The full recording of the GAoLF webinar “How is Chat GPT going to change publishing and impact our festivals?” with Chris Singleton is now available on the GAoLF website, you can watch or listen through this link.

Please add your comments and notes on the forum and leave us your feedback.

The next webinar will be on 30 August at 2pm BST which will centre on evaluation, ‘Are literary festivals obtaining the data they need to plan and evolve?’. This enlightening talk will be presented by Culture Counts, a company that enable organisations, practitioners and philanthropists to craft rich evidence-based stories about the value they create. Thank you to Rosemarie Milsom of Australia’s Newcastle Writers Festival for organising this.

Don’t forget to give us your vote on some of the changes that will be brought about by the amalgamation of the Global Association of Literary Festivals (GAoLF) and the Word Alliance.  Please take a moment to participate in this poll so that we can get your feedback. This electronic feedback will be anonymous,  If you wish to comment directly please email Carmel Rosato.

You can vote following this link

Festival News:

The lineup for Read My World has been revealed for the festival taking place between 14^th and 16^th of September in Amsterdam. The theme for this year is “Shivers” and the programme features Kit de Waal, Travis Alabanza, Wana Udobang, Lola Shoneyin, Azieb Pool, Vamba Sherif, Lisa Weeda, Nisrine Mbarki, and many others. This edition of the festival is co-curated by Lola Shoneyin, director of the Ake Arts & Books Festival, Lagos and Azieb Pool, CEO of the Bernie Grant Arts Center, London. International writers and poets including Karin Amatmoekrim, Janice Deul, Alara Adilow, Gerson Main, and many others will share the stage with their Dutch and European counterparts within a rich programme of literature, poetry, conversations, and music.

The Saskatchewan Festival of Words is back in person with an exciting line-up of Canadian authors, performers. Taking place between 13^th and 16^th of July in Moose Jaw, Canada, the festival has a variety of events that celebrates Canadian talents along with award-winning writers, the 4 days programme features Michelle Good, Casey Plett, Mariam Korner, Diyet & The Love Soldiers band, Bob McDonald, Bradley Somer, Ken Carriere and many others,  and the special events include an interview with Angie Abdou, A Trivia Night, A Spoken Word Showcase, an interview with Guy Gavriel Kay and a film screening for the movie “Brothers”.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature has appointed Gene Smith as Head of Programming. Gene, from Melbourne Australia has worked with several Festivals across the world, some of which include the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival as Head of Programming, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, and served as Associate Director with the Melbourne Writers Festival, just to mention a few. He also served as Literature Peer Assessor and a member of the judging panel for the Victorian Premiere’s Literary Awards.

Hay Festival has announced the line-up for the eighth Hay Festival Querétaro in Mexico, with more than 151 artists from 20 countries taking part in person at the event, which runs from 7–10 September. Writers and intellectuals on the list include Hernán Díaz, Liliana Colanzi, John Boyne, Muriel Barbery, Goran Petrovic, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Manuel Vilas, Brenda Navarro, Gaëlle Obiégly, Geoff Dyer, Fernanda Melchor and Irene Solà; scientist Anil Seth; economists Ha-Joon Chang and Thomas Porcher; journalists and historians Carissa Véliz, Andrea Wulf and Fortino Domínguez.’ and Nobel laureates Serge Haroche and Carlos Umaña. The venue for the event, Querétaro, is a World Heritage City.

Henley Literary Festival has revealed its final speakers for this year’s event taking place from 30 September-8 October. The latest big names announced include Rick Stein, novelists Sebastian Faulks and Elif Shafak, singer Michael Ball and Oscar-winning filmmaker Neil Jordan.

Book News:

The shortlisted writers for the 2023 Caine Prize for African Writing were announced and they are: Yejide Kilanko (Nigeria), Tlotlo Tsamaase (Botswana), Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo (Senegal), Ekemini Pius (Nigeria) and Yvonne Kusiima (Uganda).

Award-winning Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina was killed by a deadly Russian missile attack on a popular restaurant frequented by journalists and aid workers in eastern Ukraine, Amelina was 37 and she had in the past year turned her attention from literature to document Russian war crimes after the invasion.

Hundreds of authors, among them are Salman Rushdie, Cheryl Strayed, Carl Hiassen and Ibram X. Kendi, have endorsed an announcement by the American Library Association and the Association of American Publishers that calls attention to the 70th anniversary of a Freedom to Read Statement issued by book publishers and librarians during the height of the McCarthy era.

Writer Salman Rushdie has been awarded The Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for his literary work and for his resolve and positive attitude in the face of constant danger, the jury said the British-American author Rushdie’s writing “combines narrative vision with constant literary innovation, humor and wisdom,”. He will receive the prize in Frankfurt on October 22^nd.

The Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat is this year’s winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, a lifetime achievement honor named for the late writer Bernard Malamud. Danticat often writes about memory and identity, and is known for her novel-in-stories “The Dew Breaker” and for such collections as “Krik? Krak!” and “Everything Inside,” which in 2020 won the Story Prize for outstanding short fiction.

Authors Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company behind the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, claiming that the organisation breached copyright law by “training” its model on novels without the permission of authors. More

Michael Rosen, the author of more than 200 books for children and adults, has won the 2023 PEN Pinter prize for what judges called a “fearless” body of work that provides a “lesson in humanity.” More here

The winners of the 2023 Crime Writers’ Association Daggers have been announced. George Dawes Green won the Gold Dagger for The Kingdoms of Savannah – full line up here

You can explore more content via the association’s website here and discuss topics in the forum with other member festivals here.