Ladies and Gentlemen, On 20 March 2012, the international literature festival berlin (ilb) will organize a worldwide reading for the Chinese writer and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xiaobo has been in detention for more than three years, after he and other intellectuals wrote and published the civil rights manifesto Charta 08. The worldwide reading in March is meant to make Liu Xiaobo’s work known to a broader public and to back the protest. The Charta 08 and poems by Liu Xiaobo will be read (see annex). The appeal (see annex) has been signed so far by Héctor Abad (Columbia), Kwame Anthony Appiah (USA), Amir Hassan Cheheltan (Iran), Noam Chomsky (USA), Bei Dao (China), Ariel Dorfman (Chile), Péter Esterházy (Hungary), Aminatta Forna (U.K., Sierra Leone), Juan Goytisolo (Spain/ Morocco), Herta Müller (Romania/Germany), Amos Oz (Israel), Laura Restrepo (Columbia), Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa), Salman Rushdie (India/ USA), Tomaž Šalamun (Slovenia), Peter Schneider (Germany), Sjón (Iceland), Janne Teller (Denmark), Dubravka Ugrešić (Croatia/Netherlands), Anne Waldman (USA) and many other writers from all continents. We would be glad if you or a cultural institution, school, university and/or radio station could host a reading on 20 March. In order to let people all over the world know about our initiative, we need your support: Please tell us about the readings that take place in your country. Our e-mail address is: worldwidereading@literaturfestival.com. Please visit our website www.literaturfestival.com and check, who participates. Most cordially Yours Ulrich Schreiber Director of the festival 12th international literature festival berlin - ilb | September 5th - 15th 2012 | Focus Art and Literature Chausseestr. 5 10115 Berlin Fon +49 (0) 30 - 27 87 86 65 Fax +49 (0) 30 - 27 87 86 85 presse@literaturfestival.com www.literaturfestival.com