Bernice Chauly will take part in the 2025 edition of the George Town Literary Festival (GTLF), the very festival she directed from 2011 to 2018. This year’s festival will be held from 28 to 30 November 2025 in George Town, Penang.
“I grew up haunted by grief, and my grief became a ghost. I had to confront it and finally let it go.”
—Bernice Chauly
Bernice Chauly’s words cut through silence. Her writing doesn’t turn away—it remembers, reclaims, and burns. At #GTLF2025, she brings the force of lived experience and literary craft to the stage, where ghosts become language and pain finds form.
The George Town Literary Festival (GTLF) is Malaysia’s foremost international literary festival, held each year in the UNESCO World Heritage city of George Town, Penang. Established in 2011, it is now organised by the Penang Institute, a cultural and policy research body based in the city’s historic centre.
Over the past decade, GTLF has become one of Southeast Asia’s most respected stages for literary exchange and the discussion of ideas. Its thoughtfully curated programme of panel conversations, readings, lectures, workshops, and performances brings together writers, poets, and intellectuals from across the globe.
In 2018, GTLF became the first literary festival in Southeast Asia to receive the Literary Festival Award at the London Book Fair International Excellence Awards, a recognition of its bold curatorship and international reach.