Syria Speaks: an evening of resistance and celebration at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival‘We hope this event won’t just be about tragedy but will highlight the resilience, humour and strength of Syrian art, even in these most challenging times,’ says Van Winkle. ‘There’s no uniform style of “uprising literature”. All those presenting work have reacted and responded to events in different ways, and whilst there are huge amounts of suffering taking place in Syria right now, the people and families experiencing this are expressing themselves in various ways. We hope this will be a celebration of people.’