The Worlds Literature Festival is a private space, where writers can debate and ask difficult questions and issue provocations in a safe, protected, inspiring environment. We're excited to provide a glimpse into the world of Worlds, with two provocations on the theme of (Up-)Staging Shakespeare.

First we have Amit Chaudhuri: novelist, critic and musician. His latest novel is Odysseus Abroad. He's won more prizes than I have time to list, including Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a professor of contemporary literature at the University of East Anglia.

Following Amit is Edward Wilson-Lee, whose first book, Shakespeare in Swahili-Land, is a travelogue and cultural history of East Africa which recovers the surprising story of the playwright's central role in the region's past. Edward teaches Shakespeare and Renaissance literature in Cambridge and is currently working on his second book.