Anticipation mounts as more than 100 writers, poets and wordsmiths from around the continent gather in Durban for the 26th Time of the Writer festival.
The festival, which starts today, will run until Tuesday, March 21 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. For those who cannot make the live sittings, an online version is available from 3pm on the Time of the Writer’s Facebook page and the Centre For Creative Arts YouTube channel.
Organised by an all-women curatorial team, the diverse literary offering will see accomplished authors like Kumi Naidoo, Fred Khumalo, Dr Sindiwe Magona, Lebohang Masango and Dudu Busani Dube among other industry greats.
This year’s festival, under the theme “Placemaking: Influence, Roots, Imagination & Expression”, focuses on a range of subjects from “The Rooted Legacy of Women in History” and “Queer Representation in Literature” to “Crime and Policing in SA”, “Writing Through Grief” and “The South African Contemporary Dating Scene”.
Ismail Mahomed, director of the Centre for Creative Arts said: “Our wonderful curators, led by Sibahle Khwela, have come up with an extremely strong programme to make sure that a wide section of readers and book lovers are catered for, whether they’re joining us in person or virtually during the online sessions.”
“It is remarkable when the curators of this year’s Time of the Writer festival are four women all under the age of 30 that they are heading a programme. I suppose this speaks strongly to the inter-generational identity of the Time of the Writer festival.”
In one of the more anticipated sessions, which is quickly selling out, Dube, the author of the “Hlomu” series, Thabile Shange, Lebohang Masango and Sue Nyathi will discuss the “South African Contemporary Dating Scene”. It takes place on Sunday, March 19 at 7pm.
Among the webinars sessions is Nobel Laureate and literature icon Toni Morrison, titled “Toni Morrison and/in Africa and its Diaspora”, which will feature Professor Aretha Phiri, Professor Yvette Christiansë, Professor Ashleigh Harris, Dr Rocio Cobo Piňero and Professor Dana Williams.
The speakers will explore her multifaceted historical and contemporary influence on authors, artists and thinkers and critically shaping our global political narratives.
Morrison will close the festival with a staged reading, directed by Nondumiso Msimanga, on Tuesday, March 21.
Tickets for Time of the Writer’s live events, happening at Alliance Française de Durban in Morningside, are available on Webtickets at R30 per event, and online sessions will be streamed on Facebook and the Centre for Creative Arts YouTube channel.