The annual Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), one of Asia’s premier multi-lingual literary events, is set to return for its 18th edition from 30 October to 8 November 2015. A much-anticipated event on the cultural calendar, this year’s edition will see some of the world’s major literary talents as well as our homegrown creative talents celebrate and reflect on our dreams, hopes and aspirations through the theme, “Island of Dreams”. Expect to see more than 100 Singapore and international literary talents such as Gwee Li Sui (Singapore), A Samad Said (Malaysia), Christian Bök (Canada), Dylan Jones (UK), Michael Sandel (US), Deborah Levy (UK), Xu Zhi Yuan (China), and Goenawan Mohamad (Indonesia).
Returning to its old home in the Empress Place district, this year’s Festival is helmed by new Festival Director, Yeow Kai Chai. The 10-day Festival will be an exciting meeting point of writers, academics and thinkers, as well as a platform for commissions and first-time collaborations. New additions include What I love about you is your attitude problem – SWF’s first overnight programme curated by Huzir Sulaiman and Checkpoint Theatre, and Dimensions & Demons – a creative mashup of original compositions by Singaporean musicians and writers, and co-presented with Esplanade.
Festival goers can look forward to a diverse range of panel discussions, workshops, lectures and performances that are broadly categorised under SWF Stage, SWF3 (SWF For Families), SWF Beyond, SWF Class as well as SWF POP, a series of pop-up literary events that are already underway.
The 10-day event is one of the few literary festivals in the world that is multi-lingual, celebrating works in Singapore’s official languages – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.