ICORN in focus at Sydney Writers Festival
Sydney Writers' Festival is the largest literary Festival in Australia, and one of the top five literary Festivals in the world. On Thursday 19 May, ICORN ambassador, Anna Funder, introduces the panel Writers in Danger.
ICORN Executive Director, Helge Lunde, says:
“For a long time, ICORN has been working towards establishing cities of refuge in Australia. The focus on ICORN and the situation of writers at risk at this important festival is an essential driver for our continuous efforts to recruit cities in Australia, to host persecuted writers and artists.”
In the panel, Julian Burnside QC speaks to writers who are all too familiar with the fight for free expression. It includes Xu Zhiyuan, described by artist Ai Weiwei as ‘the most important Chinese intellectual of his generation’, Indian authors Samanth Subramanian (This Divided Island) and Deepti Kapoor (A Bad Character), and North Korean dissident Yeonmi Park (In Order to Live). In the introduction, Funder will be talking about ICORN and the many writers and artists in the network who are persecuted for giving voice to thoughts, ideas, debate and critique and thus become particularly vulnerable to censorship, harassment, imprisonment and even death, where authorities and groups clamp down on free speech.
Anna Funder
Anna Funder is one of Australia’s most acclaimed and awarded writers. Her 2012 novel All That I Am won the Miles Franklin Prize, the West Australian Premier’s Prize, the Indie Book of the Year, the Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Book of the Year and many others. Anna’s Stasiland, hailed as ‘a classic’, won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize. Both are international bestsellers and are published in 20 countries. Anna is a former DAAD and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, a Luminary of UTS. Celebrated author and a dedicated lawyer and human rights activist, Funder has during the past few years been strongly involved in ICORN’s work for persecuted writers and is vital in the work to establish cities of refuge in Australia.
Sydney Writers’ Festival
Sydney Writers' Festival is the largest literary Festival in Australia, and one of the top five literary Festivals in the world. It brings some of the biggest names in literature to Sydney for one week of inspiring talks, panels and performances. The festival began in January 1997 and presents more than 300 events with over 400 participants in a week designed to stimulate, move, inspire and provoke.
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