Pulitzer Prize winners topbill 2nd Manila International Literary Festival
MANILA, Philippines - Two Pulitzer Prize winners Junot Diaz, author of the acclaimed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Edward P. Jones, author of the prizewinning novel The Known World will attend the 2nd Manila International Literary Festival from Nov. 16 to 18 at the Ayala Museum in Makati City.
This year’s theme is “The Great Philippine Book Café,” with a bow to one of the country’s own great writers, STAR columnist Alfred “Krip” Yuson, who wrote the award-winning The Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café.
Diaz and Jones will be joined by other renowned international and local authors, publishers, literary agents, and book lovers to celebrate books, literature, and the writing craft.
Diaz and Jones, are US writers of minority descent (Diaz’s family is from the Dominican Republic, while Jones is African-American). Together with Filipino writer and scholar Resil Mojares, they will be the festival’s plenary speakers. They will speak about writing from the margins. They will also be featured in conversations and book signings during the festival.
Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao follows the life of a geeky, overweight Dominican boy living in an impoverished American district and the curse that has plagued his family for generations. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. Jones’s The Known World is a historical novel that chronicles the ownership of black slaves by free black people as well as by whites. It won the Pulitzer in 2004.
Aside from panels on different topics about reading and literature, The Great Philippine Book Café will also feature performances, book launches, and a book fair. The Festival hopes to serve the literary and publishing communities as a venue to make invaluable contacts and discuss issues important to them.
The Manila International Festival, organized in celebration of Philippine Book Development Month, is spearheaded by the National Book Development Board. For details, call 926-8253 or visit www.manilaliteraryfestival.com.
