WALTIC - "The Value of Words", is a bi-annual international literary congress founded and owned by The Swedish Writers’ Union. Having its premier launch in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 between 29 June and 2 July 2008, WALTIC’s aim and thematic scope is divided in accordance to three key elements: Increase literacy, Safeguard freedom of expression, and Strengthen authors’ rights.

WALTIC 2008 keynote speakers were Mia Couto

Mia Couto

António Emílio Leite Couto , better known as Mia Couto, is a world-renowned Mozambican writer.-Early years:Couto was born in the city of Beira, Mozambique’s second largest city, where he was also raised and schooled. He is the son of Portuguese emigrants who moved to the former Portuguese colony in...

 and Nawal El-Saadawi. Among the invited speakers present were Türker Armaner

Türker armaner

Türker Armaner is an Istanbul-based writer, philosopher, and translator. He studied at the universities of Hacettepe, Boğaziçi, and Bergen and took his Ph.D degree at Paris 8 . His first story was published on Hayalet Gemi in 1995...

, Antonia Arslan

Antonia Arslan

Antonia Arslan is an Italian writer and academic of Armenian origins.Arslan was born in Padua. After graduating in archaeology she became a professor of modern and contemporary Italian literature at the University of Padua and published copious groundbreaking studies, inter alia, on Italian...

, Yusuf Azemoun, Karin Barber, Ann Louise Bardach

Ann Louise Bardach

Ann Louise Bardach is an American journalist and non-fiction author. Bardach is best known for her work on Cuba and Miami and was called "the go-to journalist on all things Cuban and Miami," by the Columbia Journalism Review having interviewed people such as Fidel Castro, Juanita Castro, Luis...

, Abdelkader Benali

Abdelkader Benali

Abdelkader Benali is a Moroccan-Dutch writer and journalist. He has been described as one of the Netherlands' leading writers....

, Charles Bernstein

Charles Bernstein

Charles Bernstein is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language poets . In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American...

, Calixthe Beyala

Calixthe Beyala

Calixthe Beyala is a Cameroonian writer who writes in French.She grew up in Douala with her sister. In 1978, She left Cameroon for France...

, Giannina Braschi

Giannina Braschi

Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...

, David Brookshaw, Mircea Cărtărescu

Mircea Cartarescu

Mircea Cărtărescu is a Romanian poet, novelist and essayist.Born in Bucharest, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters, Department of Romanian Language And Literature, in 1980. Between 1980 and 1989 he worked as a Romanian language teacher, then he worked at the Writers'...

, Mauro Covacich, Tsitsi Dangarembga

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean author and filmmaker.- Biography :Dangarembga was born in Mutoko, Zimbabwe , in 1959 but spent part of her childhood in England. She began her education there, but concluded her A-levels in a missionary school back home, in the town of Mutare...

, Assia Djebar

Assia Djebar

Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen , an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's pre-eminent and most influential writers...

, Gamal el-Ghitany, Horace Engdahl

Horace Engdahl

Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl is a Swedish literary historian and critic, and has been a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997. He was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, i.e. its spokesman, from 1999 to June 2009, when he was succeeded by historian Peter Englund.-Biography:Engdahl was...

, James English, Filip Florian, Jean-Claude Guédon

Jean-Claude Guédon

Jean-Claude Guédon is a Quebec-based academic.-Education:In 1960-1, he was an American Field Service exchange student in Kenmore East Senior High School in Tonawanda, New York . He went on to study chemistry at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York and finally earned a Ph.D...

, Josef Haslinger

Josef Haslinger

Josef Haslinger is an Austrian writer.Haslinger was born in Zwettl, Lower Austria. He studied philosophy, drama and Germanic studies...

, Rafael Hernández, Ho Anh Thai

Ho Anh Thai

Ho Anh Thai is one of the best known contemporary writers in Vietnam, is regarded as a literary phenomenon of the post-war generation.-Biography:Ho Anh Thai was born in 1960 in Hanoi. He graduated from Hanoi Institute of International Studies in 1983....

, Uzodinma Iweala

Uzodinma Iweala

Dr. Uzodinma Iweala is an author and physician who hails from Washington, DC and Nigeria. His debut novel, Beasts of No Nation, is a formation of his thesis work at Harvard. It depicts a child soldier in an unnamed African country...

, Clara Janés

Clara Janés

Clara Janés Nadal, born in Barcelona , is a Spanish poet, writer and translator. She is regarded as one of the great love poets of contemporary Spanish literature, a designation given her by one of twentieth century Spain's most respected women writers, Rosa Chacel...

, Eileen Julien, Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Jonas Hassen Khemiri is an award-winning Swedish novelist and playwright. He has been named one of the most important Swedish writers of his generation.-Career:...

, Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid is a Caribbean novelist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in the city of St. John's on the island of Antigua in the nation of Antigua and Barbuda...

, Antije Krog, Leevi Lehto

Leevi Lehto

Leevi Lehto , is a Finnish poet, translator, and programmer.Since he made his poetic debut in 1967, he has published six volumes of poetry, a novel, Janajevin unet , and an experimental prose work,...

, Eileen Julien, Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell is a Swedish crime writer, children's author, leftist activist and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most famous creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander.-Life and career:...

