Hay Fest Promo

HAY FESTIVAL IN DHAKA

From 15-17 November 2012 at Bangla Academy

come join the fun

	(Top L-R) Vikram Seth, Kamila Shamsie, Phillip Hensher. (Bottom L-R) Gillian Clarke, Mohammed Hanif, Nandita Das.

Vikram Seth's debut novel, The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse was published in1986, but it was in 1993 that his acclaimed novel, A Suitable Boy, an epic tale spanning generations about post independent India propelled him to fame, winning several awards. In 2005 came Two Lives, about his great uncle and aunt's love and lives. In 1983 a travel book, From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet, won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. Arion and the Dolphin: A Libretto was staged at the English National Opera. His poetry collection, The Humble Administrator's Garden, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia). He wrote a children's storybook, Beastly Tales from Here and There, and his latest work is a series of four libretti, The Rivered Earth.

Gillian Clarke is the current Welsh National Poet, she has published a collection of prose, At the Source, and a collection of poems, A Recipe for Water, a novel and the memoir by Kate Roberts was translated from Welsh into English. In 2010 she was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, becoming the second Welsh honoree of this award. In 2011 she became a member of the Gorsedd of Bards, and this year she won the Wilfred Owen Association Poetry award. Her latest book, Ice, was short listed for the 2012 T.S. Elliot Prize.

Kamila Shamsie has written five novels, out of which two, In the City by the Sea and Kartography were short listed for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, while Burnt Shadows was short listed for the Orange Prize as well as translated into more than 20 languages. A trustee of English PEN and Free Word, the association of writers, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is also a reviewer and columnist for one of the UK's leading newspapers, The Guardian.

Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif graduated from the Pakistan Air Force Academy as a Pilot Officer, but chose to pursue a career in journalism instead, going on to work with the BBC among others. His plays have been staged and aired on BBC Radio, and he can also lay claim to fame for his film The Long Night. In 2008, his debut novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel, and in 2011 his second novel, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, was published.

Philip Hensher was born in South London, where he still lives. His books include Kitchen Venom, which won the Somerset Maugham Award, The Northern Clemency, which was short listed for the Man Booker Prize, and in April this year he published Scenes from Early Life, with the protagonist Saadi narrating a rich and textured tale of extended family life in pre-1971, conflict-riven (then) East Pakistan, soon to be the independent nation of Bangladesh. He is a regular contributor to the Independent, the Mail on Sunday, and the Spectator.

Nandita Das is known for her critically acclaimed performances in two of Meera Nair's films, Fire and Earth; with roles in over 30 films, she has acted in ten different languages. In 2008, her directorial debut, Firaaq premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, travelling to over 50 festivals across the globe and winning dozens of awards at home and abroad, In 2011 Das was the first Indian to be inducted into the International Women's Forum's Hall of Fame in Washington, DC. Currently she is touring with the play Between the Lines, which she co-wrote, acts in and also directs.

Between the Lines will be staged at 7 pm, on 13 November, at Dhaka's Radisson Blu. For further details please call 01713017510.

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