Irrawaddy Literary Festival

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival is a not-for-profit event run entirely by volunteers which celebrates Myanmar and international writers. It is planned to take place regularly every one or two years in Myanmar. The inaugural Festival was described by the (then) British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as having “achieved more for freedom of speech in one afternoon than most of us manage in a lifetime.”[1] The inaugural Festival was held at the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon, subsequent Festivals have been held at the Mandalay Hills Resort Hotel in Mandalay.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Festival Patron, and Jane Heyn, Festival Founder

The Festival was founded by Jane Heyn, wife of the former British Ambassador to Myanmar, in 2013, and is supported by Festival patron and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fifth Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place 9-11 November 2019. This Festival marked the transition of the Festival from the international board of trustees (of the Irrawaddy Literary Festival Chartable Trust) to local Myanmar organisers, led by Sayar U Nay Oke (https://www.buzzsprout.com/138215/723299), thus fulfilling the wishes of the Festival's founders and patron. This fifth and final Festival under the auspices of the international board of trustees was described by participant and Asia editor at The Times (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/richard-lloyd-parry?page=1), Richard Lloyd-Parry, as "uniquely charming" (https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3038974/myanmars-irrawaddy-literary-festival-politics-and-social).

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival is thought to be unique among literary events around the world. Unlike other festivals, all board members, organisers, staff and speakers are volunteers and receive no form of payment for their participation. All sponsorship funding is used to produce the Festival; no salaries or fees are paid to anyone involved and attendance at all events is totally free.

In 2016 the Festival became a UK registered charity - Irrawaddy Literary Festival Charitable Trust (registered charity number 1168517).

On 2 May 2018 at a press conference held in Yangon, the trustees of the Irrawaddy Literary Festival Charitable Trust and the Myanmar organisers announced the establishment of a Myanmar Board which would assume responsibility for the organisation of future Festivals. This was in line with the original vision for the Festival, established by the founding director Jane Heyn and the Festival's patron, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Myanmar board is headed by chair, Saya U Nay Oke and vice-chair Dr Aung Myint.

The Myanmar Board invited the international Board of Trustees to continue its work in facilitating the participation of international writers at the Festival. The international Board of Trustees confirmed that it was very happy to agree to this request and to identify and support top international authors for future Festivals.

The Festival presents three days of discussion panels, workshops and individual talks from the authors, along with a variety of cultural activities: film screenings, photography and art exhibitions and street entertainers. Local businesses join the three-day event by setting up food and handicraft stalls. The participating international authors' books are imported and available at the Festival's abundance of bookstalls alongside the works of hundreds of Burmese writers.

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival has received significant attention from global news and journalism organisations such as the BBC,[2] CNN,[3] Wall Street Journal,[4] the Guardian,[5] the New York Times,[6] and the New York Review of Books.[7]

It has also been rated as one of the world's best Literary Festivals in the Sunday Times, Time Magazine,[8] Time Out,[9] the South China Morning Post,[10] the book lovers website Novelicious,[11] Asia House[12] and the Festival Sherpa[13] website.

2013
Aung San Suu Kyi's arrival

In 2013 the first Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place from the 1st to the 3rd of February in the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was the Festival’s key note speaker. Other participants included Wild Swans author Jung Chang, A Suitable Boy author Vikram Seth, and historian William Dalrymple. Burmese writers included Thant Myint-U, author of The River of Lost Footsteps, and Pascal Khoo Thwe, author of From the Land of Green Ghosts. Also in attendance was BBC journalist Fergal Keane, and photojournalist Thierry Falise.

The Festival drew a crowd of approximately 10,000 attendees, and was considered a significant indication of the relaxation of Burmese censorship laws: a process which had begun in the preceding two years, following the release in November 2013 of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

2014

The second Irrawaddy Literary Festival hosted an equally high profile list of participants, with Aung San Suu Kyi, Jung Chang, and Fergal Keane returning as keynote speakers, along with newcomers Louis De Bernieres (Captain Corelli's Mandolin), Polly Devlin (All Of Us There) and Caroline Moorehead (Martha Gelhorn: A Life).

The event was initially due to take place in the Kuthodaw Pagoda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Mandalay, however, permission that had previously been granted was retracted a day before the opening of the Festival. The ILF was then relocated to the Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel, where the event opened less than one hour behind schedule.

