The George Town Literary Festival is an international literary festival celebrating world literature, translations and literary arts. Held annually in the UNESCO World Heritage site of George Town, Penang, the festival was awarded ‘The International Excellence Awards 2018 for Literary Festival’.
The GTLF is an initiative by the State Government of Penang and remains one of the few free festivals open to the public. Since its first edition in 2011 with only five writers, the GTLF has grown to become Malaysia’s largest literary festival and one of the best literary festivals in the world.
Join Tilted Axis at the following panels:
25th November, 11: 30AM- 12:30pm. Venue: Bangunan UAB - Multipurpose Hall (1st Floor)
Decolonising the Culture Industry with Bilal Tanweer, Kristen Vida Alfaro, Nadira Ilana, Ivor Indyk. Moderator: Nithiya Muthusamy
The power structures of the culture industry are entrenched in paradigms of imbalance and underrepresentation. Shaped by the legacy of colonialism and imperialism, and driven by the machinery of commercialism, cultural production prioritises accessibility and marketability for mainstream audiences. How can writers, translators, publishers and filmmakers disrupt these hegemonic forces and affirm a polyphony of voices in a reimagined cultural landscape?
25th November, 11:30AM -12:30PM. Venue: Digital Penang - Event Hall
Untamed tongues: the translator as shaman and rebel with Daisy Rockwell, Anton Hur, Nguyen An Ly. Moderator: Adriana Nordin Manan
Literary translators are shamans of meaning and essence, inviting readers to uncharted realms of experience. At the same time, translators are rebels by nature — subverting conventional codes of language and introducing the unfamiliar into our vocabularies of literature. We speak to three masterful translators on the wild interplay and tensions of these two impulses — to render a text understandable and enjoyable in another language while challenging the limitations of language itself.
26th November, 10-11AM. Venue: Bangunan UAB - Multipurpose Hall (1st Floor)
Writing as Wilderness and Freedom by Geetanjali Shree
Celebrated author and 2022 International Booker Prize Winner, Geetanjali Shree, reflects on writing as an act of freedom, on the wilderness of inner and outer journeys, the writer's imagination, and the writing in one's mother tongue.
26th November, 5:30-6:30 PM Venue: Victoria Garden, Event Hall
In Your Wildest Dreams and Nightmares with Nguyen An Ly, Saqina Latif, Tan Jit Seng, Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Moderater: Tehmina Kaoosji
What keeps writers up all night? What would you dream if you were granted a dream that would come true? What is the most terrifying nightmare you’ve ever had? This conversation explores how dreams and subconscious longings shape our creative life. It invites us to dream and imagine beyond the limits of the permissible and possible.
27th November, 11AM-12PM. Venue: Bangunan UAB - Multipurpose Hall (1st Floor)
Tomb of Sand: Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell in conversation with Ann Lee
In this special session, Dr. Ann Lee speaks to the formidable writer-translator duo Geetanjali Shree & Daisy Rockwell, winners of the 2022 International Booker Prize. The conversation will focus on Geetanjali’s Shree’s masterpiece Tomb of Sand, the first book written in Hindi to receive the accolade. Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree's playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.
27th November, 1:30-2:30PM. Venue: Bangunan UAB - Multipurpose Hall (1st Floor)
Publishing Southeast Asia with Nora Nazerene Abu Bakar, Kristen Vida Alfaro, Ng Kah Gay. Moderator: Kam Raslan
The literatures of Southeast Asia are as complex and varied as its people and topographies. Yet writing from Southeast Asia is largely overlooked by international commercial publishers, who tend to view Southeast Asia as exotic backdrop for neo-colonial adventures or lesser cultural outposts of China and India. This panel features three publishers breaking new ground by publishing Southeast Asian literature on its own terms for international readership — Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, Tilted Axis Press, and Ethos Books.