International Writers Festival in Durban

Within a precarious funding climate the Department of Arts and Culture has provided valued core support to make the production of this year's Time of the Writer possible and thereby help sustain this important platform which brings literature into the public domain. Time of the Writer will also host a tribute evening to the life, creativity and activism of the late Dennis Brutus as the culmination of a full-day colloquium organised by the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN).

The writers

The writers at the festival include Nigerian Uwem Akpan, whose brilliantly crafted and nuanced debut collection of stories, Say You're One of Them, won last year's Commonwealth Prize for Literature Best First Book Award. Akpan's collection was also selected late last year by Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, a prized honour in the publishing world. Joining him in the panel discussion, “Why I Write What I Write”, will be the Durban-born Imraan Coovadia. Coovadia has established himself over three provoking and intelligent novels, as one of the leading contemporary South African writers. Zakes Mda, a true giant of the South African literary landscape, makes a welcome return to the festival, having just published Black Diamond, which The Weekender called: “a defiantly revealing novel about contemporary South Africa … sane and insane, evocative and hilarious … ” The prolific Mda is the author of South African classics such as The Whale Caller, The Madonna of Excelsior, The Heart of Redness and Ways of Dying amongst others.

Keynote address

The award-winning playwright, journalist and acts activist Mike van Graan, author of plays such as Bafana Republic, will deliver the festival's Opening Night Keynote Address, entitled The State of the Arts. Durban is represented by Sally-Ann Murray, a well-established and prizewinning poet, whose debut novel Small Moving Parts was published last year. Constructed with an astonishing sense of place and detail it is a powerful book that adds a new texture to Durban's ever-expanding literary narrative. Fellow Durbanite Elana Bregin is a versatile author whose work spans youth fiction to genre-bending biography. Her latest novel Shiva's Dance has been excellently received.

Thando Mgqolozana hails from the Eastern Cape and his sensitive debut novel A Man Who is Not a Man tells of the trauma a young Xhosa man experiences after his initiation circumcision goes wrong.

William Gumede is one of South Africa's most prominent public intellectuals and was the author of the best-selling Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC and, more recently, The Poverty of Ideas (with Leslie Dikeni). Gumede will be in conversation with Andile Mngxitama, a Black Consciousness thinker, organiser and columnist. Mngxitama co-edited Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko and is the publisher of New Frank Talk, a journal of critical essays on the black condition. The latest issue of the journal will be launched at the festival. Other launches include Anton Krueger's debut novel Sunnyside Sal (Deep South) on Friday, 12 March and Andy Mason and John Curtis' Don't Joke! The Year in Cartoons (Jacana Media) on Saturday, 13 March. Mason and Curtis, along with several other Durban cartoonists will also conduct the workshop Don't Joke! The Changing Face of South African Political Cartooning at the BAT Centre's Mission Control on Saturday, 13 March at 1.30pm. The workshop forms part of a trio organised by the fest at the BAT on the day, the other two encompassing creative writing and children's writing.

Witty and astute observer

What's So Funny About Africa? is the title of the panel that will have Sihle Khumalo and Ndumiso Ngcobo, two of South Africa's top humourists, in discussion. Khumalo's humourous travelogues Dark Continent, My Black Arse and Heart of Africa have marked him as a witty and astute observer. Ngcobo is a writer and satirist of razor-sharp wit, whose books Some of My Best Friends Are White and Is It Coz I'm Black? contain some of the most irreverent writing currently in South African bookstores.

On Thursday, March 11, the festival, in partnership with the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN), will present a Dennis Brutus Tribute Evening (5.30pm to 9pm), while the CCS itself will present A Dennis Brutus Poetry and Protest Colloquium (9.30am to 5pm) at Howard College Theatre (UKZN). The colloquium will explore aspects of Brutus' political and literary legacy in the robust, self-critical style he would have welcomed, with an emphasis on how his life might offer pointers to our own futures. The Dennis Brutus Tribute Evening at the Sneddon is divided into two sections the first (5.30pm to 7pm), Dennis Brutus: Life, Literature, Politics And Mandates To Us All, features panelists such as Ashwin Desai, Fatima Meer, Trevor Ngwane, Eunice Sahle and internationally renowned sports writer David Zirin. The second section (7.30pm to 9pm) is a Harold Wolpe/Dennis Brutus Memorial Lecture entitled Fighting Global Apartheid by Yash Tandon, the Ugandan political activist, professor, author and public intellectual.

Apart from Uwem Akpan, Africa is further represented by Léonora Miano, a Cameroonian-French author who has written three acclaimed and prize-winning novels and Aher Arop Bol, whose debut, The Lost Boy, about the author's escape from the Sudan is an epic quest for survival, education, family, and meaning.

Readings, discussions and book launches

Readings, discussions and book launches will take place nightly at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A broad range of day activities in the form of seminars, workshops, school visits, and a prison writing programme, are formulated to promote a culture of reading, writing and creative expression. The Hon. Lulu Xingwana, the Minister of Arts and Culture will attend the festival and hand over the prizes for the Schools Writing Competition. The competition, which accepts entries in English, Zulu, and Afrikaans, has, over the years, proved to be one of the central development components of the festival.

Culturally diverse line-up

Time of the Writer's extensive programme of activities and culturally diverse line-up of writers promises to deliver a dynamic literary platform for dialogue and exchange on wide-ranging themes and offers a rare opportunity to gain insight into the many facets that inform the art of writing.

Except for Thursday, 11 March which is free, tickets are R25 for the evening sessions, R10 for students, and can be purchased through Computicket or at the door one hour before the event. Workshops and seminars are free.

Go to www.cca.ukzn.ac.za for the full programme of activities, biographies, and photos of participants or contact the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Creative Arts for more information on +27 (0)31 260 2506/1816 or email .