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China Australia Literary Forum 2015
Alexis Wright speaks at the China Australia Literary Forum on sovereignty of the mind
The Third China Australia Literary Forum
28-29 August 2015
The China Australia Literary Forum provides a rare and exciting opportunity for authors from the two countries to meet, exchange ideas and experiences and to develop a deeper understanding of our respective literary worlds.
A collaboration between the Chinese Writers Association and the Writing & Society Research Centre, UWS, the Third China Australia Literary Forum brings an eminent group of Chinese writers to Sydney to meet with an equally impressive group of Australian writers. This year's forum follows the success of the inaugural China Australia Literary Forum held in Sydney in 2011, and the second held in Beijing in April 2013.
The event forms part of a major research project being undertaken by the Writing and Society Research Centre in collaboration with the JM Coetzee Centre at the University of Adelaide, and the Monash Asia Institute at Monash University called 'Other Worlds: Reconceiving World Literature'. This project is being developed by a distinguished group of writers, scholars, translators and publishers: J M Coetzee, Alexis Wright, Ivor Indyk, Gail Jones, Nicholas Jose, Mridula Chakraborty, Chris Andrews, Ben Etherington and Anthony Uhlmann.
Five writers and literary scholars from China and five from Australia will each discuss one of the following questions, or some combination of them: What is the role and function of literature? How does literature imagine and engage with the world? How far is translation possible?
The dialogue that will emerge will help us to develop a better understanding of the nature of 'world literature'.
Anthony Macris on capitalism and alienation
Chinese Participants
Yu Hua,(opens in a new window) stationed author of Hangzhou Federation of Arts and Culture Circle, novelist. Read the feature article on Yu Hua, 'An Honest Writer Survives in China', on the New York Review of Books website.(opens in a new window)
Tie Ning, (opens in a new window) President China Writers Association, novelist
A Lai,(opens in a new window) President Sichuan Writers Association, novelist
Xu Kun,(opens in a new window) Deputy Editor-in-Chief of People's Literature, novelist
Yang Hongke, Professor of Shanxi Normal University, novelist
Chen Hong, Associate Professor East China Normal University
Australian Participants
Alexis Wright,(opens in a new window) novelist
John Tranter,(opens in a new window) poet
Fiona McFarlane,(opens in a new window) novelist
Tony Macris,(opens in a new window) novelist
Mohammed Ahmad,(opens in a new window) novelist
