It may not kick off until March 5, but the Shanghai International Literary Festival has just released the names of the authors who are coming. Some very big names in there. We are looking forward to Su Tong, Peter Hessler and Andrew Field. Full list below:

1. Tash Aw The Harmony Silk Factory (Whitbread First Novel award, Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel)

2. Terry Bennett The History of Photography in China

3. Sarah Brennan [children] Tale of Oswald Ox, Run Run Rat, Chester Choi and the Dragon

4. Andre Brink A Dry White Season, Other Lives (2008) and numerous other novels

5. Lars Bukdahl Alphabets from Pluto, Danish poet

6. Dario Castagno Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide; A Day in Tuscany: More Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide; Too Much Tuscan Wine.

7. Graham Freudenberger Churchill and Australia, winner of the 2009 Walkley Award.

8. Yuan Tsung Chen Return to the Middle Kingdom: One Family, Three Revolutionaries and the Birth of Modern China.

9. Jose Dalisay, Soledad’s Sister (2008), shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize

10. Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao [Pulitzer]; Drown

11. Charles Emmerson The Future of the Arctic [geopolitics]

12. Andrew Field Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919- 1954.(2010)

13. Shamini Flint Inspector Singh series – A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder; Bali Conspiracy Most Foul + chidren’s series: Sasha visits various countries in Asia.

14. Morris Gleitzman (children’s) Toad Surprise; Give Peas a Chance, etc.

15. David Grossman The Yellow Wind (nonfiction study of Palestinans in Israeli occupied Gaza and West Bank); Someone to Run with, Her Body Knows (fiction)

16. Ram Guha India After Gandhi, named one of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy.

17. Peter Hessler River Town; Oracle Bones; Driving Lessons (2010)

18. Moses Isegawa Abyssian Chronicles; Cobra’s Impunity

19. Linda Jaivin A Most Immoral Woman historic fiction - fictionalized account of George Morrisson’s affair with Mae Perkins

20. Ritta Jalonen – teenage fiction The Nights of the Angels, Girl and the Jackda Tree

21. Tess Johnston Permanently Temporary: From Berlin to Shanghai in Half a Century (2010).

22. Hitomi Kanehara Snakes & Earrings; Ash Baby Onetime runaway and street kid.

23. Hyejin Kim Jia-A novel of North Korea.

24. Rachel Kushner Telex from Cuba.

25. Mandla Langa Lost Colours of the Chameleon - Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009 (Africa)

26. David Leffman Rough Guides China author

27. Margaret Read MacDonald [children’s]

28. Garry Marchant – The Peace Correspondent A journalist’s tales of travels around Asia

29. Francesca Marciano-Cassa Rossa, The End of Manners + screenplays for a number of films.

30. Frank Moorhouse Palais des Nations Trilogy – Grand Days, Dark Palace (winner of Miles Franklin Literary Award) / + Martini: A Memoir

31. Mo Zhi Hong The Year of the Shanghai Shark (Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book)

32. Les Murray The Biplane Houses “one of the greatest contemporary poets writing in English”

33. Chen Murong – Leave Me Alone Chengdu Gritty novel about young Chinese in 90s Chengdu

34. Elizabeth O’Donoghue – Irish performance poet

35. Kristin Bair O’Keeffe - Thirsty

36. James Palmer The Bloody White Baron

37. Emily Perkins Novel About My Wife

38. Schatz + Blackrose [children’s]

39. Asne Sierestad The Bookseller of Kabul

40. Sjön The Blue Fox (nominated for independent Foreign Fiction award)

41. Su Tong Rice; Wives and Concubines (adapted to Raise the Red Lantern); My Life as Emperor. 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize for The Boat to Redemption (not yet published)

42. Alice Pung Unpolished Gem Young Cambodian-Chinese migrant’s coming-of-age memoir

43. Billy Ramsell Complicated Pleasures – Irish poet

44. Alan Titley Beyond the Knacker’s Yard

45. Donata & Christoph Valentien Shanghai’s New Botanic Garden

46. Nury Vittachi Feng Shui Detective series

47. Alexis Wright Carpentaria

*confirmed authors as of December 15 2009, list is not final.