Yes, it's that time of year again! The 2012 Shanghai Literary Festival is just around the corner. We just got hold of the schedule, and it's going to be one of the most eclectic and star-studded line-ups we've seen to date.

The event runs Wednesday, Feb. 29 to Sunday, March 18 and will feature nearly 60 luminaries, including Simpsons creator Matt Groening, The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan, Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones, Man Asia shortlisted author Xu Xi, Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua and contemporary fiction writer Li Er.

The organizers also told us that tickets go on sale Monday through MyPiao. Make sure you get on there early because every year, they sell out in the first few days.

Below is the finalized schedule, minus one workshop that Edward Jones is expected to hold the week of March 12.

Check back on the City Weekend website for more Literary Festival updates.

WEEK ONE

Friday, March 2

12pm LITERARY LUNCH Harold McGee: Curious Cook

2pm WRITING WORKSHOP Cheryl Tan: Digging Up Skeletons

6pm The Tenth Shanghai International Literary Festival Opening

Saturday, March 3

10am Sarah Brennan: The Tale of Pin Yin Panda

11am Barney Loehnis: Long March Revisited

12pm Elizabeth Knox: Angels, Vintners and the Magic of Make-Believe

1pm Arvind Subramanian: Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance

2pm Criselda Yabes: Reality, Reportage and Fiction

3pm Wong How Man: Islamic Frontiers of China: Peoples of the Silk Road

4pm Kunal Basu: Love & Rebellion: A Chinese Cure for the French Disease

5pm Harold McGee: Chemistry in the Kitchen

Sunday, March 4

10am Jan Latta: Adventures in the Wild with Endangered Animals

11am Anne Sebba: Wallis Simpson - “That Woman” or the Duchess of Style?

12pm A.B. Yehoshua: Hebrew Literature and Jewish Identity

1pm Geremie R. Barmé: West Lake: A World Made by Literature and Politics

2pm Cheryl Tan: Sex, Lies & Pineapple Tarts

3pm Mohammed Hanif: Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

4pm Tom Rob Smith: From Child 44 to Agent 6

5pm The Great Financial Times Debate: Does China’s Rise Spell America’s Decline?

WEEK TWO

Wednesday, March 7

3pm WRITING WORKSHOP: Nancy Conyers: Before You Cross That Finish Line, You've Got To Start Somewhere … Anywhere

Thursday, March 8

12pm LITERARY LUNCH: Wine Writing in China

Saturday, March 10

10am Mark Moffett: Adventures Among Ants

11am Michael Dunne: American Wheels, Chinese Roads

12pm Maria Tumarkin: Memoir, Memory and Privacy

1pm Ouyang Yu: Speaking English, Thinking Chinese and Living Australian

2pm: Manreet Sodhi Someshwar: Faith, Fundamentalism and Misguided Passions

3pm The Photo Book: Recording Social Engagement

4pm Kingsley Bolton: Asian Englishe

5pm Jonathan Campbell: Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock

Sunday, March 11

10am Caitlin Reilly: Children’s Workshop: Looking Up at M on the Bund

11am Barbara Demick: Prying Open the Hermit Kingdom

12pm Meira Chand: Imagining History

1pm Siddhartha Deb: The Beautiful and the Damned

2pm Jeff Fuchs: The Ancient Tea Horse Trail: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers

3pm Shan Sa: The Art of Literature

4pm Janette Turner Hospital

5pm Edward P. Jones: The Known World

WEEK THREE

Wednesday, March 14

12pm LITERARY LUNCH Laurentien van Oranje: Inter-generational Dialogue: Shifting Mindsets for a Sustainable Future

6pm Eileen Sheehan, John Sexton: Irish Writers & Guinness

Friday, March 16

12pm LITERARY LUNCH Amy Tan in Conversation

3pm Xu Xi: Creative “I”

6:30pm CONCERT Rock Bottom Remainders (Shanghai Version)

Saturday, March 17

10am Laurentien van Oranje: Chldren’s Workshop: Discovering the Planet with Mr Finney

11am Steffi Schmidt: Shanghai Promenade

12pm Deke Erh: Shanghai American School Profiles, 1937-1949

1pm Amy Tan: On Shanghai, Life & Writing

2pm Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Sam Barry: Write that Book Already

4pm Xu Xi, Ovidia Yu: The New Asian Character

5pm Matt Groening: The Simpsons, Futurama and Springfield

Sunday, March 18

10am Nury Vittachi: Visionary Voyage

11am Ed Larson: Empire of Ice

12pm Li Er: The Magician of 1919

1pm Jonathan Berger and Cai Jin Dong: Cheesecake or Peacock Feathers

2pm Ovidia Yu: Chinese Mouth, English Words

3pm Mara Hvinstendahl: Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men

4pm Sunethra Rajakarunanayake: The Poetry of Sri Lanka

5pm Shanghai Skyscrapers: The Big Three