of the BritishComparative Literature Association(and organiser of its John DrydenTranslation Competition), and is also atranslator of poetry. Her most recentacademic book, A Critical Introduction to

Translation Studies (Continuum, 2011),considers translation theory andpractice. Her other recent publicationsinclude various articles on stylistics andtranslation and on the translation ofpoetry, as well as on translating PaulCelan. She is also the editor of Visible

Poets, a series of bilingual poetry booksfrom Arc Publications.

ANTONIA BYATT

Antonia Byatt is Director (Literature)at Arts Council England, and also holds the international brief. Beforejoining Arts Council England, she wasDirector of the Women’s Library atLondon Metropolitan University, anacademic research library and culturalcentre containing the largest collectionof women’s history in the UK. Prior to joining the library, she was Head of Literature at Southbank Centre,which involved overseeing a literatureprogramme of around 130 events ayear as well as overall management of the poetry library. She is a governorof the Bishopsgate Institute and, since2008, has been Governor of NewBuckinghamshire University.

ELEANOR CATTON

Eleanor Catton was born in Canadaand raised in New Zealand. She holdsan MFA from the Iowa Writers’Workshop, where she taught creativewriting as an adjunct professor. Shewrote her debut novel, The Rehearsal,when she was twenty-two years old.First published in New Zealand byVictoria University Press, it went on to receive international prizes and acclaim, and was long-listed for the 2010 Orange Prize, the Betty TraskAward and the Amazon.ca First NovelAward. It has now been translated into twelve languages. The Rehearsal,

which charts the aftermath of a sexscandal at a girls’ high school, has beendescribed as ‘a Russian doll of a novel’and ‘a glimpse into the future of thenovel itself’. Her forthcoming secondnovel, which she describes as an‘astrological murder mystery’, takesplace during the New Zealand goldrushes of the 1860s. In 2012 she will be Writer-in-Residence at theUniversity of Auckland. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Robert Catto

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

EDMUND CLARK

Edmund Clark is best known for hisimagery exploring the consequencesof control and incarceration. His monographs include Still Life

Killing Time (2007) and Guantánamo:

If The Light Goes Out (2010), whichwon Best Book at the New YorkPhoto Awards in 2011 and waschosen as one of the best books of2011 at the International PhotobookFestival in Kassel, Germany. He wasnominated International Photographerof the Year in 2010, and awarded theRoyal Photographic Society HoodMedal in 2011.

J M COETZEE

J M Coetzee was born in South Africa in 1940, and educated in South Africa and the US. Amongst his academic appointments have been professorships at the Universityof Cape Town and the University ofChicago. He is the author of twelveworks of fiction, as well as of memoirs,criticism, and translation. Among theawards he has won are the BookerPrize (twice) and, in 2003, the NobelPrize for Literature. Since 2002 he has lived in Australia, where he isProfessor of Literature at theUniversity of Adelaide.

CATHERINE COLE

Catherine Cole is Professor ofCreative Writing and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts,Wollongong University, Australia. She has extensive academic, writingand industry connections in the fieldsof creative practice and literature, andis currently leading a research projecton creative communities, whichexamines the role of UNESCO Citiesof Literature. She works with writersand writers’ associations in Vietnam,particularly on the promotion ofcontemporary Vietnamese literatureworldwide. She is also a projectcoordinator and journal editor for the Australian Literary Compendium, a co-project with ABC Radio Nationalthat develops web-based resources on Australian literature for schools and universities in Australia andinternationally. She is a member of the Australian Research Council’sExcellence in Research Australiacommittee in Humanities and theCreative Arts, and has provided expertadvice to a range of universities ontheir research and creative practiceactivities. She is a regular bookreviewer, participant in Australian and international writers’ festivals and a judge of major national bookawards. She has been a resident of the Keesing Studio, Cité Internationaldes Arts in Paris, and an Asialinkwriter-in-residence in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Bert Nienhaus

13 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL12WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

JEAN BOASE-BEIER

Jean Boase-Beier is Professor ofLiterature and Translation at theUniversity of East Anglia, where she has taught Literary Translation,Linguistics, Literature and Stylisticssince 1991. She runs the MA inLiterary Translation, is an ExecutiveCommittee member of the BritishComparative Literature Association(and organiser of its John DrydenTranslation Competition), and is also atranslator of poetry. Her most recentacademic book, A Critical Introduction to

Translation Studies (Continuum, 2011),considers translation theory andpractice. Her other recent publicationsinclude various articles on stylistics andtranslation and on the translation ofpoetry, as well as on translating PaulCelan. She is also the editor of Visible

Poets, a series of bilingual poetry booksfrom Arc Publications.

ANTONIA BYATT

Antonia Byatt is Director (Literature)at Arts Council England, and also holds the international brief. Beforejoining Arts Council England, she wasDirector of the Women’s Library atLondon Metropolitan University, anacademic research library and culturalcentre containing the largest collectionof women’s history in the UK. Prior to joining the library, she was Head of Literature at Southbank Centre,which involved overseeing a literatureprogramme of around 130 events ayear as well as overall management of the poetry library. She is a governorof the Bishopsgate Institute and, since2008, has been Governor of NewBuckinghamshire University.

ELEANOR CATTON

Eleanor Catton was born in Canadaand raised in New Zealand. She holdsan MFA from the Iowa Writers’Workshop, where she taught creativewriting as an adjunct professor. Shewrote her debut novel, The Rehearsal,when she was twenty-two years old.First published in New Zealand byVictoria University Press, it went on to receive international prizes and acclaim, and was long-listed for the 2010 Orange Prize, the Betty TraskAward and the Amazon.ca First NovelAward. It has now been translated into twelve languages. The Rehearsal,

which charts the aftermath of a sexscandal at a girls’ high school, has beendescribed as ‘a Russian doll of a novel’and ‘a glimpse into the future of thenovel itself’. Her forthcoming secondnovel, which she describes as an‘astrological murder mystery’, takesplace during the New Zealand goldrushes of the 1860s. In 2012 she will be Writer-in-Residence at theUniversity of Auckland. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Robert Catto

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

EDMUND CLARK

Edmund Clark is best known for hisimagery exploring the consequencesof control and incarceration. His monographs include Still Life

Killing Time (2007) and Guantánamo:

If The Light Goes Out (2010), whichwon Best Book at the New YorkPhoto Awards in 2011 and waschosen as one of the best books of2011 at the International PhotobookFestival in Kassel, Germany. He wasnominated International Photographerof the Year in 2010, and awarded theRoyal Photographic Society HoodMedal in 2011.

J M COETZEE

J M Coetzee was born in South Africa in 1940, and educated in South Africa and the US. Amongst his academic appointments have been professorships at the Universityof Cape Town and the University ofChicago. He is the author of twelveworks of fiction, as well as of memoirs,criticism, and translation. Among theawards he has won are the BookerPrize (twice) and, in 2003, the NobelPrize for Literature. Since 2002 he has lived in Australia, where he isProfessor of Literature at theUniversity of Adelaide.

CATHERINE COLE

Catherine Cole is Professor ofCreative Writing and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts,Wollongong University, Australia. She has extensive academic, writingand industry connections in the fieldsof creative practice and literature, andis currently leading a research projecton creative communities, whichexamines the role of UNESCO Citiesof Literature. She works with writersand writers’ associations in Vietnam,particularly on the promotion ofcontemporary Vietnamese literatureworldwide. She is also a projectcoordinator and journal editor for the Australian Literary Compendium, a co-project with ABC Radio Nationalthat develops web-based resources on Australian literature for schools and universities in Australia andinternationally. She is a member of the Australian Research Council’sExcellence in Research Australiacommittee in Humanities and theCreative Arts, and has provided expertadvice to a range of universities ontheir research and creative practiceactivities. She is a regular bookreviewer, participant in Australian and international writers’ festivals and a judge of major national bookawards. She has been a resident of the Keesing Studio, Cité Internationaldes Arts in Paris, and an Asialinkwriter-in-residence in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Bert Nienhaus

15 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

TEJU COLE

Teju Cole is a writer, art historian,street photographer and DistinguishedWriter-in-Residence at Bard College.He was born in the US to Nigerianparents. Raised in Nigeria, he currentlylives in Brooklyn, New York. He is theauthor of two books: a novella, Every

Day Is for the Thief, and a novel, Open

City, which won the PEN/HemingwayAward, the New York City BookAward for Fiction and the RosenthalAward of the American Academy ofArts and Letters; it was also shortlistedfor the National Book Critics’ CircleAward and the New York PublicLibrary Young Lions Award. He hasbeen a contributor to The New York

Times, Qarrtsiluni, Chimurenga, The New

Yorker, Transition, Tin House, A Public

Space, and other publications. He iscurrently at work on a book-length,non-fiction narrative of Lagos, and on a Twitter project called small fates.

JON COOK

Jon Cook is Professor of Literature at the University of East Anglia andChair of the Arts Council in the Eastof England. The focus of his teachingand research has been on romanticand modern literature. He hassupervised a large number of PhDstudents on subjects in modernliterature, literature and philosophy,and creative and critical writing and he was convenor of the MA in creativewriting at UEA from 1986–96. He hastaught at universities in the US, Europeand India, most recently as a HurstVisiting Professor at the University ofWashington. He is a member of theArts and Humanities Research CouncilPeer Review College. His recentpublications include Poetry in Theory

(2004) and a biographical study, Hazlitt in Love (2007). He played an active role in establishing Writers’Centre Norwich and its New WritingWorlds programme, and has hostedand chaired the Salon of internationalwriters since its inception in 2005.

