Pooja Nansi will be Singapore Writers Festival director for fifth year
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Pooja Nansi leads Singapore Writers Festival for a 5th year as festival director.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – Poet Pooja Nansi, 41, will continue in her position as festival director for the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), the Arts House Limited (AHL) announced in a press release on Tuesday.
Nansi said in a statement: “It has been a privilege to serve as festival director for the last four years. The SWF is beloved and has been pivotal and formative to my own personal growth as a writer and to the growth of our literary scene over the years.”
Nansi took over from poet Yeow Kai Chai in 2019,
She has championed accessibility for youth and persons with disabilities, enhanced the multilingual nature of SWF through collaborations with mother tongue literary groups and held the first fully digital festival in 2021 amid pandemic restrictions.
The festival, organised by AHL and commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), has brought local and international literary talent to Singapore for workshops, panel discussions and lectures.
Under Nansi’s leadership, SWF reached record audience numbers in 2022, according to AHL. The festival in 2022 took place over three weekends instead of its usual two, drawing more than 46,000 visitors, up from the 25,600 festivalgoers in 2019, the last full-scale edition. It brought in headliners such as Jeanette Winterson, Ted Chiang and Claudia Rankine for sold-out sessions.
Nansi added: “I look forward to working with NAC and AHL in 2023 on an SWF that continues to offer inclusive, engaging and accessible programming for local and global audiences.”
The 26th edition of SWF will take place from Nov 17 to 26.