, Ana Menendez

Ana Menéndez

-Early life:Menéndez was born to Cuban exile parents who fled to Los Angeles, California in 1964. Menéndez's parents expected to return to Cuba at any time and prepared their children for this eventuality. As a result, Menéndez spoke only Spanish until she enrolled in kindergarten. The family...

, Gcina Mhlope

Gcina Mhlope

Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe is a well-known South African freedom fighter, activist, actor, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author. Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in Africa and Mhlope is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males...

, Rosa Montero

Rosa Montero

Rosa Montero is an award-winning journalist for the Spanish newspaper El País and an author of contemporary fiction.-Early life:...

, Bharati Mukherjee

Bharati Mukherjee

Bharati Mukherjee is an award-winning Indian-born American writer. She is currently a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.-Background:...

, Herta Müller

Herta Müller

Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the effects of violence, cruelty and terror, usually in the setting of Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime which she experienced herself...

, Simone Murray, Sonia Nimr, Saliha Paker, Elena Poniatowska

Elena Poniatowska

Elena Poniatowska is a Mexican journalist and author. Her generation of writers include Carlos Fuentes‎, José Emilio Pacheco and Carlos Monsiváis.-Life:Poniatowska was born in Paris to Prince Jean Joseph Evremont Sperry Poniatowski and Paula Amor Yturbe...

, Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...

, Laura Restrepo

Laura Restrepo

Laura Restrepo is one of the most skilled writers to emerge from Latin America since the days of the Latin American Boom. She was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1950 and after about 25 years she began to write her first serious works, mainly political columns. Her first fiction novel, Isle of...

, Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Rodrigo Rey Rosa is a Guatemalan writer.-Professional life:Not a lot is known about Rey Rosa's professional life until after he emigrated to New York after finishing his studies in Guatemala. Rey Rosa has based many of his writings and stories on legends and myths that are indigenous to Latin...

, Hans Rosling

Hans Rosling

Hans Rosling is a Swedish medical doctor, academic, statistician and public speaker. He is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, which developed the Trendalyzer software system.-Study and career:From 1967 to 1974 Rosling...

, Alfian Bin Sa’at, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian literary critic, theorist and a University Professor at Columbia University. She is best known for the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", considered a founding text of postcolonialism, and for her translation of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology. She...

, Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel is a writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University...

, Muniz Sodré, Saša Stanišic, Krister Stoor, Farzaneh Taheri, Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan is the illustrator and author of award-winning children's books such as The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and The Arrival...

, Yoko Tawada

Yoko Tawada

Yōko Tawada is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany.Tawada was born in Tokyo, received her undergraduate education at Waseda University in 1982 with a major in Russian literature, then studied at Hamburg University where she received a master's degree in contemporary German...

, Dubravka Ugrešic

Dubravka Ugrešic

Dubravka Ugrešić is a Croatian writer who lives in the Netherlands.- Background and education:Ugrešić was born in 1949 in Kutina, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia., She studied Comparative Literature and Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, pursuing parallel careers as a...

, Leonardo Valencia, Binyavanga Wainaina

Binyavanga Wainaina

Binyavanga Wainaina is a Kenyan author, journalist and winner of the Caine Prize.-Early life and education:Binyavanga Wainaina was born in Nakuru in Rift Valley province. He attended Moi Primary School in Nakuru, Mangu High School in Thika, and Lenana School in Nairobi...

 (not present due to illness), Frank Westerman, Wu Ming

Wu Ming

Wu Ming is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna.In their pre-Wu Ming days, the group wrote the novel Q ....

, and more. WALTIC 2008 honorary guest was poet Tomas Tranströmer

Tomas Tranströmer

Tomas Gösta Tranströmer is a Swedish writer, poet and translator, whose poetry has been translated into over 60 languages. Tranströmer is acclaimed as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since the Second World War...

. "I am glad to participate in the WALTIC congress because it is devoted to democracy, and the act of reading is a very good example of pure democracy in action," said writer Philip Pullman when asked about his participation in the 2008 congress.

Chairman of The Swedish Writers' Union and President of WALTIC 2008: Mats Söderlund. Program Committee: Gabriella Håkansson

Gabriella Hakansson

Gabriella Hakansson, born 1968, is a Swedish novelist. Her books are renowned for their great psychological originality, complex plots, gothic sense of humour and claustrophobic mapping of the human mind. They have been translated into German, Czech, Danish and Norwegian.Hakansson is also a...

 and Henrik C. Enbohm.

WALTIC Resolution

During WALTIC 2008 a resolution was adopted stating that: "Literature is a source of knowledge with the strength to empower entire populations", hence underlining that "Literacy, freedom of expression and authors' rights are keys to the never-ending pursuit of truth, for the development of societies based on democratic and humanitarian values as well as for the individual aspiring to express his or her unique knowledge and experience", and moreover, that "Increasing literacy is essential to improvement of welfare and democratic processes, and to the safeguarding of human rights." The resolution also noted that "Safeguarding freedom of expression makes it possible for both the ordinary citizen and decision makers to better understand the world around them and thus to make informed decisions". (The WALTIC Resolution can be read in full at www.waltic.com)