SOUTHBANK CENTRE ANNOUNCES PROGRAMME FOR THE LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2011

Thursday 30 June – Thursday 14 July 2011, Southbank Centre

www.londonlitfest.com

‘The capital’s biggest annual showcase of cool writing from around the world’

Time Out

 Over five years Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival has built a reputation as an idiosyncratic fixture on the cultural calendar through appearances by Amartya Sen, Arundhati Roy and Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek. The fifth London Literature Festival takes over the Centre’s riverside venues and spaces once again with events ranging from Alan Hollinghurst’s launch of his first book in seven years, to debates on subjects ranging from cultural boycotts and student demonstrations to a world premiere production of Jeanette Winterson’s Sexing The Cherry.

Writers and speakers for the fifth London Literature Festival include Gilbert & George, Liz Lochhead, Hanif Kureishi, Nick Laird, Ben Okri, Simon Armitage, Ali Smith and Linton Kwesi Johnson. This year’s festival is part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Festival of Britain with MasterCard, and responds to the anniversary through the themes and strands of Great Thinkers, National Treasures, State of the Nation and Futurology.

The Futurology strand imagines cities of the future and a world without oil and follows Iain Sinclair as he investigates what happens when grand projects, like the Olympics, are over and the expo moves on. Under the banner of Great Thinkers Zaha Hadid discuss her global architectural vision, and Lisa Appignanesi discusses the notion of love. The National Treasures strand sees appearances by some of the world’s best-loved storytellers; Michael Morpurgo, Alexander McCall Smith and Philip Pullman, who discusses his new fictional account of the life of Christ. State of The Nation sees discussions on student protests across Europe and the Arab world, the charicature of Chavs as an indication of enduring class divide in modern Britain and an exploration of the secret life of immigrants with Nikesh Shukla.

Jude Kelly, Artistic Director at Southbank Centre, said:

“60  years on from the Festival of Britain, which helped us to re-think who we were, what we looked like and what we hoped for in the aftermath of the Second World War, we explore everything from geo-politics and the environment to the enduring British class system in the company of an unbeatable cast of writers, thinkers, architects and psychogeographers.”

Martin Colthorpe, Senior Literature Programmer at Southbank Centre, said:

“As world ‘history’ goes into overdrive, the London Literature Festival – as the flagship of our year-round live literature series – offers much-needed space beyond reductive twitter feeds and rolling 24-hour news to stop, think and debate the issues that affect all our lives today.”

Southbank Centre’s 21-acre site will also be full of site-specific performances, book groups and workshops, youth programmes, a balloon release and bloggers, projecting the Festival to London and beyond.

Highlights of Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival 2011 include:

• Alan Hollinghurst launches his first novel in seven years, The Stranger’s Child
• Renowned international architect Zaha Hadid discusses her work and vision
• Iain Sinclair imagines London’s future after the Olympic Games in his new book, Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project
• World premiere production of Jeanette Winterson’s modern classic, Sexing the Cherry
• Clare Solomon, leader of the recent student protests in the capital, discusses stories of protest from across Europe and the Arab world and her book, Springtime: The New Student Rebellions
• Owen Jones discusses his first book Chavs, about the demonization of the working class in today’s Britain
• Michael Morpurgo reads from his new book Little Manfred
• Ali Smith gives a specially commissioned talk about text and visual art in the work of artist Tracey Emin, to coincide with a major exhibition of Emin’s work at the Hayward Gallery
• Gilbert & George discuss their extraordinary career with writer Michael Bracewell
• Architect Nicholas Grimshaw and former president of RIBA Jack Pringle discuss the importance of the Skylon, the iconic symbol of the Festival of Britain
• International writers including Turkey’s best-selling novelist Elif Shafak, and an African writers evening with Ben Okri and Sarah Ladipo Manyika
• Poets from across the UK read at the festival, including Liz Lochhead, the newly crowned Scots Makar, Nick Laird from Northern Ireland and Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Simon Armitage, who introduces a schools project with refugee writers
• Hanif Kureishi and Lisa Appignanesi discuss the emotion that rules our lives: love

Tickets for the fifth London Literature Festival go on sale today, Thursday 5 May. Bookings can be made via: www.londonlitfest.com  or telephone: 0870 160 2522