The Galle Literary Festival sponsored by HSBC is about to commence tomorrow and it kick started with the annual Press Conference held at the Barefoot Gallery and Cafe, in the heart of Colombo City.
HSBC Galle Literary Festival 2012 opening launch was done by
Amrita Pieris, Festival Director along with Shyam Selvadurai who is the Festival Curator
Nick A Nicolaou who is Chief Executive Officer Sri Lanka and Maldives for HSBC spoke on its historical role in funding the arts and supporting the Galle Literary Festival while Jaco Beerends First Secretary, Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands,
spoke on the history and heritage of the Dutch in Galle and how the festival promotes this heritage.
Ranjit De Silva– Senior Corporate Communications, Sri Lankan Airlines, spoke about tourism in Sri Lanka and its current boom and what role the Galle Literary Festival and similar arts events play in promoting an image of Sri Lanka.
Mr Ishanth Gunawardene Head of Sales and Marketing, Jetwing Hotels spoke about its long term historic support of the festival in supporting Galle while Maheshi Anandasari who is Corporate Communications for Cargills (Ceylon) PLC
Magic One Trust spoke on supporting of the children's programmes.
Tony Reilly– Country Director, British Council talked about their historic support of the festival in order to facilitate the role of English in Sri Lanka as a bridge building link language. Ms Dagny Mjøs- Counsellor/Head of the Development, Royal Norwegian Embassy spoke of their role of GLF and similar arts organizatons in a post war Sri Lanka.
The Festival founder Mr. Geoffrey Dobbs sent his wishes by mentioning that Literary Festivals of this nature are very popular throughout the world but none is as "companionable" as Galle, where the unique setting provides a location which could not be matched.
This will be the 6th annual HSBC Galle Literary Festival where there will be book launches along side many other favorites the festival has in store. The year however there is going to be the outreach programme, which GLF has instituted the North-South University Collaboration which brought together 25 students from universities in the North and South to build bridges which ws initiated last year. This program me will continue sponsored by the American Centre with twice the number of students while Magic and One Trust Sri Lanka will be sponsoring the Festival children's writers to do programmes in Jaffna. This year sees an array of distinguished writers and artists alike from all over the globe. Some of which need to be highlighted would be that of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2010
Winner, Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award of Canada, 2010, John Boyne
Winner, Irish Book Award Children’s Book of the Year 2009
Winner, Irish Book Award People’s Choice Book of the Year 2009
Winner, Orange Prize Readers Group Book of the Year 2009, and there is Juliet Coombe who is a travel writer and publisher of Sri Serendipity Publishing House in Galle Fort. She is a full time international photojournalist and member of BBC Lonely Planet and Getty Images since 1997. She is the author of Around the Fort in 80 Lives (2008) and Sri Lanka’s Other Half: A Guide to the Central, Eastern and Northern Provinces (2010). Her most recent book is Paradise Exorcised (2012), the first environmental travel guide to the island. She lives in the Galle Fort with her husband and 2 children. Channa Daswatte is one of Sri Lanka’s leading architects who lives and practices in Kotte. He was a friend, confidant and the principal assistant to Sri Lanka’s most prolific and influential architect, Geoffrey Bawa while all eyes will be on Richard Dawkins
Winner, Shakespeare Prize 2005, Winner, Kistler Prize 2001 and Romesh Gunasekera
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1994
Shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize 1994. The list goes on but I will let you follow the buzz either on the web or try visiting Galle if you happen to be in the Island of Sri Lanka over the next five days.
