The much-hyped and much-awaited Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) is starting from Friday and will see over participation of 250 authors and thinkers from India and abroad. This five-day event will start from 17 January to 21 January 2014 and will offer people more than just book readings and launches.
Creative writing workshops and musical evenings have been arranged to make it a full spectrum cultural extravaganza in a heritage setting.
All of this will be contained in the 175 sessions spread over six venues in the five "thought-packed" days of the festival at a 17-century marvel, the Diggi Palace.
Authors who have penned revealing insights into the human condition and society in English and other languages as well as incisive works on various aspects of history, environment, international relations, philosophy, Bollywood, travel, and art will be attending the event.
Nobel laureates Amartya Sen (economics) and Harold Varmus (medicine) will be special guest of the event.
Namita Gokhale Festival co-director said "Come January, and a cloud of creative energies gathers around Jaipur. Writers and thinkers from South Asia and around the world will once again debate and attempt to make sense of our changing worlds through the prism of literature. As readers from around the world get ready for their annual literary pilgrimage, the Jaipur yatra will continue to celebrate books and ideas, readers and writers in an open, joyous and spontaneous space, and to uphold the spirit of democratic dialogue and exchange".
Man Booker Prize authors Jhumpa Lahiri, Tash Aw, and Alison Macleod, historians Antony Beevor, Michael Axworthy, Richard Holmes, China expert Rana Mitter, philosopher Michael Sandel and Iranian-American scholars Reza Aslan and Vali Nasr, among others will be taking parts in discussions.
Joining them will be many Indian authors whose universe of experience swings between English, Hindi and Urdu. They include Anita Nair, Amish Tripathi of the popular Shiva trilogy, Hindi poet-critic Ashok Vajpeyi, and leading Urdu scholar and critic Shamsur Rehman Faruqi.
Holding their own in this company will be UN diplomat-turned-politician Shashi Tharoor, diplomat-cum-author Navtej Sarna, and sociologist Dipankar Gupta.
This musical sidelight is scheduled for four days, and music lovers will get to listen to some of Africa's traditional nomadic melodies along with Rajasthani folk, Indie-pop and classical jazz.
Grammy Award winner Tinariwen - a band of Tuareg musicians from northern Mali in Africa - Rajasthani folk artists, composer-singer Karsh Kale, Indian electronic band Midival Punditz will bring evenings alive after a heavy day of literati debates and discussions.
On Jan 18 will come an announcement many have been waiting for - the winners of the coveted 2014 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
|
|
Comments:
