Day 1 of Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2018

The much awaited Fairway Galle Literary Festival (FGLF) 2018 kicked off its 4 day Festival on the 24th of January 2018 at the Fairway Pavilion among authors, sponsors and Festival friends.  The Festival, on its 9th leg, boasts a diverse range of participants from an eclectic assortment of genres.  

At the Welcome Party, guests enjoyed the music of internationally acclaimed fusion band from Bangladesh ‘Chirkutt’ whose repertoire includes performing at the famous ‘South by Southwest’ Music Festival in USA, India Music Week 2012, Jaffna Music Festival 2013 and the prestigious Indian President House Concert in 2014. 

We caught up with a few authors and attendees at the event to ask a little about their expectations for this Festival;

 “There are so many interesting minds here in Galle right now and I can’t wait to explore what the Festival has in store” – Jill McDonald, Festival Curator 

“The list of authors this time is very, very exciting and as usual it’s a very well organized event and I’m hoping to enjoy the Festival.  Fairway is always happy to be a part of the event!” - Hemaka De Alwis, Fairway Holdings 

“I’m really excited to be here at the Festival. I’m looking forward to Richard Flanagan and being here with everyone. I’m super excited for my session with Shankari who I’ve known for the longest time in the book world because we have the same publisher so we’ve been in touch for at least a couple of years so it will be fun to be on stage with her” – Nayomi Munaweera, Author 

 “I’m looking forward to my events and mostly meeting some interesting people and going to some interesting panels.” – Pankaj Mishra, Author 

 “Looking forward to my excursions and I hope to make some time to catch some of the authors!” – Channa Daswatte, Architect/Author 

“I’m excited about everything. Particularly to speak to Shrabani Basu who wrote Victoria and Abdul. Sadly can’t get tickets to Maggie Smith because it’s all sold out so somebody help me! Maggie! Where are you?” – Ashok Ferry, Author

“I’m delighted to be back at the Literary Festival in Galle. I think it’s one of the finest Literary Festivals in the world! It has a wonderful atmosphere and somehow seems to embody the friendliness of Sri Lanka so it’s a great opportunity for everyone. I’m very much looking forward to my session because the greatest thing about Festivals like these is that we get to meet our readers and it’s such a nice thing” – Alexander McCall Smith, Author 

“I’m looking forward to hearing some Sri Lankan writers, some of the European writers as well and discovering writers from other cultures” – Sebastian Faulks, Author 

“I can’t wait to see and hear other authors. It will be great to meet some of the authors in person and I haven’t been to Sri Lanka in 12 years so it will be great to explore and see how the country has changed” – Nisid Hajari, Author 

“I look forward to meeting a lot of authors, making friends and just listening to everyone talk about books. I’m so excited for my sessions; I have 5 so I will be talking a lot!!” – Shrabani Basu, Author 

Pictures by Manoj Ratnayake