The eleventh Karoo Writers Festival takes
place in Cradock this weekend.
The Festival started today, 21 October with the
first of the AVBOB Poetry projects for educators, coaches and performers. All the sessions of the poetry project for
the whole weekend have been sold out.
Cradock writers Chris Marais and Julie du Toit will talk about
their experiences, while compiling information for the book, The Flanagen Journey on extra ordinary South
African women who have made their mark in the world.
The Marais and Du Toit authors pair will also
launch a follow-up of their best selling Karoo Roads called Karoo Roads 2.
Another Cradock writer, Freda Frolick, who
has just released her first poetry collection, will speak at the festival and
will, together with Elona Rasmeni – a Cradocker who published his experiences as a
drug addict – and Dean Allen, be the guest of Jurie Taljaard at a 09:30 coffee
show on Saturday morning.
At 11:00, also
on Saturday, AJ Opperman who grew up in Cradock and is now an article writer
in Cape Town, will lift the curtain on the stories behind the stories.
South Africa’s foremost crime writer, Deon
Meyer, who has now also turned to producing films, is a guest at the festival
and will discuss the magic of movies.
The festival, who is named after the writer
Olive Schreiner, celebrates 100 years after her internment on a mountain top
outside Cradock as well as the discovery of the Kate Stewart letters – correspondence between Kate and
Olive.
Discussions about the possibility of
Cradock becoming an arts town, as well as
the development of promoting the Schreiner House Museum and promoting literacy tourism will also be
discussed.
