Featured photo credit: Naturally Langkawi on website
There’s more to Langkawi than just beaches, cable cars and waterfalls. From 1-4 September, the Kedah island will be hosting its inaugural Langkawi Writers’ Festival. The festival, which will take place at the Auditorium Kota Mahsuri and Balai Seni Negara Langkawi, will host author sessions, readings, book launches/forums, storytelling gatherings, and poetry slams. There will also be an art exhibition, movie screenings, travelogue workshops and an art bazaar.
“Langkawi is very popular among tourists but there aren’t many literature or cultural events here. We planned this festival to attract literature and art-loving tourists to Langkawi,” says Morne Hashim, Langkawi Writers’ Festival director and founder.
The festival, originally planned before the pandemic, will bring together local and international writers from various fields. Bahasa Malaysia and English book literature events will highlight the festival's mostly bilingual programming.
“We want to celebrate curiosity and a sense of intellectual adventure and our programme is driven by the desire to spark ideas," says Morne.
One of the highlights of the festival is a segment with writer and screenwriter Eka Kurniawan. He is the first Indonesian to be longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016 for his supernatural book Man Tiger (translated from his original book Lelaki Harimau).
Another must-do at the festival is to catch author Karina Robles Bahrin, who is based in Langkawi. Her debut book The Accidental Malay, which won the regional Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2022, will be released next month.
The complete list of writers and panellists for the Langkawi Writers’ Festival will be announced soon.
The festival is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, the National Art Gallery, Langkawi Development Authority, Finas, and Morne Gallery.
You can find more information about the festival on the website.
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