ANDREW COWAN

Andrew Cowan is Director ofCreative Writing at the University ofEast Anglia. Before joining the faculty in 2004 he was twice a Royal LiteraryFund writing fellow at UEA and alongstanding tutor for the ArvonFoundation. He is the author of fivenovels, published in twelve languages;they include Pig, which was long-listedfor the Booker Prize and shortlistedfor five other literary awards, and wona Betty Trask Award, the Authors’ ClubFirst Novel Award, the Ruth HaddenMemorial Prize, a Scottish ArtsCouncil Book Award and the Sunday

TimesYoung Writer of the Year Award.Common Ground and Crustaceans bothreceived competitive Arts Councilbursaries. What I Know was therecipient of an Arts Council Writers’Award, and was published in 2005. His creative writing guidebook, The Art

of Writing Fiction, was published byPearson Longman in 2011. His newnovel, Worthless Men, will be publishedby Sceptre in 2013.

14WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

JILL DAWSON

Jill Dawson is the author of sevennovels and the editor of sixanthologies of poetry and shortstories. She was twice nominated for the Orange Prize. Her novelsinclude Fred & Edie, Wild Boy, Watch

Me Disappear, The Great Lover, andLucky Bunny, all published by Sceptre.Lucky Bunny is currently being adaptedfor screen by the BBC. She holds an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge,has won awards for poetry, shortstories and screenplays and held manyfellowships, including the CreativeWriting Fellowship at the University of East Anglia and the British CouncilWriting Fellowship at AmherstCollege, Massachusetts. She currentlymentors new and emerging writersunder a scheme she founded (seewww.gold-dust.org.uk) and tutorscreative writing for the UEA/Guardian

master classes.

JONTY DRIVER

C J (‘Jonty’) Driver is a poet, novelist,and essayist. For many years a teacher– in Africa, Hong Kong and England –he is now a full-time writer living inEast Sussex and travelling regularly to his country of birth, South Africa.President of the National Union of South African Students in 1963 and 1964, he was held in solitaryconfinement by the South Africanpolice in 1964 and was later refusedrenewal of passport while apostgraduate student at Oxford; he remained a prohibited immigrant in South Africa until 1991. He hasbeen an honorary senior lecturer in the School of Literature andCreative Writing at the University of East Anglia since 2007, and was ajudge of the Caine Prize for AfricanWriting in 2007 and 2008. He wasalso a Research Fellow at theUniversity of York in 1976, and morerecently has held residencies at theLiguria Study Centre in Bogliasco; the MacDowell Colony in NewHampshire; and the HawthorndenWriters’ Retreat. He has published five novels (the first four of which have recently been re-issued by FaberFinds), a biography, and six books of poetry – the most recent of whichis So Far: Selected Poems 1964–2000.His Rhymes for the Grandchildren:

Moose, Mouse and Other Rhymes, was published by the Peridot Press in November 2011.

JOE DUNTHORNE

Joe Dunthorne was born and raised in Swansea. His debut novel Submarine

won the Curtis Brown Prize, wastranslated into twelve languages andadapted to film by Richard Ayoade,and his second novel, Wild Abandon

(Hamish Hamilton), was published in 2011. He is a poet as well, with a pamphlet published by Faber andFaber. He co-organises a monthly night of literary miscellany, Homework,in East London, and is a striker for theEngland Writers’ Football Team.

Angus M

uir

Ellen Elmendorp

15 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

TEJU COLE

Teju Cole is a writer, art historian,street photographer and DistinguishedWriter-in-Residence at Bard College.He was born in the US to Nigerianparents. Raised in Nigeria, he currentlylives in Brooklyn, New York. He is theauthor of two books: a novella, Every

Day Is for the Thief, and a novel, Open

City, which won the PEN/HemingwayAward, the New York City BookAward for Fiction and the RosenthalAward of the American Academy ofArts and Letters; it was also shortlistedfor the National Book Critics’ CircleAward and the New York PublicLibrary Young Lions Award. He hasbeen a contributor to The New York

Times, Qarrtsiluni, Chimurenga, The New

Yorker, Transition, Tin House, A Public

Space, and other publications. He iscurrently at work on a book-length,non-fiction narrative of Lagos, and on a Twitter project called small fates.

JON COOK

Jon Cook is Professor of Literature at the University of East Anglia andChair of the Arts Council in the Eastof England. The focus of his teachingand research has been on romanticand modern literature. He hassupervised a large number of PhDstudents on subjects in modernliterature, literature and philosophy,and creative and critical writing and he was convenor of the MA in creativewriting at UEA from 1986–96. He hastaught at universities in the US, Europeand India, most recently as a HurstVisiting Professor at the University ofWashington. He is a member of theArts and Humanities Research CouncilPeer Review College. His recentpublications include Poetry in Theory

(2004) and a biographical study, Hazlitt in Love (2007). He played an active role in establishing Writers’Centre Norwich and its New WritingWorlds programme, and has hostedand chaired the Salon of internationalwriters since its inception in 2005.

ANDREW COWAN

Andrew Cowan is Director ofCreative Writing at the University ofEast Anglia. Before joining the faculty in 2004 he was twice a Royal LiteraryFund writing fellow at UEA and alongstanding tutor for the ArvonFoundation. He is the author of fivenovels, published in twelve languages;they include Pig, which was long-listedfor the Booker Prize and shortlistedfor five other literary awards, and wona Betty Trask Award, the Authors’ ClubFirst Novel Award, the Ruth HaddenMemorial Prize, a Scottish ArtsCouncil Book Award and the Sunday

TimesYoung Writer of the Year Award.Common Ground and Crustaceans bothreceived competitive Arts Councilbursaries. What I Know was therecipient of an Arts Council Writers’Award, and was published in 2005. His creative writing guidebook, The Art

of Writing Fiction, was published byPearson Longman in 2011. His newnovel, Worthless Men, will be publishedby Sceptre in 2013.

14WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

JILL DAWSON

Jill Dawson is the author of sevennovels and the editor of sixanthologies of poetry and shortstories. She was twice nominated for the Orange Prize. Her novelsinclude Fred & Edie, Wild Boy, Watch

Me Disappear, The Great Lover, andLucky Bunny, all published by Sceptre.Lucky Bunny is currently being adaptedfor screen by the BBC. She holds an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge,has won awards for poetry, shortstories and screenplays and held manyfellowships, including the CreativeWriting Fellowship at the University of East Anglia and the British CouncilWriting Fellowship at AmherstCollege, Massachusetts. She currentlymentors new and emerging writersunder a scheme she founded (seewww.gold-dust.org.uk) and tutorscreative writing for the UEA/Guardian

master classes.

JONTY DRIVER

C J (‘Jonty’) Driver is a poet, novelist,and essayist. For many years a teacher– in Africa, Hong Kong and England –he is now a full-time writer living inEast Sussex and travelling regularly to his country of birth, South Africa.President of the National Union of South African Students in 1963 and 1964, he was held in solitaryconfinement by the South Africanpolice in 1964 and was later refusedrenewal of passport while apostgraduate student at Oxford; he remained a prohibited immigrant in South Africa until 1991. He hasbeen an honorary senior lecturer in the School of Literature andCreative Writing at the University of East Anglia since 2007, and was ajudge of the Caine Prize for AfricanWriting in 2007 and 2008. He wasalso a Research Fellow at theUniversity of York in 1976, and morerecently has held residencies at theLiguria Study Centre in Bogliasco; the MacDowell Colony in NewHampshire; and the HawthorndenWriters’ Retreat. He has published five novels (the first four of which have recently been re-issued by FaberFinds), a biography, and six books of poetry – the most recent of whichis So Far: Selected Poems 1964–2000.His Rhymes for the Grandchildren:

Moose, Mouse and Other Rhymes, was published by the Peridot Press in November 2011.

JOE DUNTHORNE

Joe Dunthorne was born and raised in Swansea. His debut novel Submarine

won the Curtis Brown Prize, wastranslated into twelve languages andadapted to film by Richard Ayoade,and his second novel, Wild Abandon

(Hamish Hamilton), was published in 2011. He is a poet as well, with a pamphlet published by Faber andFaber. He co-organises a monthly night of literary miscellany, Homework,in East London, and is a striker for theEngland Writers’ Football Team.

Angus M

uir

Ellen Elmendorp

17 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL16WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

ANNA FUNDER

Anna Funder is the author of theinternationally acclaimed, best-sellingnovel All That I Am, which was releasedin Australia in 2011 and is beingpublished in sixteen countries. Her previous book, Stasiland: Stories

from Behind the Berlin Wall, wasawarded the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2004 and has been published intwenty countries and fifteen languages.She is a former Fellow of the GermanAcademic Exchange Service (DAAD),the Australia Council and theRockefeller Foundation. In 2010 sheheld the New South Wales Writer’sFellowship, and in 2011 she wasappointed to the Australia Council for the Arts. Before turning to writingfull-time, she practised as aninternational lawyer specialising inconstitutional and human-rights law.She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

VESNA GOLDSWORTHY

Vesna Goldsworthy is an academic,broadcaster, and the author of several widely translated, prize-winningbooks. Her first, Inventing Ruritania:

The Imperialism of the Imagination

(Yale University Press, 1998), is aninfluential study of the Balkans inliterature and film, and will bepublished in an updated paperbackedition by Hurst in 2013. Her best-selling memoir, Chernobyl Strawberries

(Atlantic, 2005), has had fourteeneditions in German translation aloneand was serialised in The Times. (Shealso read it herself for BBC RadioFour’s Book of the Week programme.)Her Crashaw Prize-winning poetrycollection, The Angel of Salonika, wasone of The Times’ Best Poetry Booksin 2011. A former BBC producer andjournalist, she continues to script andproduce programmes for a range of European broadcasters. Her TVfeature, On Blood and Fiction, was partof an autumn book series on Sweden’sSVT in 2010. Her most recent full-length English-language production,Finding a Voice in a Foreign Tongue, wasbroadcast by BBC Radio Four and bythe BBC World Service.

