Listen to the whispers, lilts and cadences of the writer's voice in a selection of readings from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tash Aw, Mohammed Hanif, Cees Nooteboom and Philipp Meyer.
Includes the presentation of The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist awards for 2009.
This event will be Auslan interpreted, with the support of Accessible Arts.
Change from printed program: This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Monica Ali was incorrectly listed as a participant in this event
TASH AW (INTERNATIONAL) TASH AW is Malaysian by birth and now lives in London. His first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, won the Whitbread Best First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Best First Novel Award. His second novel, Map of the Invisible World, is set in post-Independence Malaysia and Indonesia. Tash is a frequent contributor to the BBC on South-East Asian literature, film and culture.
His participation is supported by HarperCollins Publishers. tash-aw.com
MOHAMMED HANIF (INTERNATIONAL) MOHAMMED HANIF was born in Okara, Pakistan. He graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as pilot officer, but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. He has written plays for the stage and BBC radio, and his film The Long Night has been shown at film festivals around the world. He is a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s creative writing program. He is currently head of the BBC’s Urdu Service and lives in London. A Case of Exploding Mangoes was longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
CEES NOOTEBOOM (INTERNATIONAL) CEES NOOTEBOOM is a Dutch poet and the author of prize-winning fiction and travel books. In 1993 he won the Aristeion European Literature Prize for his novel The Following Story. His books have been translated into many languages. His latest novel, Lost Paradise, is a charming and mystical fable about angels, Australia and love.
Cees Nootboom’s participation is supported by the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature.
PHILIPP MEYER (INTERNATIONAL) PHILIPP MEYER has been a James Michener Fellow in Fiction and has had stories published in McSweeneys, The Iowa Review and New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2007. One Day This Will All Be Yours was selected by Edward P. Jones for the anthology Best American Short Stories: 2007 where it received an honourable mention. His debut novel, American Rust, is a heart-wrenching tale of redemption and survival in small-town America in the tradition of Richard Ford, Pete Dexter and Cormac McCarthy.
ANNETTE SHUN WAH (LOCAL) ANNETTE SHUN WAH is a writer, actor and broadcaster. Co-author of Banquet: Ten Courses to Harmony, she has also contributed short stories to several anthologies including Come Away With Me, Growing up Asian in Australia and Grandma Magic. She has published essays, articles and reviews, and has been a regular contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald. Annette currently serves on committees for Performance 4a and Asialink.
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE grew up in Nigeria. She holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins and a Masters degree in African Studies from Yale. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her work has been translated into 30 languages. She was a 2005-2006 Hodder Fellow at Princeton, where she taught introductory fiction. She divides her time between the United States and Nigeria. Her new collection is The Thing Around Your Neck.
Her participation is supported by HarperCollins Publishers.