Happy New Year!

So here we are, 10 days in to 2011, and only 56 days away from the start of the eleventh Hong Kong International Literary Festival!

We have been busy over the festive season adding new events to our line up and gearing up for the opening of general ticket sales on 16th January 2011 on Cityline. The holidays also provided time to reflect on 2010 and some of the great novels that have been published this past year. Sifting through the numerous 'Best of 2010' lists, a few names seem to crop up time and again; writers such as Jonathan Franzen, Howard Jacobson, and Festival participant Emma Donoghue for her novel 'Room'. Also announced at the end of last year was the Longlist for the Man Asian Literary Prize, judged by Festival participants Monica Ali, Hsu-Ming Teo and Harvard professor Homi K. Bhabha. It is hard to pick a favourite book of 2010 but we would love to hear your suggestions, the Guardian has an interesting list here which shows the great range of books published in 2010, including a contribution from former HK Governor Chris Patten.

As well as looking at writers from last year, HKILF has also been nurturing the talent of the Hong Kong writers of the future! In partnership with Hong Kong libraries, the Festival is hosting a series of workshops for children in Primary 4-6 to improve their creative writing and poetry skills. Two series run by Susan Scarlata, Timothy Kaiser and Brendan Benson allow the budding writers to let their pen and imagination collide on the page. We are certain there are some future Festival authors amongst this bunch!