KATE GRIFFIN

Kate Griffin is an internationalliterature consultant who hasdeveloped projects in the Middle East,Asia and Europe. She is currentlyInternational Programme Director at the British Centre for LiteraryTranslation, and also works withWriters’ Centre Norwich and theLondon Review of Books. She has alsoworked for Arts Council England, the Arvon Foundation, and PENInternational. From 2005–10 she was a judge for the IndependentForeign Fiction Prize. She spent most of the 1990s working overseas in Belgium and Russia.

Karl Schwerdtfeger

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

SAMANTHA HARVEY

Samantha Harvey is the author of The Wilderness (Jonathan Cape, 2009),which was shortlisted for the OrangePrize and a Guardian First BookAward, long-listed for the BookerPrize, and won the Betty Trask Prize.Her second novel, All Is Song, waspublished by Jonathan Cape in early2012. In 2011 she was named one ofthe ‘twelve best new British novelists’by BBC 2’s Culture Show. She teachesCreative Writing on the MA at BathSpa University and has just completeda PhD in Creative Writing. She lives in Bath.

ROBIN HEMLEY

Robin Hemley is the author of tenbooks of nonfiction and fiction, and the winner of many awards including a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, theNelson Algren Award for Fiction fromThe Chicago Tribune, Story Magazine’s

Humor Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and many others. His fiction, nonfiction,and poetry have been published inseveral countries, and he frequentlyteaches creative writing workshopsaround the world. He has been widelyanthologised, and has published hiswork in many of the finest literarymagazines in the US. The BBC iscurrently developing a feature filmbased on his book Invented Eden, about a purported anthropologicalhoax in The Philippines. His thirdcollection of short stories, Reply All,

is forthcoming in 2012 from IndianaUniversity Press (Break Away Books),and University of Georgia Pressrecently published his book A Field

Guide for Immersion Writing: Memoir,

Journalism, and Travel. He is a SeniorEditor of The Iowa Review as well as the editor of a popular onlinejournal, Defunct (defunctmag.com). He currently directs the NonfictionWriting Program at the University ofIowa, and is the founder and organiserof NonfictioNow, a biennial conferencethat will convene in November 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.

VALERIE HENITIUK

Valerie Henitiuk is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Translation andDirector of the British Centre forLiterary Translation (BCLT) at theUniversity of East Anglia. Before takingup the post at UEA, she obtained a PhD in Comparative Literature atthe University of Alberta in 2005 and went on to conduct research at Columbia University, supported by a Social Sciences and HumanitiesResearch Council of Canadapostdoctoral fellowship. Her researchfocuses primarily on TranslationStudies, World Literature, JapaneseLiterature, and Women’s Writing. Her work has been published injournals such as the Canadian Review

of Comparative Literature, Comparative

Literature Studies, META, TTR, and World Literature Today, and in collectedvolumes. Embodied Boundaries, hermonograph on liminal metaphor inwomen’s writing in English, French and Japanese was published in 2007,and a co-edited collection of shortstories by women from India’s Orissaprovince appeared in 2010. Anotherbook, titled Worlding Sei Shônagon:

The Pillow Book in Translation has justbeen published by University ofOttawa Press, and a co-edited volumeof essays on the work of the author,teacher and founder of the BCLT, W G Sebald, is forthcoming. She iseditor of the Routledge journalTranslation Studies, and serves on the editorial board for In Other Words:

The Journal for Literary Translators.

17 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL16WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

ANNA FUNDER

Anna Funder is the author of theinternationally acclaimed, best-sellingnovel All That I Am, which was releasedin Australia in 2011 and is beingpublished in sixteen countries. Her previous book, Stasiland: Stories

from Behind the Berlin Wall, wasawarded the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2004 and has been published intwenty countries and fifteen languages.She is a former Fellow of the GermanAcademic Exchange Service (DAAD),the Australia Council and theRockefeller Foundation. In 2010 sheheld the New South Wales Writer’sFellowship, and in 2011 she wasappointed to the Australia Council for the Arts. Before turning to writingfull-time, she practised as aninternational lawyer specialising inconstitutional and human-rights law.She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

VESNA GOLDSWORTHY

Vesna Goldsworthy is an academic,broadcaster, and the author of several widely translated, prize-winningbooks. Her first, Inventing Ruritania:

The Imperialism of the Imagination

(Yale University Press, 1998), is aninfluential study of the Balkans inliterature and film, and will bepublished in an updated paperbackedition by Hurst in 2013. Her best-selling memoir, Chernobyl Strawberries

(Atlantic, 2005), has had fourteeneditions in German translation aloneand was serialised in The Times. (Shealso read it herself for BBC RadioFour’s Book of the Week programme.)Her Crashaw Prize-winning poetrycollection, The Angel of Salonika, wasone of The Times’ Best Poetry Booksin 2011. A former BBC producer andjournalist, she continues to script andproduce programmes for a range of European broadcasters. Her TVfeature, On Blood and Fiction, was partof an autumn book series on Sweden’sSVT in 2010. Her most recent full-length English-language production,Finding a Voice in a Foreign Tongue, wasbroadcast by BBC Radio Four and bythe BBC World Service.

KATE GRIFFIN

Kate Griffin is an internationalliterature consultant who hasdeveloped projects in the Middle East,Asia and Europe. She is currentlyInternational Programme Director at the British Centre for LiteraryTranslation, and also works withWriters’ Centre Norwich and theLondon Review of Books. She has alsoworked for Arts Council England, the Arvon Foundation, and PENInternational. From 2005–10 she was a judge for the IndependentForeign Fiction Prize. She spent most of the 1990s working overseas in Belgium and Russia.

Karl Schwerdtfeger

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

SAMANTHA HARVEY

Samantha Harvey is the author of The Wilderness (Jonathan Cape, 2009),which was shortlisted for the OrangePrize and a Guardian First BookAward, long-listed for the BookerPrize, and won the Betty Trask Prize.Her second novel, All Is Song, waspublished by Jonathan Cape in early2012. In 2011 she was named one ofthe ‘twelve best new British novelists’by BBC 2’s Culture Show. She teachesCreative Writing on the MA at BathSpa University and has just completeda PhD in Creative Writing. She lives in Bath.

ROBIN HEMLEY

Robin Hemley is the author of tenbooks of nonfiction and fiction, and the winner of many awards including a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, theNelson Algren Award for Fiction fromThe Chicago Tribune, Story Magazine’s

Humor Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and many others. His fiction, nonfiction,and poetry have been published inseveral countries, and he frequentlyteaches creative writing workshopsaround the world. He has been widelyanthologised, and has published hiswork in many of the finest literarymagazines in the US. The BBC iscurrently developing a feature filmbased on his book Invented Eden, about a purported anthropologicalhoax in The Philippines. His thirdcollection of short stories, Reply All,

is forthcoming in 2012 from IndianaUniversity Press (Break Away Books),and University of Georgia Pressrecently published his book A Field

Guide for Immersion Writing: Memoir,

Journalism, and Travel. He is a SeniorEditor of The Iowa Review as well as the editor of a popular onlinejournal, Defunct (defunctmag.com). He currently directs the NonfictionWriting Program at the University ofIowa, and is the founder and organiserof NonfictioNow, a biennial conferencethat will convene in November 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.

VALERIE HENITIUK

Valerie Henitiuk is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Translation andDirector of the British Centre forLiterary Translation (BCLT) at theUniversity of East Anglia. Before takingup the post at UEA, she obtained a PhD in Comparative Literature atthe University of Alberta in 2005 and went on to conduct research at Columbia University, supported by a Social Sciences and HumanitiesResearch Council of Canadapostdoctoral fellowship. Her researchfocuses primarily on TranslationStudies, World Literature, JapaneseLiterature, and Women’s Writing. Her work has been published injournals such as the Canadian Review

of Comparative Literature, Comparative

Literature Studies, META, TTR, and World Literature Today, and in collectedvolumes. Embodied Boundaries, hermonograph on liminal metaphor inwomen’s writing in English, French and Japanese was published in 2007,and a co-edited collection of shortstories by women from India’s Orissaprovince appeared in 2010. Anotherbook, titled Worlding Sei Shônagon:

The Pillow Book in Translation has justbeen published by University ofOttawa Press, and a co-edited volumeof essays on the work of the author,teacher and founder of the BCLT, W G Sebald, is forthcoming. She iseditor of the Routledge journalTranslation Studies, and serves on the editorial board for In Other Words:

The Journal for Literary Translators.

