Top authors in town for Tbilisi International Festival of Literature
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Dozens of globally recognised authors and poets are coming to Georgia’s capital to meet fans, present their work and discuss all things literature at the upcoming Tbilisi International Festival of Literature.
This year is the second annual Tbilisi International Festival of Literature, held from May 16-21. The festival aimed to celebrate literary creativity, link literature and activism and present authors from other parts of the globe, said organisers.
Over the next six days more than two dozen events will be hosted at a number of locations in capital Tbilisi including the Writers' House of Georgia and Frontline Georgia.
Among 25 famous authors visiting the city is Nobel Prize winning Belarussian writer Svetlana Alexievich and Philippe Besson, the French laureate of the Emmanuel Robles Prize.
French author Philippe Besson will participate in this year’s Tbilisi International Festival of Literature. Photo by Stephane Gizard.
Several other internationally acclaimed names in the industry, such as Hamburg-based Georgian dramatist Nino Kharatishvili, will travel from 15 countries within Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas to participate in the week-long festival.
The literary celebration will also pay homage to Georgian authors including Lia Liqokeli, Dato Turashvili and Lasha Bugadze, while a special group of poets will host a special Poetry Jam+Jazz event, as well as a Marathon of Young Georgian Poets.
The festival’s program will include up to 30 individual events involving local and foreign local writers.
Georgian poet Lia Liqokeli was awarded the 2014 Saba Prize in Georgia for Best Literary Debut. Photo from Katie Tughushi/Facebook.
Within the events Georgian students studying Japanese, Swedish and other foreign languages will also be able to meet authors from these nations and learn about the script.
The week-long festival will conclude on May 21 with a screening of the 1928 film A Woman from Marketplace, directed by G. Makarov, which is based on a play by American playwright and Nobel Prize laureate Eugene O'Neill.
Organised by the Writers' House of Georgia, the screening is supported by Goethe Institute Georgia, the British Council, the French Institute in Georgia, the United States and Italian Embassies, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Book Institute of Poland.
The Tbilisi International Festival of Literature full program can be found on the official Writer's House website here.
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