Literary Festival returns with writers from Lusophone countries

Valério Romão (left)

The 12th Macau Literary Festival is slated to feature writers from the Greater Bay Area and the Portuguese-speaking community after three editions of only featuring local writers due to the border restrictions.

To be held from October 6 to 15, the festival will be based, initially, at the Portuguese Bookshop, from October 6 to 8, and then at Casa Garden, the headquarters of the Orient Foundation, over the weekend of October 13 to 15.

The centenary of the birth of Henrique de Senna Fernandes marks the festival’s opening session through the launch of the first book of essays on the writings of the celebrated Macanese storyteller.

Meanwhile, Portuguese authors Francisco José Viegas will return to The Script Road, after his first participation in 2015 in the festival. He returns to talk about his most recent crime novels, Melancholia and Light in Beijing, and also to present two works from the Quetzal publishing house he runs: The Game of Hide and Seek, a posthumous novel by Fernando Sobral previously published in fascicles by Hoje Macau newspaper; and Journeys Around the World, by the Count of Arnoso, which portrays Macau and China at the end of the 19th century.

Also coming from Portugal are Valério Romão and Patrícia Portela, two young writers who have in common the originality of their works and a substantial knowledge of Macau.

António Caeiro, another guest, is a veteran of journalism having worked for many years in China. At the festival he will present his latest work, The Refugees of Shanghai.

Coming from the Greater Bay Area will include Deng Yiguang, an ethnic Mongolian writer born in Chongqing and now based in Shenzhen, is an author who has already been awarded the Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of the most important in China.

His novels have been translated into several foreign languages and have often been adapted into films.

Fu Zhen, a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, now based in Hong Kong, will come to Macau to talk about her first novel, Zebra, as well as the various travel books she has published.

Wang Weilian, who was awarded the Mao Dun Literary Prize for Newcomers and the gold medal in China’s most important literary competition for science fiction; and Zhu Shanbo, author of several historical novels and short story collections will also be part of the festival.

Alongside contemporary literature, tributes will be paid to great names of the past including: Camões, Shakespeare, W.H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien.