The roster of novelists, historians, journalists and poets visiting Hong Kong for the International Literary Festival (HKILF) could themselves form the cast of a colourful saga. They range from a former poet laureate to a former prostitute, from a Rastafarian lyricist to a former prime minister's daughter, and from one of the United States' finest pastry chefs to one of Britain's first black female judges. The 11th annual celebration of writing comprises more than 40 English-language events to be held over 10 days from March 8 at various venues. They will include lectures, readings, interviews, poetry performances, and panel discussions. Douglas Kerr, chairman of the HKILF board and a professor of English at the University of Hong Kong, says the festival aims to 'spread enjoyment, curiosity and enthusiasm for reading'. The festival unfolds amid rising international interest in literature from Asia, after the shortlist for this year's Man Asian Literary Prize - announced in Hong Kong on February 15 - was touted as the award's strongest line-up yet. Shortlisted authors Bi Feiyu, Manu Joseph, Tabish Khair, Kenzaburo Oe and Yoko Ogawa will read from their books during the festival, at an event at the Kee Club on March 16. The prize winner will be announced the next day. Kerr believes Asian writing in English is 'the great development in English literature of the past 50 years'. Today, he argues, there may be 'more exciting English writing going on outside of Anglo-America than inside'. As well as providing an important platform for writers from across the region, the HKILF aims to connect readers of all ages with literary figures from around the globe. Its flourishing schools programme will give students a chance to meet and attend creative writing workshops with some of the authors. 'We have a cultural and educational mission,' Kerr says. 'As a world city, we deserve an international culture, and the literary festival is part of that.' With the higher-profile Arts Festival happening simultaneously, Kerr is aware of the relative modesty of the HKILF. 'We're a fairly seat-of-the-pants organisation,' he admits. But the literary festival is determined to grow and spread the joys of an art form without which we would hardly be able, says Kerr, 'to discover what the world looks like to other people, and to enter imaginary worlds that enrich our own'. Here are some highlights of the 2011 International Literary Festival. Amitav Ghosh The prize-winning author of The Glass Palace (2000) and The Shadow Lines (1988) has embarked on a trilogy that is likely to be his major work. The first instalment, Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. 'While writing The Glass Palace, I developed an interest in the story of the migration of Indian indentured workers,' Ghosh says. '[The trilogy] began as an attempt to enter that story more fully. What I had in mind was [something] like Balzac's Comedie Humaine.' Set on the eve of the opium wars between Britain and China, when indentured workers first left India following the banning of slavery in the colonies, Poppies introduces a vibrant cast of characters whose fates are thrown together onboard an old slaving ship named the Ibis. The second book, River of Smoke, will be released in June. The story covers the months leading up to the outbreak of the first opium war in 1839 and takes place in the 'Thirteen Factories', a foreign enclave in Guangzhou where many Mumbai merchants lived. Life, the Universe and Everything, March 12, 1.30pm-2.30pm, Hong Kong Racing Museum; Fiction and Verse, March 13, 10.30am-11.30am, Hullet House; In Conversation with Amitav Ghosh (sold out), March 13, 12.30pm-2.30pm, Hullett House; Amitav Ghosh the Reader, March 14, 5pm-6pm, Central Library Sir Andrew Motion Fresh from chairing the Man Booker Prize, the former British poet laureate (from 1999 to 2009), novelist, critic and teacher will visit as a guest of the University of Hong Kong. He will take part in the university's 100th anniversary celebrations by giving a lecture on the place of poetry in the national culture. At a Fringe Club event, Motion will read from his new anthology, Laurels and Donkeys. Published in November 2010, it is a sequence of war poems dedicated to the past century of conflicts involving British forces. He will also discuss The Cinder Path, a recent collection in which the poet deals with his father's character and death, among other things. Motion has been chairman of the British Arts Council's Literature Panel since 1996. He was knighted in 2009. Centenary Distinguished Lecture - Professor Sir Andrew Motion, Poetry in Life, March 10, 5.30pm-8pm, Rayson Huang Theatre, the University of Hong Kong; An Evening of Poetry and More, March 11, 6pm-7.15pm, Fringe Club Xu Xi Xu Xi is one of Hong Kong's most successful literary talents. The Tsim Sha Tsui resident has written eight books of fiction and essays in English, and edited several anthologies of Hong Kong writing. She established the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programme in creative writing at the City University of Hong Kong last year, the only programme in the world to focus on Asian writing in English. Her 2010 novel Habit of a Foreign Sky, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, investigates what it means to be a woman in the modern world. 'With all the privileges the women's movement has given us, we are still stuck,' she says. 'I am a feminist, and I called myself one at a time when that wasn't fashionable to say, but I've never quite believed we can have it all.' Named after a line in an Emily Dickinson poem, Habit tells the story of Gail Szeto, a tightly wound mixed-race executive who must deal with the sudden death of her mother alongside the shifting course of her career in international high finance. Xu Xi calls it her 'woman's book'. Surviving the Modern World, March 13, 6pm-7.30pm, Hullett House; Habit of a Foreign Sky, March 15, 7.30pm-8.30pm, Central Library Jessica Rudd The daughter of ex-Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd caused a stir when her debut novel, Campaign Ruby, was released last year. It tells the story of 'Notting Hill fashionista' Ruby Stanhope who, through a series of Bridget Jones-style mishaps, joins the campaign trail of Australia's opposition leader after an ambitious female colleague overthrows the prime minister. Eerily, Rudd's manuscript was finished long before the real-life coup that landed current Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in office. 'It was shocking and strange at the time,' says Rudd, 27, 'but I've moved on since then.' She is especially looking forward to speaking at the HKILF: she has a special connection to Hong Kong. While her father underwent intensive language training before going to Beijing as a diplomat, Rudd spent the first six months of her life 'screaming my lungs out in a little apartment above a restaurant in Hung Hom'. On the stigma of reading chick-lit, Rudd takes a no-nonsense stance: 'I don't think we should apologise for loving what we read. We need to be careful about being too critical of a genre that readers enjoy, particularly in an age where people are reading less.' In Conversation with Jessica Rudd, March 16, 6.15pm-7.15pm, Central Library; High Heels and Politics, Friday, March 18, 3.30pm-5pm, The Press Room Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Archer is the only author to have had a No1 best-seller in each of the fiction, short story and non-fiction genres. Nevertheless, the one-time British parliamentarian insists he is not a writer. 'I'm a storyteller,' he says from Majorca, where he is working on his newest book. 'The difference between a writer and a storyteller is the ability to plot. I [begin] 'Once upon a time' and I pray that you turn the page. Luckily, 330 million people have.' Official sales figures stand at 250 million copies worldwide, with translations in more than 37 languages. On March 4, Archer releases the first instalment of The Clifton Chronicles, a five-part saga he calls 'the biggest challenge of my life'. Only Time Will Tell unfolds in 1919 in the British city of Bristol and charts the adolescent life of Harry Clifton as he unravels the truth about his father's wartime death. 'I wanted to tell a bigger story about the hundred years of one man's life, to take his family through that century and see what happened to them,' Archer says. Remarkably, Archer works by hand, so writing a book is a 'physically tough process'. He says: 'In the end, they have to take it away from me'. In Conversation with Jeffrey Archer, March 14, 3pm-4.30pm, Grappa's Cellar, Central For further information and to find out how to become a Friend of the Festival, visit www.festival.org.hk . Tickets to all HKILF events are available through Cityline
