Big Ideas

Conversations, Lectures & Debate

Over the years we’ve hosted lectures, conversations, debates and discussions with some of the region’s, and the world’s, greatest minds on a huge range of topics such as human rights, race, the environment, press freedom, political leadership and so much more. In this collection, you can hear from experts and creative-thinkers on a range of thought-provoking and engaging topics, covering history to current affairs.

EWWC Debate: Should Literature Be Political?

Speakers:

Courttia Newland, David Codling, Earl Lovelace, Ifeona Fulani, Olive Senior, Pankaj Mishra

Recorded:

28 April 2013

Format:

Video

Synopsis:

In 1962, in the midst of the Edinburgh Festival of Music and Drama, a literary conference erupted. Writers from Scotland, England, the United States, Germany, and India put on such spirited debates, the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference refers to that first meeting as “”the infamous Writers’ Conference of 1962”. To commemorate fifty years of exciting exchanges about words, books, and ideas, the EWWC took its show on the road in 2012 and 2013. The NGC Bocas Lit Fest was one of fourteen sites around the world hosting EWWC events, and our panel of international writers considered the theme Should Literature Be Political?