Ann Donald (photo: Izak de Vries)
Ann Donald, organiser of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, tells Naomi Meyer about this year's festival.
Ann, the Franschhoek Literary Festival takes place on 13, 14 and 15 May 2016 – anything in particular festivalgoers can look forward to this year?
Our underlying theme for the festival this year is storytelling in all its forms. We have events planned that consider the oral origins of fiction, stories told through comics/animation/gaming, LARP (live action role-play), as well as events that look at how stories are told in books, whose stories are told etc. Of course memoir is important here, and there are a number of events around recently published memoirs that will be of great interest.
http://www.flf.co.za/
What is the main aim and vision of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, in this country, at this point in time?
The FLF objective remains the same as it’s been since it was launched 10 years ago: to celebrate books and writers, and to promote a love of reading in children. For the latter, the festival’s Library Fund – the recipient of festival profits – has employed a librarian and pays the salaries of community-trained library assistants in the poorer schools in the Franschhoek Valley, and has also contributed more than R150 000’s worth of books, in the relevant mother tongue, to the libraries in these schools. We also host the Book Week for Young Readers, which runs in the week leading up to the main festival, and which takes children’s authors, illustrators and entertainers into every school, interacting with 5 000 learners in the valley. On the Friday morning of the main festival we present a schools’ programme to schools from outside the valley (and to the general public).
http://www.flf.co.za/
You make a huge effort every year to provide a South African audience with a diverse programme. Yet last year there was a lot of talk about decolonising the festival. What is your response to this matter?
Our focus is on presenting a programme that acknowledges and opens up for discussion the key social, political and literary issues of the day. Our programme and panels represent writers and experts from across the racial spectrum to address these subjects. We understand completely the points made about decolonisation, and believe that creating, building and enhancing book festivals is key to reaching and growing the South African book-reading base. The FLF is just one festival: we are delighted to see how many festivals are now starting up across the country – and hope that the experience and knowledge that the FLF has under its belt can be shared with anyone who would like this input.
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