The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival returns for its third year, and will be held this month, from March 20 to 30. Every year, the Festival not only brings renowned writers, publishers, translators, and journalists to town, but also filmmakers, visual artists, musicians, and more to venues throughout the city. The third edition boasts a rich programme of events, the majority of them located in the city centre.
Organised by Macau CLOSER’s sister publication, Portuguese newspaper Ponto Final and the Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Festival has the support of The Macau Foundation, Macau Pen Club, University of Macau, the Macau Polytechnic Institute and other institutions. It aims to gather some of the very best Chinese and Portuguese-language writers, as well as English writers in the region, to share their ideas and passion, and most importantly inspire a love of literature in the local community.
One of the writers representing Mainland China in the festival is famed novelist Yan Geling (Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, 13 Flowers of Nanjing), who has just recently published a novel about Macau and its gaming industry, and whose various books have been adapted for the cinema by such directors as Zhang Yimou and Joan Chen.
From Hong Kong comes the renowned and award-winning poet Bei Dao, a writer repeatedly tapped to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Hunan native Sheng Keyi (Northern Girls), the young and talented Jiang Fangzhou (We are Growing), Beijing poet and translator Hu Xudong (The Eternal Inside Man), Taiwanese Yu Guangzhong (Tug-of-war with Eternity), a very prominent poet and translator of British poetry; and Hong Kong poet and editor Tammy Ho Lai-Ming are still more names amongst the luminaries of Chinese-language literature who will all be guests of the Festival.
From Portugal, the journalist and writer Clara Ferreira Alves will attend, along with poet and Chinese-language translator António Graça de Abreu. Also in town will be novelist and musician Afonso Cruz, winner of the European Union Literature Award 2012 for his novel A Boneca de Kokoschka, Brazilian author Andréa del Fuego (Os Malaquias, Saramago Award 2011) and Mozambican historian and writer João Paulo Borges Coelho (O Olho de Hertzog, Leya Award 2009).
Another historian and writer, one who has written extensively about Macau, is Hong Kong’s Jason Wordie (Macao – People and Places, Past and Present). He will join the Festival programme, along with Portugal-based Cuban writer Karla Suárez (Havana Ano Zero, A Viajante).
Macau literature will have a healthy number of representatives on this year’s The Script Road programme, among them poet and Macau Pen Club president Li Guangding, poet and teacher Agnes Lam, poet and University of Macau lecturer Kit Kellen and the Portuguese-language poets Fernanda Dias and Manuel Afonso Costa.
As was the case last year, the local writers and guests from overseas will continually be in contact with local readers visiting local schools and universities to put Macau’s students in touch with books and literature and the writers behind them.
In the realm of cinema, the Script Road is inviting Macau-born director Cheang Pou-soi (The Monkey King, Accident) to come to town and talk about his films.
Illustrator André Carrilho will also join the event, presenting an exhibition entitled “Inertia”, which depicts a number of cities, including Macau, through drawings made during his travels. More art will be on display during the Festival, with the exhibition “Thomas Boswell Watson’s Macau” featuring work by George Chinnery’s most important disciple.
There will also a Book Fair, at the Dom V Pedro Theatre, from March 21.
Events for The Script Road will take place a number of local institutions such as the Macau Central Library, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, IACM Public Library, Rui Cunha Foundation, House of Portugal, Portuguese Orient Institute and the Portuguese Bookshop.
The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival is organised by Macau CLOSER’s sister publication, Portuguese-language newspaper Ponto Final, and the Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau. The Macau Foundation, Macau Pen Club, University of Macau and the Macau Polytechnic Institute complete the Festival’s Organising Committee.