CT: Tell me about the theme of this year's festival: Politics and storytelling.
SW: That [theme] came about because we had such an interesting panel on politics at the last festival, and that was really the period where there was complete Obamamania. It was sort of electric, that reading panel. And we thought, “This is interesting, because so many people have become political because of Obama-- sort of a whole new generation”. So we thought this could be a good topic-- also because media is changing so much, especially with the internet, that putting these two words together, "politics" and "storytelling", seemed very topical, There’s so much you can put under that umbrella.
We really tried to choose a real range of authors, and to have poetry in there, but also quite a lot of topical ones, so there are a lot of South African writers and South African -themed events.
CT: So many writers pride themselves on being apolitical...but is it really possible to be so?
SW: It’s true that in having a theme, we often have writers write back and say, “I’m not a travel writer-- I’m a fiction writer,” or “I’m not a political writer”. (...) I think these are the questions we want to bring up: Do writers feel that they should comment on society, and taking that role? Some writers are convinced it’s a role they should take on, and others are 100% against it. So I think it’ll inevitably come up in the discussions.
CT: Which authors are you particularly excited about in the 2010 lineup?
SW: [American Poet] Jack Hirschman is opening it up. (...) He’s a beat poet (..) and he’s like a bear-- he’s got this roaring voice, and he’s got such a great presence, he’s actually fantastic to open the festival-- he’ll sort of wake everyone up.
Natalie Clein is this incredible cellist, and she’s going to play in the park, if weather is nice, just sort of randomly. So that should be great.
[British Writer] Will Self will be great, because he’s such a great performer. There will be a conversation between Will Self and [fellow British fiction writer] Martin Amis which should prove very interesting and unusual... I don’t think they’ve done anything together before.
I’m so excited about [Pakistani poet and writer] Fatima Bhutto-- she basically watched her whole family be assassinated, and the memoir she wrote is absolutely fascinating and important and powerful. It explains a lot about Pakistan and she’s very honest.
[Journalist] Emma Larkin will be really great-- that's actually her pseudonym. Maybe she’s even a man-- we have no idea. She’s coming disguised, and no one’s allowed to take photographs-- (...) it’s really a very serious one, but there'll be a really interesting conversation about Burma.
[British fiction writer] Jeanette Winterson is always incredible...when she talked at the last festival, people really had tears in their eyes. She’s very powerful and she’s an exceptional person.
