At this year's Kapittel - Stavanger International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Expression - we are happy to present a wide range of events and voices that will contribute in making Kapittel a truly international festival. The theme of Kapittel 10 is Memory - how does memory work in literature, and how is literature a contributing force for our memory?
Among the distinguished guests hosted by ICORN and Shahrazad is Moris Farhi, writer, Vice President of International PEN, and former Chair of the WiPC, who will deliver this year's ICORN lecture - The Courage to Forget. Mr Farhi's essay deals with the need to forget in peace and reconciliation work. This theme is carried forward in a panel discussion on Forgiveness and Memory with Patrick Maguire (Northern Ireland), Ana Valdes (Uruguay/Sweden) and Basim Mardan (Iraq/Norway).
In honor of the 50 year anniversary of the WiPC, ICORN and PEN is co-hosting a conversation on Writers in Prison between Mr Farhi and Yemeni poet Mansur Rajih. This event is part of the WiPC anniversary campaign, in which Mr Rajih's imprisonment and release has been chosen as one of 50 emblematic cases that the WiPC has been involved with over the years.
In addittion to these events, Stavanger's own ICORN Guest Writer Manal Al Sheikh will take part in the festival opening gala along with some of Norway's most popular writers.
Kapittel 10 opens Wednesday September 22, and lasts until September 25. To read more on these events, go to the Shahrazad calendar. To read the full program, go here . To read an overview of events in English, go here .
