TIME OF THE WRITER PARTNERSHIPS

The 19th edition of the Time of the Writer festival takes place from March 14 to 19 and is presented by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) in partnership with various organisations this year.

The eThekwini Municipality Libraries department has partnered with the Centre for Creative Arts, in supporting the community engagement programme of the festival in which a series of events entitled Conversations that Matter will take place in public libraries around the City. The City will also purchase two copies of each book by each writer featured at the festival which will be distributed to 92 eThekwini Municipal Libraries.

The festival together with eThekwini Municipality has organised a park and ride shuttle service to the various venues. The shuttle will pick up passengers from Durban Centrum Park where they will be able to securely park their car, from Tuesday through to Saturday at both 10h00 and 17h30 each day.

The Festival has also partnered with the Etisalat Prize for Literature, the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first time writers of published fiction books. Etisalat will bring three shortlisted writers for a reading at the Time of the Festival as well as donation of 1,000 books to one of the City’s local libraries.

Independent news agency The Daily Vox will be live streaming the festival and providing a platform for online engagement from audiences.

This year’s Festival Book Drive received support from Independent Newspapers and Gcina Mhlophe’s Nozincwadi: Mother of Books Project, which promotes a culture of reading throughout the country. Through this partnership a rural school will be awarded books collected at events hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts.

Time of the Writer has partnered with the KZN Music Imbizo to present Notes on Music. Each evening a different musician will take to the stage before the nightly panel, to perform a new piece of music based on the artist’s interpretation of the festival participants’ written work. There will also be a short discussion facilitated by Salim Washington (UKZN) and Sphephelo Mbhele (KZN Music Imbizo), with the artist providing some insight into what went into composing that piece of music.

All events are free to library or student cardholders.

For members of the public without either card, a nominal fee of R20 will be requested at the box office one hour before the event. The eThekwini Municipal Libraries along with The Centre for Creative Arts will be on hand at each venue to aid those without library cards to sign up for one on the spot, all that it requires is a valid ID document and proof of residence.

For more details on this years' Time of the Writer, visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za or call 031 260 2506.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University KwaZulu-Natal), the 19th Time of the Writer is supported by the City of Durban, the National Department of Arts and Culture, The Goethe-Institut and Alliance Française de Durban. The Centre for Creative Arts is housed in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is a special project of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cheryl Potgieter.