Once more making its base at the Old Court Building, The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival is returning for its fifth edition, bringing a host of talent to the city
Five years ago, this magazine’s Publisher, Ricardo Pinto, and its current Editor-in-Chief, Hélder Beja, embarked on a undertaking that would set the stage for an all new concept in Macau – a festival to celebrate books and authors and all things literature. Since then, The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival has flourished, inviting many renowned authors, poets, journalists and script writers from around the world, with a particular focus on those from Chinese and Portuguese-speaking countries, a nod to Macau’s very unique history and place in the world.
Recognising that literature also impacts on many other fields in the world of the Arts, the Festival has also grown to include much more than just prominent literary figures, also inviting a wide range of other talent, from singers and performers to painters, actors, cinematographers and directors.
Of course, inviting all this talent to Macau is not the goal in itself. The aim has always been to introduce them to the people of this city and to give all of us, especially budding young literary enthusiasts, a rare opportunity to meet with established writers and gain an insight into their worlds, minds and inspirations.
“Year after year, by working with schools and universities, by trying to integrate more associations and institutions, by communicating directly with potential audiences, The Script Road has been growing steadily and we believe there’s still room for a lot of improvement,” notes Vice Director of the Festival, Hélder Beja. “This year’s programme is bigger, longer and, we hope, better than ever before.”
This year, as the Festival celebrates its fifth anniversary, there is once again an impressive line up of more than 40 guests on the way, and a busy program designed to reach out to the community as much as possible.
With strong support from the Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau and Macau Foundation, the Festival has a more international feel in 2016, welcoming authors from Ireland, Australia, Spain, Wales, Sweden, Philippines and the U.S. – some via regional and international collaborations, others exclusively invited by the Festival.
A major highlight will be the first Pulitzer Prize winner to attend the Festival, American author Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master's Son. He also won the 2015 National Book Award for Fiction. He will attend alongside Bengt Ohlsson (Sweden), Jordi Puntí (Spain), Owen Martell (Wales), Jane Camens (Australia), Angelo Lacuesta (Philippines), Ana Maria Katigbak-Lacuesta (Philippines) and Marita Conlon-McKenna (Ireland).
Renowned Chinese writer Chan Koonchung , author of The Fat Years, a novel published in 16 countries, is one of the highlights amongst the Chinese guests this year. Other confirmed names include Chen Xiwo, Zhang Yueran, Zhou Jia Ning, Wu Mingyi, Shen Haobo, Zheng Yuanjieand Yang Chia-Hsien.
On the Portuguese-speaking guest-list, writer and historian José Pacheco Pereira is one of the highlights. Proprietor of one of the most important private libraries in Portugal and author of Communist leader Álvaro Cunhal’s extensive biography, Pacheco Pereira is amongst the most influential intellectuals of our times in Europe.
Also from Portugal, writers Rui Zink, Matilde Campilho, Paulo José Miranda, Pedro Mexia, Ricardo Adolfo, Graça Pacheco Jorge and Luísa Fortes da Cunha are amongst the confirmed names. Award-winning Brazilian author Luiz Ruffato will also attend, together with Marcelino Freire, Carol Rodrigues, and Felipe Munhoz. Ernesto Dabo, from Guinea-Bissau, completes the list of confirmed authors.
As usual, local and Macau-based writers are a relevant part of The Script Road programme. Amongst them are local writers Mu Xinxin 穆欣欣 and Carlos Morais José; renowned poet Un Sio San; scholar, literary translator and poet Carlos André; and journalist and writer Mark O’Neill, who splits his time between Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China.
For the first time, the Festival will pay tribute to two writers from the past. On the 400th anniversary of his death, Tang Xianzu 湯顯祖is remembered as one of the first Chinese authors to have had contact with foreigners in Macau, a city he visited in 1591. Tang, a very famous playwriter from the Ming Dynasty and author of The Peony Pavilion, wrote a number of poems about Macau, immortalizing the city in his works.
Portuguese poet Camilo Pessanha is the other author deserving of the Festival’s attention, 90 years after his death. The author of Clepsidra, who lived and died in Macau, left a valuable legacy still very much studied these days. The Script Road is inviting some of the most renown scholars specializing in Pessanha’s works to join the programme this year – Paulo Franchetti, Daniel Pires and Pedro Barreiros.
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For more details about The Script Road and the complete programme of events go to
www.thescriptroad.org
