George Town Literary Festival 2025

George Town Literary Festival

Venue: UAB Building | Bangunan Wawasan | Hikayat | Cheah Kongsi | China House

Date: 28–30/11/2025

Language: English

Category: Event

Tags: Festivals

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Malaysia’s leading celebration of stories returns for its 15th edition! This year’s George Town Literary Festival explores Urban Myths and Memories through panels, readings, performances, and workshops featuring 37 writers and artists from 13 countries.

Ticketing

Festival Pass

This pass includes three QR codes—one for each day of the festival—granting access to all events on the respective day.

Free

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About

George Town Literary Festival 2025

Malaysia’s leading celebration of stories returns for its 15th edition! This year’s George Town Literary Festival explores Urban Myths and Memories through panels, readings, performances, and workshops featuring 37 writers and artists from 13 countries.

Join us in Penang’s heritage heart for three days of conversation, creativity, and discovery. Admission is free with a Festival Pass, except for workshops and select events.

Explore the full programme breakdown on the official George Town Literary Festival website.

Programme at a glance:

Friday 28 November 2025

Time	Venue	Title
10:00-11:00	UAB Hall	GTLF Opening Ceremony
11:30-12:30	UAB Salon	Penang Monthly Short Story Competition Prize Announcement
11:30-12:15	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Entrepot
14:00-15:00	UAB Hall	Panel: Living Memories, Silenced Histories
14:00-15:00	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Legacy (Rose Gan), Monsoon
14:00-15:00	Hikayat	Reading: Poetry by Eleanor Johnson
14:30-15:30	WOU Hall	Panel: Lost (and Found) in Translation
15:00-15:45	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Island in the World: Singapore's Geopolitical DNA (Simon Tay), World Scientific
15:30-16:30	WOU Reading Room	Reading: Building the Canon: New Voices from the University of Nottingham Malaysia
16:00-17:00	UAB Hall	Panel: The Literature of Fact – The Art and Power of Creative Non-Fiction
16:00-17:00	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Rehumanising Rabindranath Tagore: A Malaysian Kaleidoscopic View
16:30-17:30	WOU Hall	Conversation: In the Key of Memory — Writing a Musical Legacy
17:00-17:45	WOU Reading Room	Conversation: S. Rajaratnam: A Malayan Voice in the World
18:00-19:00	UAB Salon	Performance: Ghost Bird
20:00-22:00	UAB Hall	Film Screening: Poetries from the Bookstores

Saturday 29 November 2025

Time	Venue	Title
10:00-11:00	UAB Hall	Panel: She Who Remembers, She Who Rewrites
10:00-11:00	WOU Hall	Panel: Verses of Our Time: Poetry and Its Crossings
10:00-11:00	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: In The Mirror: New and Selected Works of Wong Phui Nam
10:00-10:30	UAB Salon	Conversation: Patricia Lim – A Life in Memory and Story
10:30-11:00	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Lim Kee Jin: Doctor and Mentor
11:30-12:30	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Adorable, Malayan Spy, and Vermillion Eye
11:30-12:30	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Pseudo-Immortals and Sunset Chaser
11:30-12:30	UAB Hall	Panel: Legacies of Belonging
11:30-12:30	WOU Hall	Conversation: How does food shape national identity? A look at the Taiwan railway gourmet tour in Taiwan Travelogue
14:00-15:00	WOU Hall	Panel: Wit, Satire, and the Playful Imagination
14:00-14:45	UAB Salon	Reading: The Poetic Body – A Reading by Helen Mort
14:00-14:45	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Utama
15:00-16:00	UAB Hall	Panel: Stories We Inherit – Belonging Through Time
16:30-17:15	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Misgovernance
16:30-17:30	WOU Hall	Panel: Intimacies and Inheritances
16:30-17:30	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Fierceland
17:00-18:00	UAB Hall	Panel: Poetry, Performance, Resistance
20:00-21:30	UAB Hall	Film Screening: Terdedah: 7 Artists in Search of a CoverA lo-fi documentary by Amir Muhammad
20:00-21:00	TBA	Special Event: Kopitiam Lecture

Sunday 30 November 2025

Time	Venue	Title
08:30-10:00	George Town	Fringe Event: Heritage trail with Penang Heritage Gems
10:00-11:00	UAB Hall	Panel: Frontlines of Truth
10:00-10:45	WOU Hall	Panel: Laughter in the Dark
10:00-11:00	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Milestones: A Nutmag Anthology
10:00-10:45	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Contours of Him
11:30-12:15	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Hibiscus & Plum Blossoms Contemporary Malaysian and Taiwanese Poems
11:30-12:15	UAB Hall	Panel: Ideas, Power, and the Nation
11.30-12.30	WOU Hall	Panel: Stage to Page – Writing about Performing Art
11.30-12.30	UAB Salon	Award Ceremony: 2025 Dutt Award for Literary Excellence
14:00-15:00	WOU Hall	Artist Talk: Hou Chi-jan – Stories Between the Shelves
14:00-16:00	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Kenangan Luka, The Golden Oasis, and Akal Sanggahan Bebal
14:00-14:45	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Passing Glimpses of the Present
15:00-16:00	UAB Hall	Panel: Echoes of a Homeland
16:00-17:00	WOU Reading Room	Book Launch: Boh Beh Zhao and Elsewhere, the Cosmos Cracks
16:30-17:30	WOU Hall	Panel: Worlds in Motion – Writing as Philosophy
16:30-17:15	UAB Salon	Book Launch: Dey
17:00-18:00	UAB Hall	Panel: Borneo, Carried Across Oceans
18:30-19:15	Cheah Kongsi	Special event: GTLF Closing Performance: CHRISTIAN FALSNAES — FRONT
19:30-20:30	Cheah Kongsi	Special Event: GTLF Closing Performance: Rhythms of Return

Fringe Events

Date	Time	Venue	Title
28 Nov	19:00-20:30	COEX	Conversation: Conversation with Christian Falsnaes, Hesselholdt & Meljvang and Vanini Belarmino. Moderated by Gareth Richards
1-31 Dec		ChinaHouse	Exhibition: HESSELHOLDT & MEJLVANG— Be a Beautiful Force Together
29-Nov	17:00-17:30	Hin Bus Depot	Performance: HESSELHOLDT & MEJLVANG— Be a Beautiful Force Together
30 Nov	11:00 and 14:00	Hin Bus Depot	Performance: MOLLY HASLUND — Teenagers Eating Ice Cream Cones
30 Nov-31 Dec		Hin Bus Depot	Exhibition: MOLLY HASLUND — Teenagers Eating Ice Cream Cones
1-31 Dec		Penang Institute	Exhibition: CHRISTIAN FALSNAES — FRONT