Sri Lanka Galle literary festival 2010 to showcase crime, pulp literature

Dec 15, 2009 (LBO) – Famous, if fictional detective John Rebus, finely illustrated graphic novels and sensational pulp fiction are billed to make Sri Lanka’s next literary festival a tourist draw card. South Asian writers including Mohamed Hanif, (A Case of Exploding Mangoes), Rana Dasgupta (Tokyo Cancelled), Amit Varma (My Friend Sancho) will attend the 2010 festival.

SriLankan writers Ameena Hussain, Michelle de Kretser, Shyam Selvadurai, Ashok Ferrey and Ru Freeman are also slated to participate.

The festival is to be held from January 28 to February 1, 2010.

Tourism draw-card

Each year 3000 visitors travel to the Southern Sri Lankan city of Galle for the literary festival. Organisers hope they will attract similar numbers again, if a hotly contested election for Sri Lankan president does not intervene.

The festival was moved by a day on account of the election being held on January 26.

"No writers have cancelled on account of the election," Galapatti said.

Hotels in Galle meanwhile, already in peak tourist season, are expected to run at close to full capacity promising signs for an industry just recovering from the effects of a three decade war. <