19 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

GAIL JONES

Gail Jones is an Australian academicand fiction writer who grew up in ruraland remote areas of the country. Herfiction includes two books of shortstories and five novels – Black Mirror,

Sixty Lights, Dreams of Speaking, Sorry,and Five Bells (her most recent novel,begun at a writers’ residency inShanghai in 2008). Her work has been widely translated, and awardedseveral literary prizes. She has alsoworked in India, Ireland, the US, andFrance, and lectures and speaks onliterature across the globe. She iscurrently Professor of Writing at theWriting and Society Research Groupof the University of Western Sydney, a group that seeks to link writing toother disciplines such as fine arts,cinema, history, and philosophy, and to enquire into the social dimensionsof reading and writing.

GORETTI KYOMUHENDO

Goretti Kyomuhendo grew up inHoima, western Uganda. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban,South Africa. Her second novel Secrets No More won the UgandaNational Literary Award for BestNovel of the Year in 1999. She has also published a number of children’sbooks and short stories. She is afounding member of FEMRITE, theUganda Women Writers’ Associationand Publishing House, and worked asits first Programmes Coordinator from1997–2007. In 2004, she was a tutor in the department of English at theUniversity of Kwazulu-Natal. In 1997,she was the first Ugandan woman to receive an International WritingProgram fellowship at the University of Iowa. She has since been invited to participate at various internationalreadings, literary and academicconferences in France, Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, Rwanda,Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Brazil, Malaysia,Thailand, the US and elsewhere. In 2009, she founded and now directs the African Writers’ Trust, an organisation that brings togetherAfrican writers living in both theDiaspora and on the continent, topromote skills sharing and learning. She divides her time between London and Uganda.

FRANCES LEVISTON

Frances Leviston was born inEdinburgh and grew up in Sheffield.She read English at St Hilda’s College,Oxford, and won an Eric GregoryAward from the Society of Authors.Her first collection, Public Dream, waspublished by Picador in 2007 and wasshortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, theForward Prize for Best First Collection,and the Jerwood-Aldeburgh FirstCollection Prize. Her poems haveappeared in the London Review of

Books, the Times Literary Supplement,The Times, the Guardian and Edinburgh

Review. She works as a freelancecreative writing teacher for arts andeducational organisations, including the Arvon Foundation, and reviewsnew poetry for the Guardian.

18WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

ALEX MILLER

Alex Miller immigrated to Australiafrom the UK, alone, when he wassixteen. He has been hailed as themost deeply philosophical ofcontemporary Australian novelists and his work has long been celebratedin Australia. He won the Miles FranklinLiterary Award in 1993 for The

Ancestor Game, and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country,regarded as one of the most insightfulexaminations of relations betweenAboriginal and white Australians. He achieved international recognitionwith his third novel, The Ancestor

Game. His work continues to attractcritical acclaim, with Landscape of

Farewell (2007) receiving the 2008Manning Clark House NationalCultural Award and Lovesong (2009),the 2010 Age Book of the Year AwardFiction Prize, the Book of the YearPrize, the Christina Stead Prize forFiction and the People’s Choice Award (at the 2011 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards). He was elected a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanitiesin 2011. Miller lives in the countrywith his wife Stephanie.

MICHAEL ONDAATJE

Michael Ondaatje was born in SriLanka in 1943. In the 1950s he movedto the UK and attended school inSouth London. In 1962 he immigratedto Canada, where he has lived eversince. His books include his memoirRunning in the Family, numerouscollections of poetry, and five novels –including The English Patient, whichwon the 1992 Booker Prize.

ALVIN PANG

Alvin Pang is a poet, writer, editor,anthologist, and translator workingprimarily in English. His poetry hasbeen translated into over fifteenlanguages, and he has appeared atmajor festivals and in anthologiesworldwide. A Fellow of the Universityof Iowa’s International WritingProgram (2002), his publicationsinclude Testing the Silence (1997), City of Rain (2003) and What Gives Us

Our Names (2011). New volumes of his poems are forthcoming in 2012by Arc Publications (UK) and Brutal(Croatia, in translation). He has editedthe anthologies No Other City: The

Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry (2000);Over There: Poems from Singapore and

Australia (co-edited with John Kinsella,2008); and Tumasik: Contemporary

Writing from Singapore (Autumn Hill[US], 2009), amongst others. He is a founding director of The LiteraryCentre, a Singaporean non-profitinitiative promoting interdisciplinarycapacity, multilingual communication,and positive social change. Amongstother public engagements, he ispresently the managing editor of aninternationally circulated public policyjournal. He was named Young Artist of the Year for Literature in 2005 bySingapore’s National Arts Council, andwas conferred the Singapore YouthAward (Arts and Culture) in 2007.

Edwina H

ollick

Arc

Beowulf Sheehan

19 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

GAIL JONES

Gail Jones is an Australian academicand fiction writer who grew up in ruraland remote areas of the country. Herfiction includes two books of shortstories and five novels – Black Mirror,

Sixty Lights, Dreams of Speaking, Sorry,and Five Bells (her most recent novel,begun at a writers’ residency inShanghai in 2008). Her work has been widely translated, and awardedseveral literary prizes. She has alsoworked in India, Ireland, the US, andFrance, and lectures and speaks onliterature across the globe. She iscurrently Professor of Writing at theWriting and Society Research Groupof the University of Western Sydney, a group that seeks to link writing toother disciplines such as fine arts,cinema, history, and philosophy, and to enquire into the social dimensionsof reading and writing.

GORETTI KYOMUHENDO

Goretti Kyomuhendo grew up inHoima, western Uganda. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban,South Africa. Her second novel Secrets No More won the UgandaNational Literary Award for BestNovel of the Year in 1999. She has also published a number of children’sbooks and short stories. She is afounding member of FEMRITE, theUganda Women Writers’ Associationand Publishing House, and worked asits first Programmes Coordinator from1997–2007. In 2004, she was a tutor in the department of English at theUniversity of Kwazulu-Natal. In 1997,she was the first Ugandan woman to receive an International WritingProgram fellowship at the University of Iowa. She has since been invited to participate at various internationalreadings, literary and academicconferences in France, Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, Rwanda,Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Brazil, Malaysia,Thailand, the US and elsewhere. In 2009, she founded and now directs the African Writers’ Trust, an organisation that brings togetherAfrican writers living in both theDiaspora and on the continent, topromote skills sharing and learning. She divides her time between London and Uganda.

FRANCES LEVISTON

Frances Leviston was born inEdinburgh and grew up in Sheffield.She read English at St Hilda’s College,Oxford, and won an Eric GregoryAward from the Society of Authors.Her first collection, Public Dream, waspublished by Picador in 2007 and wasshortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, theForward Prize for Best First Collection,and the Jerwood-Aldeburgh FirstCollection Prize. Her poems haveappeared in the London Review of

Books, the Times Literary Supplement,The Times, the Guardian and Edinburgh

Review. She works as a freelancecreative writing teacher for arts andeducational organisations, including the Arvon Foundation, and reviewsnew poetry for the Guardian.

18WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

ALEX MILLER

Alex Miller immigrated to Australiafrom the UK, alone, when he wassixteen. He has been hailed as themost deeply philosophical ofcontemporary Australian novelists and his work has long been celebratedin Australia. He won the Miles FranklinLiterary Award in 1993 for The

Ancestor Game, and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country,regarded as one of the most insightfulexaminations of relations betweenAboriginal and white Australians. He achieved international recognitionwith his third novel, The Ancestor

Game. His work continues to attractcritical acclaim, with Landscape of

Farewell (2007) receiving the 2008Manning Clark House NationalCultural Award and Lovesong (2009),the 2010 Age Book of the Year AwardFiction Prize, the Book of the YearPrize, the Christina Stead Prize forFiction and the People’s Choice Award (at the 2011 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards). He was elected a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanitiesin 2011. Miller lives in the countrywith his wife Stephanie.

MICHAEL ONDAATJE

Michael Ondaatje was born in SriLanka in 1943. In the 1950s he movedto the UK and attended school inSouth London. In 1962 he immigratedto Canada, where he has lived eversince. His books include his memoirRunning in the Family, numerouscollections of poetry, and five novels –including The English Patient, whichwon the 1992 Booker Prize.

ALVIN PANG

Alvin Pang is a poet, writer, editor,anthologist, and translator workingprimarily in English. His poetry hasbeen translated into over fifteenlanguages, and he has appeared atmajor festivals and in anthologiesworldwide. A Fellow of the Universityof Iowa’s International WritingProgram (2002), his publicationsinclude Testing the Silence (1997), City of Rain (2003) and What Gives Us

Our Names (2011). New volumes of his poems are forthcoming in 2012by Arc Publications (UK) and Brutal(Croatia, in translation). He has editedthe anthologies No Other City: The

Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry (2000);Over There: Poems from Singapore and

Australia (co-edited with John Kinsella,2008); and Tumasik: Contemporary

Writing from Singapore (Autumn Hill[US], 2009), amongst others. He is a founding director of The LiteraryCentre, a Singaporean non-profitinitiative promoting interdisciplinarycapacity, multilingual communication,and positive social change. Amongstother public engagements, he ispresently the managing editor of aninternationally circulated public policyjournal. He was named Young Artist of the Year for Literature in 2005 bySingapore’s National Arts Council, andwas conferred the Singapore YouthAward (Arts and Culture) in 2007.

