The Asia House Festival of Asian Literature, is the first and only
Literary festival
A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings ...
in the UK dedicated to writing about Asia. /ref>
The Festival focuses on the newest and best books about
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
or Asians in an annual series of talks and discussions. Featured are fiction and non-fiction, written by Asians or non-Asians, covering a broad selection of Asian countries from the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
in the West, to Indonesia in the East.
Believing that the most accessible way to understand a culture is through its
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, The Asia House Festival of Asian Literature offers a forum for the people of Britain to gain greater understanding of Asian cultures and of the Asian communities around them at home.
Introduction and history
The first ''Asia House Festival of Asian Literature'' was held at Asia House in Central London, in May 2007. Founded by ''Adrienne Loftus Parkins'', its current Director, it grew as a natural progression of an ongoing literature programme which has been running at Asia House since 2001.
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
has been the media partner of the Festival since its inception. The Festival is also supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England. The Asia House produces the Festival in partnership with The Asian Word.
The Festival showcases both high-profile and emerging authors. Since its inception, the Festival has hosted authors such as: veteran writer/broadcaster Sir
Mark Tully
Sir William Mark Tully, KBE (born 24 October 1935) is the former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi, a position he held for 20 years. He worked with the BBC for a total of 30 years before resigning in July 1994. The recipient of several awards, Tu ...
Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author. Her novel ''The Inheritance of Loss'' won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. In January 2015, The Economic Times listed her as one of 20 "mo ...
and
Aravind Adiga
Aravind Adiga (born 23 October 1974) is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, '' The White Tiger'', won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
Biography Early life and education
Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) on 23 October 197 ...
,
Tash Aw
Tash Aw, whose full name is Aw Ta-Shi (; born 4 October 1971) is a Malaysian writer living in London.
Biography
Born in 1971 in Taipei, Taiwan, to Malaysian parents, Tash Aw returned to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the age of two, and grew up t ...
,
Pankaj Mishra
Pankaj Mishra FRSL (born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014.
Early life and education
Mishra was born in Jhansi, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unioni ...
,
Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo FRSL () born 20 November 1973) is a Chinese-born British novelist, memoirist and film-maker, who explores migration, alienation, memory, personal journeys, feminism, translation and transnational identities.
Guo has directed a do ...
,
Romesh Gunesekera
Romesh Gunesekera FRSL (born 1954) is a Sri Lankan-born British author, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel ''Reef'' in 1994. He has judged a number of literary prizes and was Chair of the judges of Commonwealth Short Sto ...
,
Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie FRSL (born 13 August 1973) is a Pakistani and British writer and novelist who is best known for her award-winning novel '' Home Fire'' (2017). Named on ''Granta'' magazine's list of 20 best young British writers, Shamsie has be ...
Nadeem Aslam
Nadeem Aslam FRSL (born 11 July 1966 in Gujranwala, Pakistan) is a British Pakistani novelist. His debut novel, ''Season of the Rainbirds'', won the Betty Trask and the Author's Club First Novel Award. His critically acclaimed second novel '' Ma ...
,
Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid ( ur, محسن حامد; born 23 July 1971) is a British Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are '' Moth Smoke'' (2000), '' The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' (2007), ''How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'' (2 ...
Will Hutton
William Nicolas Hutton (born 21 May 1950) is a British journalist. As of 2022, he writes a regular column for ''The Observer'', co-chairs the Purposeful Company, and is the president-designate of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the chair ...
Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...
Amit Chaudhuri
Amit Chaudhuri (born 15 May 1962) is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from India.
He was Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia from 2006 to 2021, Since 2020, he has ...
Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli (born 21 January 1969) is a Scottish presenter of Sikh heritage who has appeared on various radio and television programmes.
Background
Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow, Scotland, when he was four. His parents ...
.
Asia House Festival of Asian Literature
2010 Program
Festival features
Features include "Meet the Author" receptions after each event, Panel Discussions, Poetry,
Podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
of all events, and a Children in Asia Series, .
Themes
Overall themes for 2010 relate to Change and Adaptation to 21st century issues, whether they be political, economic, social or cultural.
Debates and discussions in 2010 cover conflict in Kashmir, democracy and freedom in Asia,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, migration and displacement, Persian Gulf economies, and the development of Pakistani fiction.
Authors
The Festival has grown to include events for both adults and children and encompassing music, travel, politics, business, cooking as well as fiction.
Authors appearing in 2010 are:
Fatima Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto ( ur, ; , born 29 May 1982) is a Pakistani writer and columnist. Born in Kabul, she is the daughter of politician Murtaza Bhutto, sister of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and gran ...