2015

The third Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place in Mandalay — at Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel — from 28 to 30 March 2015. International award winning authors and journalists took part, including Louis de Bernières (Captain Corelli's Mandolin), Anne Enright, (The Gathering), Barnaby Phillips (Another Man's War), Ratna Vira (Daughter by Court Order), Colin Falconer and Margaret Simons. They were joined by scores of Burmese writers of every genre many of whom travelled from all parts of the country to take part alongside their international counterparts. Just some of the highly respected names included Pe Myint, Khin Maung Nyo, U Nay Oke, Soe Lin, Thantzin, Nay Phone Latt, Nyein Way, Aung Gyi, Thint Naw, Thin Ma Ma Khaing and many more. A team of thirty volunteer interpreters again provided simultaneous translation for audiences throughout the Festival's three day packed programme.

2017

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival 2017 was held from 3–5 November. It followed the established model of a three-day free to enter event with simultaneous interpretation available in all sessions. Over 4000 people attended, the majority from Myanmar but with a strong turnout of international visitors too. The programme included sessions on inter-communal violence and reconciliation with participation by senior representatives of the Buddhist and Muslim faiths. In addition to the programmed sessions there were popular informal speaking opportunities at Speakers’ Corner[14] and (new for 2017) Poets’ Corner in the grounds of the hotel.

This year’s gathering included Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler,[15] Jung Chang (Wild Swans) Keggie Carew (Dadland) and a host of other well-loved international writers. Participants were no less stellar on the Myanmar side (nearly one hundred writers) including Shwegu May Hnin, Ju, Nay Phone Latt, Yin Yin Nu, Ponnya Khin, Yi Yi Mon; these are just some of the names who thrilled audiences and left everyone clamouring for the dates of the fifth Festival.

The Festival is made possible by donations and support in kind from local and international well wishers including Max Myanmar Holdings, the US Embassy, the University of Melbourne and Manchester Metropolitan University, KBZ Bank, Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel and Eden Group.

2018 and 2019: next festival 9–11 November 2019

As noted above, on 2 May 2018 at a press conference held in the Pullman Centrepoint Hotel in Yangon, the international trustees of the ILF Charitable Trust and the Myanmar chair and vice-chair of the newly formed Myanmar Board of the ILF, came together to announce the official transfer of the Festival's organisation to the Myanmar Board. This move was in line with the original vision of the founding director, Jane Heyn, and the Festival's patron, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to transfer the Festival's organisation to a Myanmar Board to assume responsibility for all aspects of the Festival in Myanmar. All parties were agreed that the Festival's ethos of being free to enter, paying no salaries or fees to anyone should continue.

The International Board of Trustees was delighted to agree to the Myanmar Board's request that it continue to identify and support top international writers for future festivals. The two boards committed to work closely together meeting on monthly basis to design and deliver the next Festival. All parties were agreed that the Festival's ethos of being free to enter, paying no salaries or fees to anyone involved, should continue.

2019

The Fifth Festival took place from 9-11 (inclusive) November 2019 at the Mercure Mandalay Hotel (formerly Mandalay Hills Resort Hotel) in Mandalay. The three day programme of events included the usual mix of panel discussions, individual readings, workshops, poetry, films, exhibitions and book stalls. Around eighty Myanmar and thirty international writers took part, with simultaneous interpretation once again for all sessions. Award winning writers, journalists, playwrights, and documentary makers who took part praised the Festival's egalitarianism, warmth and charm.

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival has been featured in:

References
  1. http://irrawaddylitfest.com/
  2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21322997
  3. http://travel.cnn.com/aung-san-suu-kyi-draws-thousands-myanmars-first-literary-festival-137776
  4. https://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2013/02/01/myanmars-reforms-lead-to-its-first-literary-festival/
  5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/03/burma-literary-festival
  6. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/world/asia/07iht-letter07.html?_r=0
  7. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/burma-new-start-mandalay/
  8. "Four Literary Festivals You Wont Want to Miss".
  9. "The Rise of Asian Literary Festivals".
  10. "The Best of 2014's Literary Festivals in Asia".
  11. "25 of the Best Annual Book Festivals Around the World".
  12. "Top of the Book Bunch: Asia's Best Literary Festivals".
  13. "Reader's Paradise: 10 Brilliant Book Festivals From Around the World".
  14. "http://www.mizzima.com/news-opinion/culture-shock-irrawaddy-literary-festival". Archived from shock: Irrawaddy Literary Festival the original Check |url= value (help) on 2013-06-04. External link in |title= (help)
  15. "Myanmar-Burma, Rohingya (the Muslim people) & Rakhine State (the area where they live)". tonywheeler.com.au. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017.
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