The Shanghai Literary Festival starts this weekend, and according to one of the authors participating in the two-week-long event -- he wrote this in an email to us -- Shanghaiist readers "need some intellectual fodder." And the festival is, indeed, full of it (fodder, we mean). Really, quite an impressive list of authors will be in attendance. The man who is getting most of the attention, rightfully so, is John Banville, who last year won the Man Booker prize for his novel The Sea. Other highlights include travel writer Pico Iyer (Video Night in Kathmandu) and Ma Jian, whose travel essay Red Dust likely occupies a spot on most of your bookshelves. Also speaking will be longtime Shanghai resident, and occasional Shanghaiist reader, Paul French, who you may even see at tonight's Shanghaiist Happy Hour. more ›