Writers like to talk, and people like to talk about, with and through writers. As much as that may be reason to organise a literature festival, it is also why literature festivals and radio programmes can be rather dead boring, especially for the uninitiated outsider. The organisation of Writers Unlimited has found a solution to this: keep the writers short, drill presenters to not fall in love with their own voice forget the audience and switch things up.
A bit of 'De Wereld Draait Door' at its literature festivals. It works.
Most programme sections at Writers Unlimited last edition lasted no longer than three-quarters of an hour. It is the length of time that also counts as a maximum at festivals like De Parade. The secret is that, as a spectator, you never feel like you are missing out on anything because you have accidentally sat down in the wrong room. The informal, low-key atmosphere does the rest. No problem if you come in later in a lecture or a discussion, even if you just interrupt a poet in his second free verse.
The festival's main asset is its guests. Of course, you will also see the usual suspects of book country, but far more fascinating are the many still largely undiscovered writers from countries that we, highly civilised Dutchmen, until recently thought could not write.
In Uruguay, Lebanon or Kenya, the political situation also leads to that writing carrying with it a tremendous thrust. Not that oppression is necessary for better art and sharper stories, but sometimes you wish something of that sheer narrative power would also be shared by writers living in our parts.
Just to talk about that, our poets and writers should all drop by Writers Unlimited.
To listen.
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