Seventeen International Authors to Visit Palestine - The Palestine Festival of Literature, 7-11 May 2008

LONDON, May 6/PRNewswire/ --

- The Power of Culture vs The Culture of Power

Seventeen International Authors to Visit Palestine: Mourid
Barghouti, Victoria Brittain, William Dalrymple, Roddy Doyle, Esther Freud,
Suheir Hammad, Nathalie Handal, David Hare, Ian Jack, Brigid Keenan, Jamal
Mahjoub, Claire Messud, Pankaj Mishra, Andrew O'Hagan, Hanan al-Shaykh, Raja
Shehada, Ahdaf Soueif

In solidarity with the Palestinian people

In recognition of Palestine's cultural contribution to the world

In affirmation of the power of the word - And the responsibility of
speaking it

INSPIRED by the call of the late great Palestinian thinker,
Edward Said, to "reaffirm the power of culture over the culture of power."

RECOGNISING the difficulties Palestinians face under military
occupation in travelling around their own country, the Festival will travel
to its audiences in the West Bank. It will tour from Jerusalem, to Ramallah,
to Jenin, to Bethlehem. Sadly, it cannot, this year, travel to Gaza.

PATRONS: Chinua Achebe, John Berger, Mahmoud Darwish, Seamus
Heaney and Harold Pinter.

PARTNERS: the British Council, the A.M. Qattan Foundation,
Bethlehem University, Birzeit University, the Bookshop at the American Colony
Hotel, Dar an-Nadwa in Bethlehem and Yabous Productions. Also supported by
The Sigrid Rausing Charitable Fund, the Ford Foundation, The Arab Fund for
Arts and Culture, and UNESCO.

OPENS: 7 May: Dar al-Tifel al-Arabi Museum, Jerusalem with
readings by best-selling travel writer William Dalrymple, British/Lebanese
writer Hanan al-Shaykh, Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan and others.

RAMALLAH 8 May: Ramallah's own Mourid Barghouti,
Palestinian/American poet Suheir Hammad and British/Egyptian novelist, Ahdaf
Soueif at al-Kasaba Theatre.

JENIN 9 May: Sir David Hare discusses political theatre.

BETHLEHEM 9 May: Roddy Doyle, Jamal Mahjoub and Nathalie Handal with
students at Bethlehem University. Esther Freud, Pankaj Mishra and others will
later read at Bethlehem's Dar Annadwa.

CLOSES: 11 May in Jerusalem with the 'Yasmeen' group from the Edward Said
National Conservatory of Music; readings by each of the Festival authors and
messages from our patrons.

- ALL EVENTS ARE FREE

- For full programme details of the Palestine Festival of Literature
please visit http://www.palestinelitfest.org (from 7 May) or email
palfestinfo@gmail.com

- Strong outreach and education components.

The Palestine Festival of Literature is a project of UK charity, ENGAGED
EVENTS.

Source: The Palestine Festival of Literature

International Media Enquiries, Please Contact: palfestmedia@gmail.com, In London: Fiona McMorrough, +44-20-7405-7422, +44-7887730136, fionam@fmcm.co.uk; In Ramallah: Carol Michael, +970-598-198-392, carolmmichel@hotmail.com; In Jerusalem: Khaled al-Ghoul, +626-1045-02, khaled@yabous.org

2008-05-05 19:04:01 0353177 PRNEWSWIRE