Edwina H

ollick

Arc

Beowulf Sheehan

21 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL20WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

TIM PARKS

Tim Parks was born in Manchester,grew up in London and studied atCambridge and Harvard. In 1981 hemoved to Italy, where he has lived ever since. He is the author of novels,non-fiction and essays, includingEuropa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona,and Teach Us to Sit Still, his account of a sceptic’s journey into meditationand alternative health. He has won the Somerset Maugham and BettyTrask Awards as well as the JohnLlewellyn Rhys Prize, and beenshortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lectures on literary translation in Milan and writes for publicationssuch as The New Yorker and The New

York Review of Books. His manytranslations from the Italian includeworks by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso,Tabucchi and Machiavelli.

MARTIN PICK

Martin Pick graduated from theUniversity of East Anglia in SocialStudies in 1967, and subsequentlyworked as an editor and publisherwith Oxford University Press in Indiaand Pakistan from 1967–72, and withLongman and Macmillan in the UKuntil 1979. From 1980–94 he ran his own company, Belitha Press,publishing children’s non-fiction. He was also involved in making manydocumentaries for Channel 4 duringthe 1980s. He became a literary agentin 1994, and still acts part-time in thiscapacity. He was a Council member of Minority Rights Group Internationalfrom 1998–2006. He is also a mentorwith the Write to Life group at theMedical Foundation for Victims ofTorture, Chair of the Trustees of City and Hackney Mind; and a trusteeof Peace Child International. He isHonorary Events Organiser at theSavile Club in London, where he hasrun an annual UEA/Savile series ofliterary evenings with Prof. Jon Cookfor seven years. He is currently on theAdvisory Council for the Sri LankanCampaign for Peace and Justice, agroup seeking to encouragereconciliation in Sri Lanka.

JOHN PREBBLE

John Prebble is Relationship Manager(Literature) at Arts Council Englandfor the South East. He works with arange of organisations and individualsto support their work and to developliterature in various forms across theregion. Prior to joining Arts Council, he was Programme Manager at theCanterbury Festival, where he built up literature programming and writerdevelopment through the CanterburyLaureate scheme. He has also workedwith the Hay-on-Wye Festival, theFolkestone Literary Festival, and theliterature stages at the LatitudeFestival. He starts his day withWeetabix and a poem, currently from Modern Poetry in Translation.

Basso Cannarsa

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

RACHEL SEIFFERT

Rachel Seiffert has published twonovels, The Dark Room (2001) andAfterwards (2007) and an acclaimedcollection of short stories, Field Study

(2004). She has been nominated forthe Booker and Orange Prizes, andwas named amongst Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. In 2011 she received the E M ForsterAward from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two chapters from her new novel-in-progress arepublished in Granta’s current ‘Britain’issue, under the working title Hands

Across the Water. She lives in Londonwith her family.

KAMILA SHAMSIE

Kamila Shamsie is the author of five novels: In the City by the Sea,

Kartography (both shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Salt and Saffron, Broken Verses andBurnt Shadows, the last of which wasshortlisted for the Orange Prize andhas been translated into more thantwenty languages. She is a trustee of English PEN and Free Word, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She grew up in Karachiand now lives in London.

JO SHAPCOTT

Jo Shapcott was born in London.Poems from her three award-winningcollections – Electroplating the Baby

(1988), Phrase Book (1992), and My

Life Asleep (1998) – are gathered in acollection, Her Book (2000). She haswon a number of literary prizesincluding the Commonwealth Writers’Prize for Best First Collection, theForward Prize for Best Collection, and the National Poetry Competition(twice). Tender Taxes, her versions ofRilke, was published in 2001, and Of Mutability in 2010.

Mark Pringle

Derek A

dams

Kerstin Ehmer

21 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL20WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

TIM PARKS

Tim Parks was born in Manchester,grew up in London and studied atCambridge and Harvard. In 1981 hemoved to Italy, where he has lived ever since. He is the author of novels,non-fiction and essays, includingEuropa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona,and Teach Us to Sit Still, his account of a sceptic’s journey into meditationand alternative health. He has won the Somerset Maugham and BettyTrask Awards as well as the JohnLlewellyn Rhys Prize, and beenshortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lectures on literary translation in Milan and writes for publicationssuch as The New Yorker and The New

York Review of Books. His manytranslations from the Italian includeworks by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso,Tabucchi and Machiavelli.

MARTIN PICK

Martin Pick graduated from theUniversity of East Anglia in SocialStudies in 1967, and subsequentlyworked as an editor and publisherwith Oxford University Press in Indiaand Pakistan from 1967–72, and withLongman and Macmillan in the UKuntil 1979. From 1980–94 he ran his own company, Belitha Press,publishing children’s non-fiction. He was also involved in making manydocumentaries for Channel 4 duringthe 1980s. He became a literary agentin 1994, and still acts part-time in thiscapacity. He was a Council member of Minority Rights Group Internationalfrom 1998–2006. He is also a mentorwith the Write to Life group at theMedical Foundation for Victims ofTorture, Chair of the Trustees of City and Hackney Mind; and a trusteeof Peace Child International. He isHonorary Events Organiser at theSavile Club in London, where he hasrun an annual UEA/Savile series ofliterary evenings with Prof. Jon Cookfor seven years. He is currently on theAdvisory Council for the Sri LankanCampaign for Peace and Justice, agroup seeking to encouragereconciliation in Sri Lanka.

JOHN PREBBLE

John Prebble is Relationship Manager(Literature) at Arts Council Englandfor the South East. He works with arange of organisations and individualsto support their work and to developliterature in various forms across theregion. Prior to joining Arts Council, he was Programme Manager at theCanterbury Festival, where he built up literature programming and writerdevelopment through the CanterburyLaureate scheme. He has also workedwith the Hay-on-Wye Festival, theFolkestone Literary Festival, and theliterature stages at the LatitudeFestival. He starts his day withWeetabix and a poem, currently from Modern Poetry in Translation.

Basso Cannarsa

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

RACHEL SEIFFERT

Rachel Seiffert has published twonovels, The Dark Room (2001) andAfterwards (2007) and an acclaimedcollection of short stories, Field Study

(2004). She has been nominated forthe Booker and Orange Prizes, andwas named amongst Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. In 2011 she received the E M ForsterAward from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two chapters from her new novel-in-progress arepublished in Granta’s current ‘Britain’issue, under the working title Hands

Across the Water. She lives in Londonwith her family.

KAMILA SHAMSIE

Kamila Shamsie is the author of five novels: In the City by the Sea,

Kartography (both shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Salt and Saffron, Broken Verses andBurnt Shadows, the last of which wasshortlisted for the Orange Prize andhas been translated into more thantwenty languages. She is a trustee of English PEN and Free Word, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She grew up in Karachiand now lives in London.

JO SHAPCOTT

Jo Shapcott was born in London.Poems from her three award-winningcollections – Electroplating the Baby

(1988), Phrase Book (1992), and My

Life Asleep (1998) – are gathered in acollection, Her Book (2000). She haswon a number of literary prizesincluding the Commonwealth Writers’Prize for Best First Collection, theForward Prize for Best Collection, and the National Poetry Competition(twice). Tender Taxes, her versions ofRilke, was published in 2001, and Of Mutability in 2010.

Mark Pringle

Derek A

dams

Kerstin Ehmer

23 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL22WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

LUCY SHEERMAN

Lucy Sheerman was born in Wales and grew up in West Yorkshire. She iscurrently a literature specialist at ArtsCouncil England, working to supportthe development of writers and newwriting. She set up a poetry series withKarlien van den Beukel, published byrem press, and ran a poetic practiceseminar with Dell Olsen and AndreaBrady. She holds a PhD in Literaturefrom the University of Cambridge; her thesis examined the relationshipbetween language, writing and space.Her own critical and creative writing,focusing on experimental poeticpractice, has been featured in a varietyof journals and online magazines. Apamphlet with Oystercatcher Press isforthcoming. She lives with her partnerand four children in Cambridge.

SJÓN

Sjón began his literary career inIceland at fifteen, publishing his firstpoetry collection. In the early 1980she founded the neo-surrealist groupMedúsa, and soon acquired a highprofile on the Reykjavík culture scene.He has published seven novels andnumerous other poetry collections,and written plays, librettos and picturebooks for children. His novels includeThe Whispering Muse, From the Mouth

of the Whale, and The Blue Fox

(all published in the UK by Telegram);the last was awarded the prestigiousNordic Council Literary Prize andnominated for the 2009 IndependentForeign Fiction Prize. In 2001, his long-time collaboration with the Icelandicsinger Björk led to an Academy AwardBest Song co-nomination (for lyrics toI’ve Seen It All), for the Lars von Trier-directed film Dancer in the Dark. In2007– 08 he held the Samuel FischerGuest Professorship at the FreieUniversität in Berlin, and was a guestof the Berliner Künstlerprogramme in2010 –11. He resides in Reykjavík withhis wife and two children.

ANDREA STUART

Andrea Stuart was born and raised inthe Caribbean and the US. She studiedEnglish at the University of East Angliaand French at the Sorbonne. Her firstbook, Showgirls – a collective biographyof showgirls from Colette, to MarleneDietrich to Madonna – was adaptedinto a two-part documentary for theDiscovery Channel in 1998, and hassince inspired a theatrical show, acontemporary dance piece and anumber of burlesque performances.Her second book, The Rose of

Martinique: A Biography of Napoleon's

Josephine was translated into severallanguages and won the Enid McLeodLiterary Prize in 2004. She is Writer-in-Residence at Kingston University, andteaches at the Faber Academy.

