Time of the writer festival was a powerful week for literature in Durban with six well-attended evenings of discussion and dialogue at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. The success of the evening performances was mirrored in the vast day programme. Conducted at various tertiary campuses and community centres, and stretching from Caversham in the Midlands to Luthuli Museum on the North Coast these events elicited high-levels of audience participation. 

A core element of Time of the Writer was the stimulation of a culture of reading and writing amongst the youth and the schools visiting programme reaching approximately 4,000 learners from 30 schools during the festival week.Book launches at Time of the Writer included the latest edition of groundbreaking Kenyan-based literary journal Kwani?,  introduced by Kwani Trust Managing  Editor Billy Kahora; and Bad Company, an anthology of crime fiction, edited by Joanne Hichens, and containing contributions by festival participants Deon Meyer, Mike Nicol, andMargie Orford. Mandla Langa launched his novel The Lost Colours of the Chameleon. Durban-based writer Deborah Ewing launched her new children's book When My Dad Comes Home and was also featured in the Saturday afternoon session Funda: Children's Literature Special  14 March (12h00-14h00) at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Other children's writers in this session included the much-loved Gcina Mhlophe, Elana Bregin, and Margie Orford. Parents were welcomed to bring their children along for the free event

Readings, discussions and book launches  took place nightly at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A broad range of day activities in the form of workshops, school visits, a day-long forum on 11th March on publishing issues (including literary magazine publishing, self-publishing, book promotion, the art of crime writing and the new explosion of graphic novels) and a prison writing programme, were formulated to promote a culture of reading, writing and creative expression. For more info visit http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/tow2009.htm.