The Time of the Writer international festival of writers celebrated its 11th edition with a six-day programme of readings, presentations, discussions and book launches nightly at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

As part of the festival’s ongoing effort to promote and nurture a culture of reading, writing and creative expression, the presence of writers was spread across Durban and surrounding areas in wide-reaching day activities that included youth workshops, a prison writing workshop, a writers parliament, a publishing forum, and other seminars and workshops.

With a line-up of 18 new and established writers, predominantly from South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent, the festival provided a stimulating platform for dialogue and exchange between writers, and an opportunity for the public to gain insight into the creative processes and perspectives which inform their writing.

Time of the Writer 2008 was supported by the Department of Arts and Culture, Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS), Stichting Doen, French Institute of South Africa, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, City of Durban, Adams Campus Books, Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Ticket prices are R25 for the evening sessions, R10 for students on presentation of a student card. Workshops, seminars and book launches are free of charge. Book through Computicket Tel: 083 915 8000 or 011 340 8000 or at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre from 18h30. For more information contact the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal Tel: +27 31 260 2506 or +27 31 260 3118 • Fax: +27 31 260 3074 Email: cca@ukzn.ac.za

A Time for Writers (introduction to the 11th Time of the Writer Festival)

It is estimated that around 150 million people live outside the country of their birth, either displaced by war and conflict, natural disasters and the results of climate change, or the search for a life of perceived better opportunities. Cultural permeation is a natural dimension of this increased mobility and a core element of globalisation. Yet despite constitionalised human rights charters, and, more recently, recognition of cultural diversity rights through UNESCO conventions, culture clashes and conservative counter-legislative backlashes are showing an ugly face across the world. Culture clashes are closely tied to power relations, and exploited for political and economic interests. On the African continent where local cultures have been consistently devalued and where the dominant aspirational values appear to be that of consumer capitalism, the age-old competition for resources plays out through culture conflict and racial tension. In South Africa with unemployment running between 25-50% (depending on your definition), volatile spark-points keep society on edge. Racism is disturbingly evident at youth level, and racial tensions have been boiling over in the media and entertainment communities, and against this backdrop let us not lose sight of the proposed amendments to the Film and Publications Act which will require all potentially controversial material to go through a body set up to guard what the public may or may not see, hear or read. Concessions have been made for news media so that news will still be fresh, but the fi ltration process is likely to limit political commentary and analysis, and perniciously clip the wings of writers, journalists, even artists, and certainly social and political activists through self-censorship. Will filmmakers have to submit their scripts, playwrights their plays, musicians their songs? The implications for the hard-won freedoms of this country are serious. Hard truths are sometimes hard to swallow but the danger is that this control of information will sanitise the unpalatable facts, make them digestible, and disposable.

How flat and final is truth anyway? Are there valid differing perspectives on truth, and the ways in which truth can be told? The Time of the Writer festival attempts to address some of the issues around truth and culture in relation to writing, and through the articulations of a gathering of writers brought together here in the city of Durban. What's happening in Africa remains a strong focus of the festival. The tumultuous events and killings following elections in Kenya, with elections taking place in Zimbabwe during the festival week, raise concerns, not just for writers and writing, but for the continent and all its peoples. The experimental Writers Parliament will focus the energies and insights of writers around possible needs for a cultural policy on literature for Durban.

Writers may not solve all the problems of the world, but they are vitally instrumental in highlighting the issues, shaping opinions, and providing the detail and nuance of understanding. It is indeed a time for writers.

Peter Rorvik Director, Centre for Creative Arts

The next edition of the Time of the Writer festival is the
12th TIME OF THE WRITER International Writers Festival 9 – 14 March 2009