Thomas A

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

HENRY SUTTON

Henry Sutton was the UEA/NewWriting Partnership Creative WritingFellow in 2008. He has been teachingCreative Writing at the University of East Anglia ever since, and is now a faculty member and the convener of the MA Prose Fiction programme. He is the author of nine works offiction. His new novel, My Criminal

World, explores issues of genre,violence and metafiction, and will bepublished by Harvill Secker in early2013. He has judged numerous literary awards, and is a long-standingliterary critic. He lives in Norwich with his family.

REBECCA SWIFT

Rebecca Swift is a writer, editor and co-founder and Director of The Literary Consultancy (TLC). For seven years she worked at ViragoPress, where she first conceived of the idea for TLC. Amongst herpublications are a volume of lettersbetween Bernard Shaw and MargaretWheeler, Letters from Margaret:

The Fascinating Story of Two Babies

Swapped at Birth (1992), and Imagining Characters: Six Conversations

about Women Writers, a book ofconversations between writer A S Byatt and psychoanalyst IgnesSodre (1995). She has also hadpoetry published in Virago New Poets

(1990), Vintage New Writing 6 (1995),Driftwood, US (2005), and Staple

(2008). A libretto written by her was funded by Arts Council England,for Spirit Child, an opera composed by Jenni Roditi and performed inLondon in 2001. She has also writtenand reviewed for The Independent

on Sunday and the Guardian. Her biography of Emily Dickinson,Dickinson: Poetic Lives, was published by Hesperus in 2011.

GEORGE SZIRTES

George Szirtes was born in Budapestin 1948 and came to the UK as a refugee with his family following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. He trained in Fine Art. His first book,The Slant Door, was a joint winner of the Faber Prize in 1980. He haspublished several books since, whichhave garnered him the CholmondeleyAward and, most recently, the T S EliotPrize for Reel (2004). New and

Collected Poems was published in 2008 and named Book of the Year in The Independent on Sunday, and, in 2009, The Burning of the Books and

Other Poems was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. He has also translatedseveral books of prize-winning poetryand fiction from the Hungarian, and edited various anthologies. His monograph on the artist AnaMaria Pacheco, Exercise of Power,

was published by Lind Humphries in 2001. He has also written works for stage, worked with artists andcomposers, run a small press, andwritten for newspapers and radio. A full list of his publications may befound under ‘Books’ on his website,www.georgeszirtes.co.uk, where healso keeps a regular blog (under‘News’ – georgeszirtes.blogspot.com).

23 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL22WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

LUCY SHEERMAN

Lucy Sheerman was born in Wales and grew up in West Yorkshire. She iscurrently a literature specialist at ArtsCouncil England, working to supportthe development of writers and newwriting. She set up a poetry series withKarlien van den Beukel, published byrem press, and ran a poetic practiceseminar with Dell Olsen and AndreaBrady. She holds a PhD in Literaturefrom the University of Cambridge; her thesis examined the relationshipbetween language, writing and space.Her own critical and creative writing,focusing on experimental poeticpractice, has been featured in a varietyof journals and online magazines. Apamphlet with Oystercatcher Press isforthcoming. She lives with her partnerand four children in Cambridge.

SJÓN

Sjón began his literary career inIceland at fifteen, publishing his firstpoetry collection. In the early 1980she founded the neo-surrealist groupMedúsa, and soon acquired a highprofile on the Reykjavík culture scene.He has published seven novels andnumerous other poetry collections,and written plays, librettos and picturebooks for children. His novels includeThe Whispering Muse, From the Mouth

of the Whale, and The Blue Fox

(all published in the UK by Telegram);the last was awarded the prestigiousNordic Council Literary Prize andnominated for the 2009 IndependentForeign Fiction Prize. In 2001, his long-time collaboration with the Icelandicsinger Björk led to an Academy AwardBest Song co-nomination (for lyrics toI’ve Seen It All), for the Lars von Trier-directed film Dancer in the Dark. In2007– 08 he held the Samuel FischerGuest Professorship at the FreieUniversität in Berlin, and was a guestof the Berliner Künstlerprogramme in2010 –11. He resides in Reykjavík withhis wife and two children.

ANDREA STUART

Andrea Stuart was born and raised inthe Caribbean and the US. She studiedEnglish at the University of East Angliaand French at the Sorbonne. Her firstbook, Showgirls – a collective biographyof showgirls from Colette, to MarleneDietrich to Madonna – was adaptedinto a two-part documentary for theDiscovery Channel in 1998, and hassince inspired a theatrical show, acontemporary dance piece and anumber of burlesque performances.Her second book, The Rose of

Martinique: A Biography of Napoleon's

Josephine was translated into severallanguages and won the Enid McLeodLiterary Prize in 2004. She is Writer-in-Residence at Kingston University, andteaches at the Faber Academy.

Thomas A

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

HENRY SUTTON

Henry Sutton was the UEA/NewWriting Partnership Creative WritingFellow in 2008. He has been teachingCreative Writing at the University of East Anglia ever since, and is now a faculty member and the convener of the MA Prose Fiction programme. He is the author of nine works offiction. His new novel, My Criminal

World, explores issues of genre,violence and metafiction, and will bepublished by Harvill Secker in early2013. He has judged numerous literary awards, and is a long-standingliterary critic. He lives in Norwich with his family.

REBECCA SWIFT

Rebecca Swift is a writer, editor and co-founder and Director of The Literary Consultancy (TLC). For seven years she worked at ViragoPress, where she first conceived of the idea for TLC. Amongst herpublications are a volume of lettersbetween Bernard Shaw and MargaretWheeler, Letters from Margaret:

The Fascinating Story of Two Babies

Swapped at Birth (1992), and Imagining Characters: Six Conversations

about Women Writers, a book ofconversations between writer A S Byatt and psychoanalyst IgnesSodre (1995). She has also hadpoetry published in Virago New Poets

(1990), Vintage New Writing 6 (1995),Driftwood, US (2005), and Staple

(2008). A libretto written by her was funded by Arts Council England,for Spirit Child, an opera composed by Jenni Roditi and performed inLondon in 2001. She has also writtenand reviewed for The Independent

on Sunday and the Guardian. Her biography of Emily Dickinson,Dickinson: Poetic Lives, was published by Hesperus in 2011.

GEORGE SZIRTES

George Szirtes was born in Budapestin 1948 and came to the UK as a refugee with his family following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. He trained in Fine Art. His first book,The Slant Door, was a joint winner of the Faber Prize in 1980. He haspublished several books since, whichhave garnered him the CholmondeleyAward and, most recently, the T S EliotPrize for Reel (2004). New and

Collected Poems was published in 2008 and named Book of the Year in The Independent on Sunday, and, in 2009, The Burning of the Books and

Other Poems was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. He has also translatedseveral books of prize-winning poetryand fiction from the Hungarian, and edited various anthologies. His monograph on the artist AnaMaria Pacheco, Exercise of Power,

was published by Lind Humphries in 2001. He has also written works for stage, worked with artists andcomposers, run a small press, andwritten for newspapers and radio. A full list of his publications may befound under ‘Books’ on his website,www.georgeszirtes.co.uk, where healso keeps a regular blog (under‘News’ – georgeszirtes.blogspot.com).

25 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL24WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

YOKO TAWADA

Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo and educated at Waseda University.She has lived in Germany since 1982,where she received her PhD inGerman Literature. In 1993 shereceived the prestigious AkutagawaPrize for her collection of three fantasynarratives, The Bridegroom Was a Dog.She writes in both German andJapanese, and in 1996, she won theAdalbert-von-Chamisso Prize, aGerman award recognising foreignwriters for contributions to Germanculture. In 2005 she received theGoethe-Medal, an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany.

CHIKA UNIGWE

Chika Unigwe was born and raised in Enugu, Nigeria. She earned a BAfrom the University of Nigeria, apostgraduate degree from the KatolikeUniversiteit Leuven in Belgium and a PhD from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. In 2004 she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize. Her other awards include a BBC Short Story Award, a CommonwealthShort Story Prize and Fellowshipsfrom UNESCO, the RockefellerFoundation, Ledig House and HALDDenmark. She is published widely, andhas contributed non-fiction essays to the Guardian and The New York Times.Her 2009 novel On Black Sisters Street

was very well-received, and wasrepublished in paperback in 2011 by Jonathan Cape, which will alsorelease her next novel, Night Dancer, in June 2012.

MANON UPHOFF

Manon Uphoff made her literarydebut in 1995 with Begeerte (Desire),an acclaimed collection of shortstories that was nominated for severalDutch literary prizes. Her novel Gemis

(Amiss) followed in 1997 and wasnominated for the Libris LiteraturePrize and the Betje Wolff Award. In 1998 she published a collection of short stories, De fluwelen machine

(The Velvet Machine); in 2000, an essaycollection, Hij zegt dat ik niet dansen

kan (He Says I Can’t Dance); and in 2002 a short novel, De vanger

(The Catcher), which received excellentreviews, was adapted to film, and airedon Dutch television and at the DutchFilm Festival in 2003. In 2004 shepublished another short novel, De bastaard (The Bastard). That yearDutch critics placed her among the top five most talented writers of the late 1990s. She lives in The Netherlands and spends time in Croatia. She is Vice President ofDutch PEN.

