PUBLISHING FORUM

A rich line up of speakers will participate in the Publishing Forum at this year’s annual Time of the Writer international writers’ festival.

This acknowledges publishing as one of the central elements in the development of a local literary culture. The festival is hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and made possible through core funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and other valued partners.

The intensive programme, which is free and open to the public and aspirant writers, takes place on tomorrow, March 17 at the Centre for Creative Arts, Howard College, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mazisi Kunene Avenue from 09h00 to14h15.

With his experiences as a first-time author providing a backdrop, festival writer Sifiso Mzobe discusses publishing and distribution challenges between 09h00 and 09h30. From 09h30 to 10h00, Selling where it counts! is the title of discussion which sees popular, humorous cartoonist Qaps Mngadi, chatting about entrepreneurial retail outside the malls.

The Publishing Forum will also include Nigerian-born South African publisher, producer, presenter, actress and entrepreneur, Moky Makura. In a discussion titled Romancing the Streets! The NollyBooks Revolution, commencing at 10h15, Makura chats about the growing sensation of the new NollyBooks romance series.

Phindi Dlamini (NuTrend) will follow at 10h45 with a discussion on African children and the fun of reading that sheds light on the pertinent issues around children’s publishing in indigenous languages. What will it mean to be a bookseller in 10 years’ time? is the title of the conversation taking place between 12h00 and 12h30, which will see a joint discussion with Cedric Sissing and Peter Adams, both from Adams Books.

The digital future in publishing will be explored from 12h30 to 13h00, under the heading Is the book as we know it dead? with Wesley Thompson (Pan McMillan) offering an outlook for the future publishing landscape. In light of a society that’s ever advancing technologically, and the proliferation of literary blogs, Etienne van Heerden will talk from 13h15 about what it takes to create successful online journals and communities. Lastly, there will be a joint panel titled Write what you like, but write it well, with a renowned writing expert.

A key component of the festival is the wide-reaching day activities spread across Durban and surrounding areas. These activities, in the form of workshops and seminars, are free of charge and offer pertinent interaction between festival writers, scholars and community members. For example, workshops taking place at the BAT Centre on Saturday, March 19, are just a glimpse of the exchange of artistic perspectives and processes that are enabled through the festival. While the Writing in Our Tongues workshop (10h45 to12h15) sees the discussion of commercial and literary opportunities for writers in indigenous languages, the Creative Writing (12h30 to 14h30) workshop gives aspirant writers first-hand insight on the creative processes that inform festival writers’ literary works.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 14th Time of the Writer is supported by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (Principal Funder), the Department of Arts and Culture, City of Durban, the French Institute of South Africa, Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS), National Arts Council. For more details, click on the Centre for Creative Arts advert at the top of this page which will direct you to their site, and on to the Time of the Writer section.