The 2009 Neustadt Festival

The 2009 Neustadt Festival

of International Literature & Culture

October 22–23, 2009

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22

2:00-3:30pm – A Conversation with 2009 NSK Prize Laureate Vera B. Williams and Author Virginia Euwer Wolff • Sponsored by the Pioneer Library System • Robert S. Kerr Auditorium, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

· Vera B. Williams, winner of the 2009 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, is the award-winning creator of many books for children. Best known for A Chair for My Mother (which was featured on Reading Rainbow), she lives in New York City. Virginia Euwer Wolff, an award-winning children’s author in her own right, nominated Williams for the NSK Prize. Wolff’s latest young-adult novel, This Full House, was published by HarperTeen in January.

7:00-10:00pm – An Evening of Music, Film, Theater, and Poetry • Kerr Auditorium, Sam Noble Museum

· Poetry and music in performance by Neustadt juror Pireeni Sundaralingam and her husband, composer Colm Ó Riain

· A theatrical performance by Neustadt juror Niloufar Talebi and Bobak Salehi

· Screening of Jellyfish (2007), followed by a conversation with Neustadt juror Etgar Keret. Directed by Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret, Meduzot (the Hebrew word for “jellyfish”) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23

8:00-10:45am – Festival Symposium Featuring Readings by the Jury for the 2010 Neustadt International Prize for Literature • Meacham Auditorium, 2nd floor, Oklahoma Memorial Union

8:10-8:55 – Fiction I

Daniel Simon, moderator

· Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador)

· Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia)

· Claire Messud (France/Canada)

9:00-9:45 – Poetry

Jonathan Stalling, moderator

· Mai Mang (China)

· Pireeni Sundaralingam (Sri Lanka/UK)

· Niloufar Talebi (UK/Iran)

9:50-10:35 – Fiction II

Michelle Johnson, moderator