Yves N

oir ww

w.yves-noir.de

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

TOMMY WIERINGA

Tommy Wieringa was born in 1967and grew up partly in The Netherlands,partly in the tropics. He began hiscareer writing travel stories andjournalism, and is the author of threenovels, including Joe Speedboat

(Portobello, 2009), which won the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize –awarded for the best Dutch prosebook – in 2006.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

Jeanette Winterson is the author often novels, including Oranges Are not

the Only Fruit (which has sold over 1 million copies), The Passion, Sexing

the Cherry, and Written on the Body; a book of short stories, The World

and Other Places; a collection of essays,Art Objects; and many other works,including children’s books, screenplaysand journalism. Her writing has wonthe Whitbread Award for Best FirstNovel, the John Llewellyn RhysMemorial Prize, the E M ForsterAward and the Prix d’argent at theCannes Film Festival. She was made an officer of the Order of the BritishEmpire (OBE) in 2006, ‘for services to literature’.

Peter Peitsch

Viviane Sassen

25 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL24WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

YOKO TAWADA

Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo and educated at Waseda University.She has lived in Germany since 1982,where she received her PhD inGerman Literature. In 1993 shereceived the prestigious AkutagawaPrize for her collection of three fantasynarratives, The Bridegroom Was a Dog.She writes in both German andJapanese, and in 1996, she won theAdalbert-von-Chamisso Prize, aGerman award recognising foreignwriters for contributions to Germanculture. In 2005 she received theGoethe-Medal, an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany.

CHIKA UNIGWE

Chika Unigwe was born and raised in Enugu, Nigeria. She earned a BAfrom the University of Nigeria, apostgraduate degree from the KatolikeUniversiteit Leuven in Belgium and a PhD from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. In 2004 she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize. Her other awards include a BBC Short Story Award, a CommonwealthShort Story Prize and Fellowshipsfrom UNESCO, the RockefellerFoundation, Ledig House and HALDDenmark. She is published widely, andhas contributed non-fiction essays to the Guardian and The New York Times.Her 2009 novel On Black Sisters Street

was very well-received, and wasrepublished in paperback in 2011 by Jonathan Cape, which will alsorelease her next novel, Night Dancer, in June 2012.

MANON UPHOFF

Manon Uphoff made her literarydebut in 1995 with Begeerte (Desire),an acclaimed collection of shortstories that was nominated for severalDutch literary prizes. Her novel Gemis

(Amiss) followed in 1997 and wasnominated for the Libris LiteraturePrize and the Betje Wolff Award. In 1998 she published a collection of short stories, De fluwelen machine

(The Velvet Machine); in 2000, an essaycollection, Hij zegt dat ik niet dansen

kan (He Says I Can’t Dance); and in 2002 a short novel, De vanger

(The Catcher), which received excellentreviews, was adapted to film, and airedon Dutch television and at the DutchFilm Festival in 2003. In 2004 shepublished another short novel, De bastaard (The Bastard). That yearDutch critics placed her among the top five most talented writers of the late 1990s. She lives in The Netherlands and spends time in Croatia. She is Vice President ofDutch PEN.

Yves N

oir ww

w.yves-noir.de

WORLDS 2012PARTICIPANTS

TOMMY WIERINGA

Tommy Wieringa was born in 1967and grew up partly in The Netherlands,partly in the tropics. He began hiscareer writing travel stories andjournalism, and is the author of threenovels, including Joe Speedboat

(Portobello, 2009), which won the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize –awarded for the best Dutch prosebook – in 2006.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

Jeanette Winterson is the author often novels, including Oranges Are not

the Only Fruit (which has sold over 1 million copies), The Passion, Sexing

the Cherry, and Written on the Body; a book of short stories, The World

and Other Places; a collection of essays,Art Objects; and many other works,including children’s books, screenplaysand journalism. Her writing has wonthe Whitbread Award for Best FirstNovel, the John Llewellyn RhysMemorial Prize, the E M ForsterAward and the Prix d’argent at theCannes Film Festival. She was made an officer of the Order of the BritishEmpire (OBE) in 2006, ‘for services to literature’.

Peter Peitsch

Viviane Sassen

27 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

MEET WRITERS’ CENTRENORWICH

MITCHELL ALBERT

Mitchell Albert is Programme Directorof Writers’ Centre Norwich. From2007–11 he edited the literarymagazine of PEN International, the worldwide writers’ association. He later also helped coordinate theorganisation’s communications andliterary events departments. As aformer commissioning editor andsubsequently as a freelance editor, he has developed and edited a widerange of non-fiction books forpublishing houses in the UK and US,plus novels, short story and poetrycollections, magazines and journals. He continues to consult on bookprojects and writes poetry and longemails from Norwich, the sixth majorworld metropolis he has called homeafter Montreal, Tokyo, New York,Toronto and London.

KATY CARR

Katy Carr is Writers’ Centre Norwich’sMarketing Manager. She managesmedia, PR, website, data, print, socialmedia and all communications workfor the organisation. She has long beenpassionate about creative writing, andher work has always revolved aroundcommunication and writing including:managing and communicating onbehalf of a heritage project, producingcommunity theatre, running a creativewriting programme and teaching inItaly. She has studied literature andcreative writing at University of EastAnglia and writes part-time. Her pastprojects include a collaborative ArtsCouncil-funded play and a radio dramafor the BBC. She is currently workingon a novel.

MARTIN FIGURA

Martin Figura is Finance Manager for Writers’ Centre Norwich and is a photographer and poet. He is anassociate artist with Apples & Snakesand is touring a spoken-word versionof his collection Whistle (Arrowhead,2010), which will include aperformance at the Edinburgh FestivalFringe. He won the Poetry Society’sHamish Canham Prize and wasshortlisted for the Ted Hughes Awardfor New Work in 2010. His book ofphotographs, This Man’s Army (DewiLewis) was published in 1998 andWork – Space – Work (Happen) in2008. His work has been widelypublished and exhibited, including atthe National Portrait Gallery. He runsCafé Writers, a monthly live literatureevent in Norwich.

26WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

CHRIS GRIBBLE

Chris Gribble is the Chief Executive of Writers’ Centre Norwich. Aftercompleting a PhD in German Poetryand Philosophy at the University ofManchester, he worked in publishingfor Carcanet Press and PN Review,then spent several years working incultural policy and was the Director of Manchester Poetry Festival andthen Manchester Literature Festival.He sits on the advisory group forManchester University’s Centre forNew Writing, and is on the Board ofDirectors of the International Cities of Refuge Network, Co-Chair of theNational Association for LiteratureDevelopment and a Board Member of Writers’ Centre Norwich. He isalso an Artistic Assessor for ArtsCouncil England.

SHENAZ KEDAR

Shenaz Kedar is a ProgrammeManager for Writers’ Centre Norwich.She has over twelve years ofexperience working on projectdevelopment in collaboration withinternational partners in a variety of contexts. Having worked and livedin Portugal, Japan, Greece, Israel andthe UK, she joined Writers’ CentreNorwich in June 2006 to launch andmanage the Norwich City of Refugeprogramme. As Programme Managershe also oversees the organisation’sinvolvement in the implementation of the Shahrazad – Stories for Lifeproject in the UK. This wide rangingcross art form community arts andeducation programme was launched in2007. Shahrazad is a European UnionCulture co-operation project betweenNorwich, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt,Stavanger and Stockholm, which runsover five years. Shahrazad events andactivities have been delivered incollaboration with a range of partners,including festivals, museums, librariesand schools. Shenaz also works withorganisations specialising in differentart forms across the arts sector suchas music, dance and theatre, therebyenjoying full immersion in the artsworld in her role as regionalcoordinator of both Refugee Weekand Platforma for the East of England.

LARA NARKIEWICZ

Lara Narkiewicz is the ProgrammeAssistant for Writers’ Centre Norwich,primarily providing administrativesupport to the programmes staff. She completed a BA in French andHispanic Studies at the University ofSheffield, developing an avid interest in Latin American and post-colonialFrench-language literature. Larareturned to Norfolk, the county inwhich she grew up, to study for an MA in International Relations andDevelopment Studies at the Universityof East Anglia. Alongside her work atWriters’ Centre Norwich, she worksfor a local charity. In her spare time shevolunteers regularly for several localand international organisations, and hasexperience in teaching English to non-native English speakers. Her passion for language and literature continuesto grow through her second-handbookshop visits and her faded butfaithful library card.

27 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

MEET WRITERS’ CENTRENORWICH

MITCHELL ALBERT

Mitchell Albert is Programme Directorof Writers’ Centre Norwich. From2007–11 he edited the literarymagazine of PEN International, the worldwide writers’ association. He later also helped coordinate theorganisation’s communications andliterary events departments. As aformer commissioning editor andsubsequently as a freelance editor, he has developed and edited a widerange of non-fiction books forpublishing houses in the UK and US,plus novels, short story and poetrycollections, magazines and journals. He continues to consult on bookprojects and writes poetry and longemails from Norwich, the sixth majorworld metropolis he has called homeafter Montreal, Tokyo, New York,Toronto and London.