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (''née'' Damji; born 10 December 1949) is a British journalist and author, who describes herself as "a leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim...person". A regular columnist for the ''i '' newspaper and the ''Eveni ...
Chang-rae Lee
Chang-rae Lee (born July 29, 1965) is a Korean-American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Stanford University. He was previously Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton and director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing.
Ea ...
Daljit Nagra
Daljit Nagra (born 1966) is a British poet whose debut collection, ''Look We Have Coming to Dover!'' – a title alluding to W. H. Auden's ''Look, Stranger!'', D. H. Lawrence's ''Look! We Have Come Through!'' and by epigraph also to Matthew Arn ...
,
Moniza Alvi
Moniza Alvi (born 2 February 1954) is a Pakistani-British poet and writer. She has won several well-known prizes for her verse.
Life and education
Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan, to a Pakistani father and a British mother. Her father ...
,
Imtiaz Dharker
Imtiaz Dharker (born 31 January 1954) is a Pakistan-born British full time poet, artist, and video film maker. She won the Queen's Gold Medal for her English poetry and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020.
In 201 ...
, Kavita Jindal, Hirsh Sawhney, Glen Peters,
Diane Wei Liang
Diane Wei Liang (born 1966) is a Chinese-born writer living in London.
Life
Diane Wei Liang was born in 1966 in Beijing in the People's Republic of China to an official of the People's Liberation Army,a journalist and Chinese literature professor ...
John Kampfner
John Kampfner is a British author, broadcaster and commentator. He is now an Executive Director at Chatham House, leading its UK in the World initiative. His sixth book '' Why The Germans Do It Better, Notes From A Grown-Up Country'', was publis ...
Basharat Peer
Basharat Peer ( ks}, born 1977) is a Kashmiri journalist, script writer, and author.
Peer spent his early youth in the Kashmir Valley before shifting to Aligarh and then, Delhi for higher education. In August 2006, he relocated from India to ...
, Victoria Schofield, Justine Hardy, Jaspreet Singh, Neel Mukherjee,
Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi (born 9 December 1975) is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. In 2006 she won the Forward Prize for her debut poetry book ''Countries of the Body''. Her poetry book ''A God at the Door'' has been shortlisted fo ...
, Nitasha Kaul, Azadeh Moaveni, Persian Gulf experts Christopher Davidson and Jim Krane, Ali Sethi,
Aamer Hussein
Aamer Hussein (born 8 April 1955, Karachi) is a Pakistani critic Biography Aamer Hussein official website. ...
, Francis Pike and 2008 Man Asian Prize winner Miguel Syjuco.
Children's authors and artists
Elizabeth Laird, Seema Anand, Nilesh Mistry and Prodeepta Das.
Dates
The 2010 Asia House Festival of Asian Literature ran from 5–27 May 2010 at Asia House. Pre Festival events took place in March, April and June, 2010.
2011 program
Authors
Colin Thubron
Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron, FRAS (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to ''The New York Review of Books'',
, Zaiba Malik,
Nikesh Shukla
Nikesh Shukla (born 8 July 1980) is a British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays ''The Good Immigrant'', which features contributions from Ri ...
Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk (born 8 February 1967) is a British novelist and writer.
Childhood and education
Cusk was born in Saskatoon to British parents in 1967, the second of four children with an older sister and two younger brothers, and spent much of h ...
Ali Allawi
Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi (Arabic: علي عبد الامير علاوي) (born 1947) was Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister
He is an Iraqi politician and scholar. From May 2020 to August 2022, he ran as Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister a ...
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include ...
,
Tabish Khair
Tabish Khair is an Indian English author and associate professor in the Department of English, University of Aarhus, Denmark. His books include ''Babu Fictions'' (2001), ''The Bus Stopped'' (2004), which was shortlisted for the Encore Award (UK ...
, and
Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
Early l ...
.
The ''2011 Asia House Festival of Asian Literature'' will run from 10–26 May at Asia House.
Asia House
Asia House is the home of The Festival of Asian Literature. Founded in 1996, it is the leading Pan-Asian organisation in the UK. A
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
, non-political body, its geographical remit extends from the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
in the West to
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
in the East.
Its mission is to “engage with the Century of Asia” by promoting a greater understanding of the distinctive and varied cultures, arts, religions and commercial opportunities presented by the growing and vibrant countries of
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
.
Based in a listed John Adam style 18th century townhouse in
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...
, Central London, featuring a Gallery, Library, Café, and three Fine Rooms, it provides a focal point for people to meet and exchange ideas.