By Smriti Daniel In 2013, the reading of the Gratiaen shortlist will launch a new festival – Standard Chartered Colombo Scope. Author Ashok Ferrey, the man curating what will be the island’s newest literary extravaganza has only a few weeks left to prepare, but he’s envisioning an affordable and varied series of events, bringing together [...]

The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

No GLF this year, but await Colombo Scope

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By Smriti Daniel

In 2013, the reading of the Gratiaen shortlist will launch a new festival – Standard Chartered Colombo Scope. Author Ashok Ferrey, the man curating what will be the island’s newest literary extravaganza has only a few weeks left to prepare, but he’s envisioning an affordable and varied series of events, bringing together artists of every stripe. “I’m trying to represent all the arts, not just literature,” Ashok told the Sunday Times, adding that Anouska Hempel and Anoma Rajakaruna will each be curating exhibitions of art and films for the festival which will run from March 22 – 24 at Park Street Mews. 

Full of plans: Ashok Ferrey. Pic by Indika Handuwala

Not coincidentally, Colombo Scope comes in a year when the Galle Literary Festival is not being held but Ashok is emphatic when he says, “We are not trying to compete with the Galle Literary Festival. As far as I’m concerned nothing can equal it in terms of location or size.” He adds that he feels a personal debt of gratitude to GLF for having promoted local authors like himself. However, with a lot of “disappointed” people missing their annual dose of literature, Ashok felt Colombo Scope would be warmly welcomed.

The British Council and the Goethe Institute have agreed to supply the festival with some of its writers. Since it’s been pulled together on such short notice, Ashok is still in the process of finalising a list. Currently confirmed is young English poet Sean Borodale, Indian author Anjali Joseph and German journalist Carolin Emcke. Sean was recently named a Granta New Poet and shortlisted for the prestigious T.S Eliot Prize for poetry. He is best known for the topographical ‘Notes for an Atlas: Written Whilst Walking around London’ and for ‘Bee Journal’ whose origins were as a working journal, a record of beekeeping and the life of the hive over a period of two years.

Anjali who read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, went on to teach English at the Sorbonne and has written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). Her first novel, Saraswati Park (2010), won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize and India’s Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction. Her second novel, Another Country was long listed for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Though her doctorate was in philosophy, Carolin Emcke has made a career as a war reporter. As a staff writer at the German newspaper Der Spiegel, she focused on writing about war crimes and human rights violations in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, Columbia among other places. Her book ‘Echoes of Violence – Letters from a War reporter,’ was named Political Book of the Year in 2005.

Ashok has great plans for Carolin – he’d like to put her on a panel alongside a spokesperson from the Sri Lankan army and a local reporter to discuss ‘Who Counts the Bodies?’ Ashok believes that Carolin, whose interests as a lecturer include theories of violence, collective identities and cosmopolitanism, fits right in with the theme he has chosen for the festival – Identity.

“I keep saying that we are such a multi-layered and complicated society: we’ve got four of the world’s major religions here and many different races going under this one umbrella. It’s time to figure out and question what we are and who we are,” he says. 

Currently, Ashok plans on staging four panels every day over the three days of the festival – 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. He has lined up Koluu and Rosanna Flamer-Caldera as two on a panel of three who will discuss gender and identity and is still in the process of recruiting four members from the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian clergies for a session called ‘My Life in Robes.’

“At the same time, being a creative fiction writer myself, I also want to showcase fiction writing, especially Sri Lankan writing,” says Ashok, promising to begin with a panel titled ‘Songs from Across the Water’ that will feature the women who he counts as Sri Lanka’s finest poets: Ramya Chamalie Jeerasinghe, Vivimarie Van der Poorten and Anne Ranasinghe will be discussing alienation and belonging. He is also looking forward to putting the six authors on the Gratiaen shortlist on one panel. “I always feel that these shortlisted authors, many of them new authors, sink without a trace. You never hear of them again.” Ashok hopes that this time will be different. A final panel will discuss the adoption of English “as a double edged sword” and its place in contemporary Sri Lankan writing. 

Ashok wants to fill the remaining hours with concerts and performances. He has lined up Lakshman Joseph de Saram and Eshantha Peiris for free lunchtime concerts and has invited local dancers and theatre companies interested in contemporary dance to showcase their pieces in the evenings. He says he is on the lookout for other performers and encourages anyone interested to contact him – this includes young authors who would like to launch their books at the festival. There is also the possibility that the Festival will tie up with the makers of Midnight’s Children to premiere Deepa Mehta’s film in Colombo.

Determined to keep all the sessions affordable, Ashok says they will be priced at Rs.500. However, expect the gourmet dinners hosted by Harpo to be in the $50 – $60 range. Tickets go on sale at the end of January at Park Street Mews, the British Council and the Goethe Institute. The title sponsor of the event is Standard Chartered Bank. Other sponsors include Park Street Mews, the British Council, the Goethe Institute and Samayawardhana Printers. Print sponsors are Wijeya Newspapers.




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