Even though the Singapore Writers Festival may sound like an event for serious literary aficionados, over the years, the annual festival has steadily built up its younger audience through programmes tailored to little ones between the ages of four to 12 years old.
In fact, Little Lit!, the children’s component of the Singapore Writers Festival programme, has grown so popular over the years that for this year’s festival, it has been expanded to include even more programmes than before.
The Singapore Writers Festival will be held between 31 October and 9 November 2014. The free Little Lit! programmes will be conducted over the two weekends of 1 and 2 November and 8 and 9 November.
Activities being held during Little Lit! include story-telling sessions and hands-on workshops that are sure to spark the creativity in kids and their parents. Normally held at the SMU’s Big Steps, this year, Little Lit! moves across the street to the National Museum of Singapore.
Little Lit! Programme Highlights
In Brave Hearts, storyteller Rosemarie Somaiah will spin tales of young children battling their fears, while Andy Chua will share his love of fossil-collecting and how this inspired his book series, Fossil Finders, in Walking with Dinosaurs. The godmother of Singapore’s storytelling revival, Sheila Wee, will share Awesome Asian Adventures and award-winning bestselling children’s author, Jacqueline Harvey, will conduct a workshop for young writers aged nine and up, Fire Up the Imagination, to hone their skills.
Parents and children can participate in Pai Pai Chor Dialect Nursery Rhymes where nursery rhymes of yore will be brought back to life in different Chinese dialects. ACT 3 Theatrics will hold a 60-minute drama workshop, Upwrap Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!, where participants get to capture their favourite moments from Roald Dahl’s classic and put up a performance for their parents at the end of the workshop.
For the many other Little Lit! programmes, you can also refer to the Festival’s online programme guide.
Award-winning bestselling children’s author, Jacqueline Harvey.
Guide to Singapore Writers Festival’s Little Lit! 2014
This year, we’ve teamed up with Singapore Writers Festival to create a special, downloadable, printable one page guide for all of Little Lit! 2014’s events.
Get your FREE Little Day Out’s Guide to the Singapore Writers Festival’s Little Lit! 2014 Events here now! Click on each of the events in the guide for more details.
Note from the organisers: All participants are required to register for the workshops. Registration opens onsite, 1 hour before the start of the session at the venue. This workshop is limited to 30 participants unless stated otherwise. Please note that only 1 parent or caregiver per child will be admitted to the workshop for children below 8 years of age.
The Prospect of Beauty
This year, the overall Singapore Writers Festival explores “The Prospect of Beauty”. Some of the international authors who will be participating at the main festival include Paul Theroux, American travel writer, Raymond E. Feist, science fiction author and US Poel Laureate Robert Pinsky.
Beyond Little Lit!, other programmes that may be of interest to parents include Writing for Children, a workshop conducted by Sally Rippin, the best-selling author of the children’s series Hey Jack! and Billie B Brown. She will be sharing how to write for kids between six to 12 years old.
Louis Rigaud and Anouck Boisrobert will be holding a Pop-up Book Workshop for Adults where participants will be able to create their own pop-up books.
The Singapore Writers Festival is organised by the National Arts Council. For the full set of programmes and the many other talks, discussions, workshops and even literary meals and tours taking place during the Singapore Writers Festival, refer to the Festival’s website.
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