2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, who died on the same day, April 23, in 1616. In the four centuries since their death, both writers have delighted and inspired audiences and readers around the world with their stories such as Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet. Their influence on the generations of writers who have followed them, and indeed on literature as we know it, is impossible to ignore.
To mark the anniversaries, the British Council has teamed up with the Hay Festival, Acci�n Cultural Espa�ola and 12 contemporary English and Spanish-speaking writers to create a new anthology of short stories inspired by Cervantes and Shakespeare. Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Twelve Stories after Shakespeare and Cervantes which is introduced by Salman Rushdie, has been described as a "triumph of collaboration" by the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Two of the UK writers who have contributed to the anthology will be present at this year's Bocas Lit Fest–Nell Leyshon is a British novelist and playwright and is currently Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton. She is the author of four novels: Black Dirt (2004), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best First Book); Devotion (2008); The Colour of Milk (2012), which won the Libro del Ano prize in Spain, the Prix de l'Union Int�ralli�e in France and was runner up for the Prix Femina; and Memoirs of a Dipper (2015).
Leyshon's short story Glass was inspired by Cervantes' short novel, Licenciado Vidriera, the story of the lawyer who believed he was made of glass. "I knew as soon as I read it that I wanted to re-imagine it," said Leyshon. She will be reading from her story and discussing her own relationship with Cervantes and Shakespeare at the Old Fire Station, Hart Street, Port-of-Spain, at 11 am, on Sunday.
Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels, most recently, A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2013 was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist.
Shamsie grew up in Karachi and now lives in London. Alongside her writing Kamila is an avid cricket fan and plays in the Authors Cricket Club, which makes her trip to Port-of-Spain all the more poignant. She said: "Reading was an early love, but it took the West Indies tour of Pakistan in 1986-87 to make me discover the great immersive epic that is Test Cricket."
Shamsie will participate in a "one-on-one" session with Shivanee Ramlochan about writing across national, cultural, and historical borders from 4�5 pm today, April 28, at the Old Fire Station.
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities and is a programme partner of the Bocas Lit Fest.
�2 For more information, visit: https://literature.britishcouncil.org/