Open Book Festival 2015

The Open Book Festival (OBF) ran from 9 to 13 September and attracted just over 9 800 people and 166 participants to the core programme. There was a strong international presence this year, with 26 participants from all over the world, including the UK, USA, Ukraine, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, China, Nigeria, France, Switzerland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Festival goers experienced true Cape Town weather with a day from every season, but come heat, rain or wind, the OBF was set to be a success.

The core programme consisted of 123 events showing a variety of topics on all things literary. “Each year we learn a tremendous amount which goes into our thinking for the following year. Our approach is streamlined annualy which makes the experience a smoother one, and which enables us to pilot new ideas. This year we had a Kidzone for the first time and while it was a small start, it is an area we are excited to grow in the future. We are also very happy that we were able to contribute towards travel expenses, allowing for more people to get to the festival, who would otherwise be unable to do so. Again, this is an area we hope to grow in the future,” says organizer of OBF Frankie Murrey.

As for my time at the OBF, it was an interesting and worthy trip into
Cape Town. First on the menu was a combination of two of my favorite things in life: Food and Fiction. Karina Szczurek was joined by celebrity chef Jenny Morris and writer Kathryn White at the much-loved indie bookshop The Book Lounge. Jenny truly lived up to her title as the Giggling Gourmet with wonderful stories from her many culinary adventures. She also shared her secret ingredient to a good meal: good company. Kathryn left the audience hungry to read her latest book Anna Peters’ Year of Cooking Dangerously which isn’t your typical cookbook, but rather a food diary. Both authors agreed that the creative process of writing a cookbook is very different from any other type of book, but every step is simply delicious.

Moving to the Fugard theatre, Drie vars stemme (Three new voices) proved that Afrikaans is still very much alive in South African literature. Lien Botha (Wonderboom), Debbie Loots (Split) and Dalena Theron (Huisies van papier) spoke to Elmari Rautenbach about their debut novels. It took both Lien and Debbie very long to start writing. Dalena, on the other hand, was simply ready to start very early and just had to get her story out there. Although it was a challenge for them all, they agreed that writing a novel was an interesting and exciting journey and emphasized that you should stick with what you know.

Kerneels Breytenbach led Skop, skiet en bier a discussion with well-known Afrikaans crime writers Martin Steyn and Rudie van Rensburg. Other than one might expect, both writers tend not to plan the storyline ahead, in Rudie’s words “die pen kry ʼn lewe van sy eie” (his pen gets a life of its own) and Martin doesn’t bind himself to one character. When the storyline allows or needs it, he will add or remove characters as he goes along. It was clear that both writers enjoy what they do. Martin described his writing process as an adventure that he embarks on himself. To everyone’s delight, both writers are already busy working on their next book. Rudie admits that he never stops writing and that he is, in fact, busy with book number six while we still only have three of his masterpieces on our shelves.

All in all the festival seems to have been a great success and left everyone wanting more. The attendance has this year been the best since the history of OBF and it promises to continue to grow. When asked to comment on the success of the festival, Frankie said, “The festival has four goals: To put on an international festival featuring significant numbers of international writers, to promote local writers to a bigger audience – local and international, to promote a love of books and reading to school learners and lastly, to run a festival that appeals to a diverse audience that reflects our city. In some areas, we certainly attained our goals, while others speak to ongoing work.”