US Embassy supports Galle Lit Fest
January 24, 2011 02:39 pm
The U.S. Embassy in Colombo today announced that it has given a grant of $5,000 to bring 30 students and teachers from all over Sri Lanka to the Galle Literary Festival to be held at the end of this week.
This comes against the backdrop where Reporters Without Borders and a Sri Lankan rights group had targeted foreign writers in a campaign that called on them to boycott the Galle Literary Festival because of restrictions on free speech in Sri Lanka.
Later it is reported that Nobel-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk and fellow writer Kiran Desai had pulled out of the festival.
“They won’t be attending the Galle festival,” Hemali Sodhi from Pamuk’s publisher in India, Penguin, had told AFP. “They won’t be commenting on this any further.”
However the US embassy in Colombo is supporting the festival by affording this grant.
A release by the US Embassy adds that the participants come from the University of Ruhuna, Southeastern University, Sabaragamuwa University, and the University of Jaffna. They will attend a full schedule of events at the festival, meet both national and international writers, and participate in special teambuilding sessions while in Galle.
“For five years the Galle Literary Festival has brought together writers and readers from all over the world to Sri Lanka for free and open discussions about culture, literature, history and politics.
Recently, the Festival has expanded its audience by introducing an innovative children’s program and other forms of community outreach that enable a wide variety of people with differing perspectives to learn from one another.
We support these efforts and hope for broad and engaged participation at this year’s festival. Events like this one can help bring about fuller freedom of expression in Sri Lanka” the statement further reads.
This comes against the backdrop where Reporters Without Borders and a Sri Lankan rights group had targeted foreign writers in a campaign that called on them to boycott the Galle Literary Festival because of restrictions on free speech in Sri Lanka.
Later it is reported that Nobel-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk and fellow writer Kiran Desai had pulled out of the festival.
“They won’t be attending the Galle festival,” Hemali Sodhi from Pamuk’s publisher in India, Penguin, had told AFP. “They won’t be commenting on this any further.”
However the US embassy in Colombo is supporting the festival by affording this grant.
A release by the US Embassy adds that the participants come from the University of Ruhuna, Southeastern University, Sabaragamuwa University, and the University of Jaffna. They will attend a full schedule of events at the festival, meet both national and international writers, and participate in special teambuilding sessions while in Galle.
“For five years the Galle Literary Festival has brought together writers and readers from all over the world to Sri Lanka for free and open discussions about culture, literature, history and politics.
Recently, the Festival has expanded its audience by introducing an innovative children’s program and other forms of community outreach that enable a wide variety of people with differing perspectives to learn from one another.
We support these efforts and hope for broad and engaged participation at this year’s festival. Events like this one can help bring about fuller freedom of expression in Sri Lanka” the statement further reads.
