8:00am Friday 7th November 2003
By Adrian Mullen
LASHINGS of literary gems are promised at this year’s Litfest with a range of outstanding British and international writers on the bill.
Starting tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday and running over two weekends (also November 15/16) at Lancaster’s Dukes Theatre, the festival focuses on the nature of memory with two central themes: slavery and remembrance.
From the new energy of the inter-cultural scene, to intellectual and political writers from the hilarious, gutsy and brightest new talents in the literary world, Litfest aims to make its audiences sit up and think.
And once again it pulls out all the stops.
Whitbread Award winner Paul Farley is one of the top attractions and best-selling Saudi Arabian author Turki al-Hamad makes a rare British visit to the Litfest line-up.
His novel Adama, which is the first of a trilogy, is deemed as the most explosive book to come out of the Middle East for years.
Novelist Bernice Rubens reads from her new tome The Sergeant’s Tale, set a year before the Israeli War of Independence in 1947, and outstanding writer Maggie Gee, whose Orange Prize-nominated novel The White Family tackled racism within a British family, will read with both Reubens and al-Hamad.
Popular poetry doesn’t come much better than from the creative mind of Adrian Mitchell, one of the country’s foremost and funniest, and for this year’s festival he is joined by Litfest favourite Rita Ann Higgins, and Kurdish poet Choman Hardi.
Going places Cumbrian poet Jacob Polley makes an appearance, as do Lancaster-based novelists Carol Birch and George Green, and from across the Atlantic, New York word artist Ainsley Burrows and Ghanaian poet Nii Ayikwei Parkes team up for a mesmerising evening, packed with poetic energy.
- For full Litfest details and tickets, contact the Dukes box office on 01524-598500.
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