NOW in its ninth year running, the George Town Literary Festival 2019 (GTLF2019) is back in Penang with a bigger line-up of activities and speakers as the annual event grows in popularity.

GTLF2019 co-director Pauline Fan said the four-day festival from November 21 to 24, themed “forewords/afterwords”, will celebrate the various types of literature in Malaysia and from other parts of the world.

“Forewords/afterwords” is also meant to look at the notion of beginnings and transitions, and how history and storytelling support each other.

Fan said among this year’s features were award-winning speakers, such as writer Jokha Alharti from Oman, who won the 2019 Man Booker International Prize; Malaysian writer Saras Manickam, the regional winner for Asia in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2019; and, acclaimed Indonesian poet Goenawan Mohamad.

“We will also have a discussion on the use of dialect in creative works by actors and arts activists, such as Sabri Yunus and Nam Ron,” Fan told a press conference with festival co-director Sharaad Kuttan in Kuala Lumpur to promote the GTLF2019.

She said the festival will also feature a lecture series about translating works and about the Malay archipelago, as well as on Malaysian-Chinese literature.

Fan said GTLF’s popularity and recognition abroad has grown over the years, from its first instalment in 2011 with just a handful of artists and writers.

“GTLF is now well-known at the international level, after nine editions. In the early years, we had only about 10 writers or artists but we have grown and are able to draw bigger participation.

“Last year, we won the London Book Fair International Excellence Awards and I think this has helped the festival gain some prestige at the international level,” she said.

Penang Convention and Exhibition Bureau chief executive director Ashwin Gunesekeran said GTLF2019 is expected to draw some 6,000 visitors. 

“The festival drew more than 4,000 visitors last year and that was just for a three-day programme, so I think this year we can target more with a four-day event,” Ashwin said.

The Penang bureau is in its fourth year of collaborating with the GTLF, which has proven effective in drawing foreign tourists to Malaysia and the northern state, he added.

This year, GTLF is also collaborating with Kinokuniya bookstore Think City. Entry to all festival events is free. Schedules and details are at georgetownlitfest.com. – November 9, 2019.