TO HEAR lawyer and writer Philip Jeyaretnam (top picture) describe it, this year's Singapore Writers Festival promises to be a heart-pumping one.
The co-chair of the festival's steering committee says: 'The theme is Crossings, and it is meant to evoke the sense of a perilous but exciting movement from the known towards something less well known.
'You might imagine a suspension bridge high above the rapids, swaying a little bit. There is the sense of taking you a bit beyond your ordinary comfort zone, and that is what good writing can do.'
The biennial literary festival, co-organised by the National Arts Council and The Arts House with presenting sponsors Singapore Press Holdings and the Singapore Press Holdings Foundation, has a decidedly Asian focus this year, with most of the featured writers hailing from this continent.
Still, there is a touch of international glamour with quite a few high-profile names, including Wild Swans author Jung Chang, Chinese poets Bei Dao and Wang Anyi, and British writer Kunal Basu.
The local literary scene is also well-represented, with well-known writers like Shamini Flint, Chris Mooney-Singh, Daren Shiau and Cyril Wong launching new books during the week.
Moving beyond the literary, fans of the graphic arts can look forward to talks by American comic book writers Kurt Busiek and Gail Simone.
There is also a handful of returning writers, such as renowned Czech writer Arnost Lustig and Chinese author Su Tong of Raise The Red Lantern fame.
The latter, who was last here in 2003, is an example of a writer who is perhaps better known in another medium - five of his novels have been adapted for film.
He tells Life!: 'I think that's a good thing: It helps me gain more readers. You have to accept the fact that there will always be more people who watch movies than read books.'
But ultimately, the festival still celebrates the written word. One of the festival highlights is the announcement of the Golden Point Award winners on Dec 5.
The biennial competition is for unpublished writers, and first prize winners in each of the four language categories, in both prose and poetry, will receive $4,000 in cash and a $6,000 enrichment grant.