KATY CARR

Katy Carr is Writers’ Centre Norwich’sMarketing Manager. She managesmedia, PR, website, data, print, socialmedia and all communications workfor the organisation. She has long beenpassionate about creative writing, andher work has always revolved aroundcommunication and writing including:managing and communicating onbehalf of a heritage project, producingcommunity theatre, running a creativewriting programme and teaching inItaly. She has studied literature andcreative writing at University of EastAnglia and writes part-time. Her pastprojects include a collaborative ArtsCouncil-funded play and a radio dramafor the BBC. She is currently workingon a novel.

MARTIN FIGURA

Martin Figura is Finance Manager for Writers’ Centre Norwich and is a photographer and poet. He is anassociate artist with Apples & Snakesand is touring a spoken-word versionof his collection Whistle (Arrowhead,2010), which will include aperformance at the Edinburgh FestivalFringe. He won the Poetry Society’sHamish Canham Prize and wasshortlisted for the Ted Hughes Awardfor New Work in 2010. His book ofphotographs, This Man’s Army (DewiLewis) was published in 1998 andWork – Space – Work (Happen) in2008. His work has been widelypublished and exhibited, including atthe National Portrait Gallery. He runsCafé Writers, a monthly live literatureevent in Norwich.

26WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

CHRIS GRIBBLE

Chris Gribble is the Chief Executive of Writers’ Centre Norwich. Aftercompleting a PhD in German Poetryand Philosophy at the University ofManchester, he worked in publishingfor Carcanet Press and PN Review,then spent several years working incultural policy and was the Director of Manchester Poetry Festival andthen Manchester Literature Festival.He sits on the advisory group forManchester University’s Centre forNew Writing, and is on the Board ofDirectors of the International Cities of Refuge Network, Co-Chair of theNational Association for LiteratureDevelopment and a Board Member of Writers’ Centre Norwich. He isalso an Artistic Assessor for ArtsCouncil England.

SHENAZ KEDAR

Shenaz Kedar is a ProgrammeManager for Writers’ Centre Norwich.She has over twelve years ofexperience working on projectdevelopment in collaboration withinternational partners in a variety of contexts. Having worked and livedin Portugal, Japan, Greece, Israel andthe UK, she joined Writers’ CentreNorwich in June 2006 to launch andmanage the Norwich City of Refugeprogramme. As Programme Managershe also oversees the organisation’sinvolvement in the implementation of the Shahrazad – Stories for Lifeproject in the UK. This wide rangingcross art form community arts andeducation programme was launched in2007. Shahrazad is a European UnionCulture co-operation project betweenNorwich, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt,Stavanger and Stockholm, which runsover five years. Shahrazad events andactivities have been delivered incollaboration with a range of partners,including festivals, museums, librariesand schools. Shenaz also works withorganisations specialising in differentart forms across the arts sector suchas music, dance and theatre, therebyenjoying full immersion in the artsworld in her role as regionalcoordinator of both Refugee Weekand Platforma for the East of England.

LARA NARKIEWICZ

Lara Narkiewicz is the ProgrammeAssistant for Writers’ Centre Norwich,primarily providing administrativesupport to the programmes staff. She completed a BA in French andHispanic Studies at the University ofSheffield, developing an avid interest in Latin American and post-colonialFrench-language literature. Larareturned to Norfolk, the county inwhich she grew up, to study for an MA in International Relations andDevelopment Studies at the Universityof East Anglia. Alongside her work atWriters’ Centre Norwich, she worksfor a local charity. In her spare time shevolunteers regularly for several localand international organisations, and hasexperience in teaching English to non-native English speakers. Her passion for language and literature continuesto grow through her second-handbookshop visits and her faded butfaithful library card.

29 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL28WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

MEET WRITERS’ CENTRENORWICH

SAM RUDDOCK

Sam Ruddock is a ProgrammeManager for Writers’ Centre Norwich.He joined Writers’ Centre Norwich inFebruary 2009, having previously beena Senior Bookseller with Waterstone’s.As a Programme Manager, amongstother things, Sam looks after theNorwich Showcase, Summer Readsand the monthly Salon programmes.His big love is fiction. He believespassionately in the power of stories to transform our understanding of theworld. Outside work he tries valiantlyto maintain a book-review blog, Books,

Time, and Silence, and contributesregularly to others, including thepopular book collective Vulpes Libris.

He also hosts a popular book quiz atthe Norwich Millennium Library. Helives in Norwich with his wife and twocats, and spends too much time sat onhis couch watching sport.

LAURA STIMSON

Laura Stimson is a ProgrammeManager for Writers’ Centre Norwich.She joined the organisation in 2007 as a co-manager for their regional Live Literature programme. She hassupervised the management of Worldssince 2009 and her role at WCN also focuses on artist development.Outside of Writers’ Centre Norwichshe produces music and literatureevents and is the singer for lounge-core band The Ferries. She studiedcreative writing at Norwich School of Art and Design (now NorwichUniversity College of the Arts) andUniversity of East Anglia and has hadwork published with Unthank Books,Nasty Little Press and Ink, Sweat andTears. She has lived in the Fine City ofNorwich for the last eleven years andcounts herself as a proud Norwichian.

LEILA TELFORD

Leila Telford has been with Writers’Centre Norwich since the verybeginning in 2004. For four years she was Office Manager, leading on administration, finance anddevelopment, and running several of the original programmes. She is now Resources Manager and part of the Senior Management Team,leading on HR. She worked in thehealth sector for many years as a GP surgery manager and is a graduateof the renowned Cultural Studies BAprogramme at Norwich School of Artand Design (now Norwich UniversityCollege of the Arts). For three yearsshe was involved, in a voluntarycapacity, in the organisation of theNorwich Fringe Festival, where shealso exhibited. For two years she wasalso Project Narrator for the i10 Eastof England university consortium.

RICHARD WHITE

Richard White is Marketing Officer at Writers’ Centre Norwich, andpreviously worked in Communicationswith Arts Council England, East. He has(too) many interests, including websitedevelopment, graphic design andmaking objects and drawings somemight place under the banner of ‘art’.Last and by no means least, he lovesreading books. Unlike the rest of hiscolleagues, he lives outside Norwich, in the city of Ely. Rest assured, thecommute allows plenty of time for reading.

ROWAN WHITESIDE

Rowan Whiteside graduated with a degree in English and AmericanLiterature from University of EastAnglia in 2011. After graduating, shemanaged the fiction department atWaterstone’s. She reads voraciouslyand finds it impossible to leave thehouse without at least one book. Inher spare time she writes fiction and,to her delight, recently won a shortstory competition.

29 WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL28WORLDS LITERATURE FESTIVAL

MEET WRITERS’ CENTRENORWICH

SAM RUDDOCK

Sam Ruddock is a ProgrammeManager for Writers’ Centre Norwich.He joined Writers’ Centre Norwich inFebruary 2009, having previously beena Senior Bookseller with Waterstone’s.As a Programme Manager, amongstother things, Sam looks after theNorwich Showcase, Summer Readsand the monthly Salon programmes.His big love is fiction. He believespassionately in the power of stories to transform our understanding of theworld. Outside work he tries valiantlyto maintain a book-review blog, Books,

Time, and Silence, and contributesregularly to others, including thepopular book collective Vulpes Libris.

He also hosts a popular book quiz atthe Norwich Millennium Library. Helives in Norwich with his wife and twocats, and spends too much time sat onhis couch watching sport.

LAURA STIMSON

Laura Stimson is a ProgrammeManager for Writers’ Centre Norwich.She joined the organisation in 2007 as a co-manager for their regional Live Literature programme. She hassupervised the management of Worldssince 2009 and her role at WCN also focuses on artist development.Outside of Writers’ Centre Norwichshe produces music and literatureevents and is the singer for lounge-core band The Ferries. She studiedcreative writing at Norwich School of Art and Design (now NorwichUniversity College of the Arts) andUniversity of East Anglia and has hadwork published with Unthank Books,Nasty Little Press and Ink, Sweat andTears. She has lived in the Fine City ofNorwich for the last eleven years andcounts herself as a proud Norwichian.

LEILA TELFORD

Leila Telford has been with Writers’Centre Norwich since the verybeginning in 2004. For four years she was Office Manager, leading on administration, finance anddevelopment, and running several of the original programmes. She is now Resources Manager and part of the Senior Management Team,leading on HR. She worked in thehealth sector for many years as a GP surgery manager and is a graduateof the renowned Cultural Studies BAprogramme at Norwich School of Artand Design (now Norwich UniversityCollege of the Arts). For three yearsshe was involved, in a voluntarycapacity, in the organisation of theNorwich Fringe Festival, where shealso exhibited. For two years she wasalso Project Narrator for the i10 Eastof England university consortium.

RICHARD WHITE

Richard White is Marketing Officer at Writers’ Centre Norwich, andpreviously worked in Communicationswith Arts Council England, East. He has(too) many interests, including websitedevelopment, graphic design andmaking objects and drawings somemight place under the banner of ‘art’.Last and by no means least, he lovesreading books. Unlike the rest of hiscolleagues, he lives outside Norwich, in the city of Ely. Rest assured, thecommute allows plenty of time for reading.

ROWAN WHITESIDE

Rowan Whiteside graduated with a degree in English and AmericanLiterature from University of EastAnglia in 2011. After graduating, shemanaged the fiction department atWaterstone’s. She reads voraciouslyand finds it impossible to leave thehouse without at least one book. Inher spare time she writes fiction and,to her delight, recently won a shortstory competition.