There are still a few tickets available for the 2018 Hong Kong Literary Festival, which runs until Sunday, November 11 at its new location at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts.
This year’s event will examine keystone themes such as feminism, LGBTQ+ issues and travel. Organizers have invited writers specializing in a variety of subjects, including music, history, politics, science fiction, poetry and the environment.
Notable sessions this year include the Wall Street Journal’s Tom Wright, who will be talking about “Billion Dollar Whale”; Jonathan Miller, Asia Correspondent for Britain’s Channel 4, discussing his new biography on Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte; Hong Kong-born singer-songwriter Emmy the Great; memoirist and novelist Cheryl Strayed, author of “Wild”; and Irvine Welsh, author of cult classic “Trainspotting.”
The Festival is also holding several workshops for participants this year, including one that discusses how to start a podcast and a “Beginners’ Writing Workshop”. For more advanced writers and editors, there will be sessions titled “Literary Editing Workshop” and “Based on a True Story: Writing Workshop”.
The organizers aim to attract 10,000 visitors to this year’s Literary Festival, doubling the approximately 5,000 who attended in 2017. Part of the reason for setting up shop at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts – a Hong Kong arts and culture hub – is the new venue’s capacity for much larger audiences.
Festival director Phillipa Milne says that bringing the Festival together under a single roof has allowed organizers to build “more of a festival atmosphere” and allow writers to mingle more freely with visitors.
The Festival’s themes this year align with the topical feminism and #MeToo movements, reflecting on current affairs that have ensnared celebrities and public figures the world over.
“While we are a literary festival and the focus is on books, we want people to know that we are also about ideas and conversations,” Milne told the South China Morning Post.
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