Creative Cape Town

What, no Book Fair this year? That’s not fair. (it’s not true, either)

Zinaid Meeran, Lauren Beukes and  Kopano Matlwa have two things in common besides words.

One, these  award-winning, South African-inspired writers will not have their novels  on sale at the Cape Town Book Fair in 2011, because the event has become biennial, from 2012.

Two, their work , and many others’, will enjoy the opportunity of a new promotional platform under the banner

Open Book Cape Town

a brand new, Cape Town  literary festival running from 21 September to 25 September 2011.

As far as literary events go, it’s quite the page turner. You can expect about more than 20 top international writers at 50 events within walking distance of The Book Lounge over a period of 5 days.

In its first year, the festival comes together under the partnership of The Book Lounge and Ben Williams, Publishing Director of BookSA, with Cape Times as media partner and wine sponsorship by Leopard’s Leap Wines.

This is not your average intellectual expo. Based in The Fringe, many venues encourage wordy walkabouts, day and night, with extra security for ease of movement. This brings much desired pedestrian traffic to the burgeoning creative and innovative hub, and serves the city on the whole by supporting the public repatriation of our  pavements and pathways.

Equal Education and other organisations are involved in programmes and projects to encourage literacy amongst Cape youth.

It’s not just a local affair.  The international writers organisation, PEN, through their local chapter SA PEN, will present a series around the subject of “Free the Word”, featuring John Ralston Saul (international president), Gillian Slovo (UK president-elect ) and three other writers from  the Caribbean, South America and Africa.

No new event is replete without a complete advisory board. To that end, The Open Book fest goes global. Toby Mundy (Atlantic Books, London) is forming and heading up an International Advisory Board with award-winning writers, Philip Gourevitch and Petina Gappah already on board and more to be announced soon.

Still on the international front, an imminent creative and professional exchange: The Hay Festival of Literature, responsible for Britain’s premier literary festival in Hay-on-Wye, will bring five top international writers to Open Book Cape Town. This portion of programming has duly been dubbed “Hay Presents”.

We don’t mean to be funny, but make sure you bookmark it now!