A literary equivalent of Band Aid, called Telling Tales, has been assembled by Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer with short stories from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gunter Grass, Woody Allen, Arthur Miller, Hanif Kureshi, Paul Theroux, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and John Updike.

Gordimer said she felt guilty the literary world had not been as involved in raising charity funds as music stars.

"I began to feel rather guilty on behalf of myself as a writer and other writers because the musicians were having these big gigs and beautiful concerts in aid of people suffering from HIV and [AIDS]," she said.

"In other words, they were giving away talent, which for us, as artists, is the best thing we have - the most precious thing."[�]

Telling Tales will be published in 11 languages and all proceeds will go towards South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, which has campaigned to get free drugs for millions living with HIV and [AIDS].

There might also be an issue with Barnes and Noble's and Borders as their profits have suffered at the hands of wholesalers. Booksellers buy most of their books on a different margin than independent bookstores, sometimes as low as 15% off of retail. It's very similar to the issue that Band Aid and Apple are having right now.

dem_z

United Kingdom

June 2004

NOV 30, 2004 03:26 AM

SA has something like a 30% HIV/AIDS rate.

Cheaper anti retro virals would be good. Vaccinations that were effective would be better; I think the trials at the moment are not hopeful. I think they've only been safety trials, not efficacy, so the vaccines are very safe, but initial guesses are that they don't work. So anything which can help countries with massive HIV/Aids infection (SA, India, etc) is good.

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NEWS: How Writers Respond to AIDS

Christopher

Portland, OR

November 2002

NOV 29, 2004 11:58 PM

dem_z

United Kingdom

June 2004

NOV 30, 2004 03:26 AM