And Now? International Congress of the Literary Sector in a Time of Political Upheaval

Ismail Mahomed, Durban, South Africa:
Reflections on Arts & 30 years of South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy: From Protest Art to Defending Democracy

Ismail Mahomed will reflect on the challenges faced by the Time of the Writer festival and Poetry Africa and on the role played by artists and cultural organisations drawing on protest art in the struggle for liberation and the dawn of South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy. He will engage with how artists have assumed a new role in defending democracy in a post-apartheid South Africa. His presentation will also focus on how State arts funding post-1994 has both supported and diminished artistic freedoms & practices.  

Morgan Entrekin, New York, USA: 

On challenges as a publisher in the USA today. Over 4 million titles a year are now published in the US – the vast majority self-published, with AI a fast-growing factor. Meanwhile, professional book reviews are disappearing. How will readers find good books, and how will publishers reach them? Grove Atlantic’s Morgan Entrekin on the challenges facing all publishers, how independent publishers may have an advantage over the corporate behemoths, and the role independent bookstores will have in the future.

Emily Firetog, New York, USA:

With AI changing the way readers find websites, and internet users more siloed, it’s harder than ever for an independent website to reach readers – especially a niche literary website focused on books, in an industry that is itself struggling. Literary Hub’s Emily Firetog on how a small literary website found its audience and what it’s doing to keep them engaged.

Leslie Hurtig, Vancouver, Canada:

Challenges Facing the Vancouver Writers Fest from 1988 to today and on curating literary events in tumultuous times. I see my job as finding a balance in the types of events we offer: Some people read to educate themselves or to invigorate their advocacy; some read to walk in the shoes of others–to gain empathy; and many read to escape–to be entertained and to leave the tumult behind for just a few hours. 

Pablo Maurelle, Valdarnos, Italy:
Santa Maddalena Foundation and the Library in the Woods

In the woods of the Valdarnos, about an hour away from Florence, stands the Santa Maddalena Foundation, one of the most prestigious writers’ retreats in the world. Since 2000, Santa Maddalena has been hosting literary talent from all over the world, including Pulitzer, Booker and Nobel Prize winners. With the recent inauguration of the Library in the Woods and its series of conversations, the Foundation looks ahead into the future.

Steve Wasserman, Berkeley, USA

Moderation: Leslie Hurtig

Language: English