NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Nobel laureates to local writers, award-winning authors to debut novelists, Bollywood bigwigs to music artistes, the historic Diggi palace in Jaipur is all set to overflow with authors, publishers and book lovers from across South Asia as the annual literary jamboree, the Jaipur Literature Festival, kicks off tomorrow.
The five-day festival, which has become a major event on the literary calendar ever since its inception in 2006, has an interesting line up of debates and discussions while music and Bollywood, too, are to feature prominently on the programme this year.
“Since the early days of JLF, much has changed in the literary firmament.
“In these transformative years, the physical book itself has morphed and mutated into new and unexpected digital dimensions.
“The festival is fuelled by the need and compulsion to share narratives, to listen in to and comprehend each other’s stories,” said Festival Co-Director, Namita Gokhale.
“Every year we try to bring literary, intellectual and cultural energies alive at Jaipur.
“It’s absolutely magical over there as it is a democratic, spontaneous and well-packed extravaganza, which has something for every visitor,” she added.
Echoing her views, writer and Co-Director, William Dalrymple, said, “JLF is a unique celebration of writing that has grown into something bigger and more wonderful than anything we could ever have hoped for when we first conceived of it a decade ago.
“This year, we have so much to offer, it is difficult to know where to begin.”
With a line up of around 240 authors from backgrounds ranging from international relations, history and environment, to human nature, regional literature, art, photography, Bollywood, theatre and travel, the festival will cover a wide slice of the literary world.
While Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen will be the
keynote speaker, among the participants will be Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri and eminent writers like Tash Aw, Alison Macleod and Jim Crace along with American novelist Jonathon Frenzen, British historian Antony Beever, feminist writer Gloria Steinem, Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan, Olympic medallist boxer Mary Kom, and lyricists Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi.
The seventh edition of the festival, from January 17-21, will pay tribute to several themes and feature, among others, readings and conversations on the survival of languages, which will examine India’s rich linguistic diversity and the challenges facing endangered tongues.
A series of sessions on ‘Crime and Punishment’ will dissect the genre of the detective novel and also take a look at Bollywood villains, vendetta, and the shadow lines between the “good guys” and the “bad”.
In a brand new initiative entitled ‘Book Mark’, the festival will also bring together publishers, agents, rights holders and literary content producers from across the world at a three-day parallel event (January 18-20) at the Narain Niwas Palace.
Evenings at the festival will be an audio-visual treat for music lovers at the ‘Musical Stage’ at Hotel Clarkes Amer.
In the four-day musical sidelight, the visitors can listen to Africa’s traditional nomadic melodies along with Rajasthani folk, Indie-pop and classical jazz.
The winner of the USD 50,000 DSC prize for South Asian Literature will be announced on the second day of JLF.
Three Indians — Anand, Benyamin and Cyrus Mistry — are among the six authors shortlisted for the prize.
The rest of the list is brought up by Pakistani authors Mohsin Hamid and Nadeem Aslam and Sri Lankan author Nayomi Munaweera.
There is high anticipation this year as well for the festival whose past editions have also sometimes seen controversy, like the one to do with writer Salman Rushdie’s name on the dignitaries’ list in 2011 and the hue and cry over sociologist Ashish Nandy’s remarks last year. (PTI)
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