The written word will envelop Durban as writers from around South Africa and Africa arrive in Durban for a stimulating week of books, ideas and talk at the 13th Time of the Writer International Writers Festival (9-13 March). The festival, which is hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu- Natal), will feature a diverse gathering of novelists, short story writers, humour writers and political commentators. Within a precarious funding climate the Department of Arts and Culture has provided valued core support to make the production of this year's Time of the Writer possible and thereby help sustain this important platform which brings literature into the public domain. Time of the Writer will also host a tribute evening to the life, creativity and activism of the late Dennis Brutus as the culmination of a full-day colloquium organised by the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN).

The writers at the festival include Nigerian Uwem Akpan, whose brilliantly-crafted and nuanced debut collection of stories, Say You’re One of Them, won last year’s Commonwealth Prize for Literature Best First Book Award. Akpan’s collection was also selected late last year by Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, a prized honour in the publishing world. Joining him in the panel discussion, “Why I Write What I Write”, will be the Durban-born Imraan Coovadia. Coovadia has established himself over three provoking and intelligent novels, as one of the leading contemporary South African writers. Zakes Mda, a true giant of the South African literary landscape, makes a welcome return to the festival, having just published Black Diamond, which The Weekender called: “a defiantly revealing novel about contemporary South Africa…sane and insane, evocative and hilarious…” The prolific Mda is the author of South African classics such as The Whale Caller, The Madonna of Excelsior, The Heart of Redness and Ways of Dying amongst others.

William Gumede is one of South Africa’s most prominent public intellectuals and was the author of the best-selling Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC and more recently The Poverty of Ideas (with Leslie Dikeni). Gumede will be in conversation with Andile Mngxitama, a Black Consciousness thinker, organizer and columnist. Mngxitama co-edited Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko and is the publisher of New Frank Talk, a journal of critical essays on the black condition. The latest issue of the journal will be launched at the festival. Other launches include Anton Krueger’s debut novel Sunnyside Sal (Deep South) on Friday 12 March and Andy Mason and John Curtis’ Don’t Joke! The Year in Cartoons (Jacana Media) on Saturday 13 March. Mason and Curtis, along with several other Durban cartoonists will also conduct the workshop “Don’t Joke! The Changing Face of South African Political Cartooning” at the BAT Centre’s Mission Control on Saturday 13 March at 13h30. The workshop forms part of a trio organised by the fest at the BAT on the day, the other two encompassing creative writing and children’s writing.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 13th Time of the Writer festival is funded principally by the Department of Arts and Culture, with valued support from Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS), French Institute of South Africa, Centre for Civil Society (UKZN), and the City of Durban.