George Town Literary Festival on the theme The Ties That Bind will be held over three days (29 November to 1 December 2013) in the historic city of George Town, Penang. The Festival will host 18 acclaimed writers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, India, Australia, Italy, Malaysia, the United States and Canada. The inaugural festival started in 2011 with five internationally recognised Malaysian writers, who explored the theme History and Heritage – Where Are Our Stories? This year’s GTLF will continue its celebration of world literature in poetry, prose and spoken word. The theme this year is The Ties that Bind, which will look at how writers deal with homelands and hope, love and loss, memory and history. The headlining author is Malaysian icon Datuk Lat, writer and cartoonist, who is known and beloved the world over. Other Malaysian writers include Tash Aw, whose third novel was recently long-listed for the Booker Prize, Shamini Flint, Glasgow-based Chiew-Siah Tei, scholar and poet Dr Ghulam Sarwar-Yousof, Penang-based writer and poet Cecil Rajendra and noted playwright Huzir Sulaiman. The list of esteemed international writers attending the festival include Michael Kleeberg (Germany), Christine Otten and Rodaan Al Galidi (Netherlands), Aruni Kashyap (India), Annelies Verbeke (Belgium) Marco Ferraresse (Italy) and Madeleine Thein (Canada). The festival aims to feature indigenous writers as well; award-winning Ali Cobby Eckermann, a Torres Strait aboriginal poet from Australia and Mahat anak China, a Temuan writer and poet. We will also be featuring Wayang Kata VXI, a spoken word/poetry event which will showcase the diversity of Penang’s many cultures through expat and local poets. Last year’s event featured work in Malay, English, Thai and Tamil and was one of the most memorable events of the festival. The moderators for this year’s festival include a stellar line-up of Malaysian writers and critics who include Umapagan Ampikaipakan, Sharaad Kuttan, Ann Lee, Yin Shao Loong, Sharon Bakar, Khoo Salma, Jasmine Low and the Indonesian translator/writer Kadek Krishna Adidharma. We will also have nightly film screenings curated by filmmaker/publisher Amir Muhammad.