Jaipur Literature Festival announces first list of 25 speakers for 2020 edition
Photo by : Incredible India Info
Includes Pulitzer-winning author Stephen Greenblatt
Described
as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the Jaipur Literature Festival is a
sumptuous feast of ideas.
The past
decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon having hosted
nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers from across India
and the globe.
The core
values remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform
offering free and fair access.
Every
year, the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest
writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people
and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in
thoughtful debate and dialogue.
Writers
and Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, alongside producer
Teamwork Arts, invite speakers to take part in the five-day programme set
against the backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi
Palace in the state capital Jaipur.
Past
speakers have ranged from Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and
Muhammad Yunus, Man Booker Prize winners Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Paul
Beatty, Sahitya Akademi winners Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, M.T. Vasudevan Nair as
well as the late Girish Karnad, Mahasweta Devi and U.R. Ananthamurthy along
with literary superstars including Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and
Vikram Seth. An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also
hosted Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, His Holiness
the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former
president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
The
Jaipur Literature Festival is a flagship event of Teamwork Arts, which produces
it along with over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and
literary festivals across more than 40 cities globally.
The annual Jaipur
Literature Festival announced today its much-awaited first list of speakers for
its 13th edition, which will take place from 23-27 January 2020 at its
beautiful and customary home - the historic Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur.
Described as the ‘greatest
literary show on Earth’, the Jaipur Literature Festival is a sumptuous feast of
ideas. The past decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon
having hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers
from across India and the globe.
The Festival’s core values
remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform offering free
and fair access. A true champion of literary and artistic traditions and
democratic discourse, the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s
greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders,
sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express
and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue, and promotes, above all, a love
for literature.
The first list of 25
speakers released today includes Anand Neelakantan, author, columnist,
screenwriter, television personality and motivational speaker, who has signed a
three-book series deal with the producers of the blockbuster film Baahubali;
Anosh Irani, the author of The Bombay Plays: The Matka King &
Bombay Black, who was a finalist for the Canadian Governor General’s
Literary Award for Drama; Asma Khan, the first British chef to feature
in Netflix’s Emmy-nominated Chef’s Table; Ben Judah,the author of Fragile
Empire, the Financial Times Summer Book of 2013; Brian Aivars Catlos, author
of four scholarly books, including most recently Kingdoms of Faith: A New
History of Islamic Spain.
The list continues with Chitra
Mudgal, the first Indian woman to receive the Vyas Samman for her acclaimed
novel Avaan; Frank Dikötter, author of a dozen books on modern
China, including Mao's Great Famine, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize
for Non-Fiction in 2011; Hallie Rubenhold, bestselling author whose
latest book The Five, has been long listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize
and shortlisted for the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger; Howard
Jacobson, recipient of the 2010 Man Booker Prize for his book The
Finkler Question; Jung Chang, author of the bestselling books Wild
Swans: Three Daughters of China, Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon
Halliday) and Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China;
Keki N. Daruwalla, winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award; Kent Nerburn, widely
known for his insights into Native American culture, whose trilogy Neither
Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight and The Girl Who Sang to the
Buffalo are core works in multicultural curricula throughout the world; KR
Meera, winner of the Kendra and Kerala Sahitya Akademi awards whose novel Aaraachaar
has sold around 150,000 copies and its translation, Hangwoman, shortlisted for the DSC Prize.
They are joined by Kunal
Basu, the author of The Japanese Wife, the lead story of which was
made into an award-winning film; MaazaMengiste, author of Beneath the
Lion's Gaze, selected by TheGuardian
as one of the 10 best contemporary African books; Marcus du Sautoy,
author of six books, including the recent The Creativity Codeand a
Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford; Mishi Saran, author
of The Other Side of Light, who shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book
Prize; Nilanjana S. Roy, author of the award-winning fantasy novelThe
Wildings; and Om Swami, the brain behind the fastest-growing
meditation and kindness movement in the world, Black Lotus.
There’s also Raj Kamal Jha,award-winning
journalist,internationally-acclaimed
for his novels which have been translated into more than a dozen languages; Sara
Rai, author of Im Labyrinth which won the Coburg Rückert Prize 2019
for its German translation by Johanna Hahn; Stephen Greenblatt,
recipient of the Pulitzer Prize; Shubha Mudgal, veteran Hindustani
vocalist, who has written a collection of short stories which revolve around
the music that has nurtured her; Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum
City: Bombay Lost and Found, which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch
Crossword Award, and a 2005 Pulitzer finalist; Vishal Bhardwaj,
acclaimed film director, writer, composer and producer, who published his first
book of poems titled Nude in 2018.
The Festival will open as
usual with its B2B arm, Jaipur BookMark (JBM), now in its seventh edition, with
a full day of programming on 22 January at Diggi Palace followed by sessions at
a dedicated JBM venue at the Festival Hub from the 23-25 January. JBM will
continue to bring together a wide range of publishers, literary agents,
writers, translators, translation agencies and booksellers from across the
world and give them an opportunity to meet, talk
business and listen to major global industry players.
Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and
Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The upcoming edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival
arrives with the same magical promise of books and authors, ideas and
creativity, generating a collective intellectual energy unparalleled anywhere.
We have a stellar lineup of authors from India and around the world, including
celebrated chef Asma Khan, classical singer Shubha Mudgal
with her acclaimed new collection of short stories, brilliant
Hindi writer Sara Rai, mathematician and science writer Marcus du
Sautoy, writer and journalist Ben Judah, and so very
many others. Vision 2020 will be a new voyage of discovery to help us
understand and reflect on the ever-changing world around us.â€
William
Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, "This
is unquestionably one of the best lists we've ever gathered: five days of
non-stop genius. Can't wait to see everyone there!"
Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts who produce the Jaipur
Literature Festival, said, “At
Jaipur Literature Festival in 2020, we look forward to strengthening our core
values- to create a platform that celebrate ideas, reaches out to young people
and allows them free access to knowledge and education This year Teamwork Arts
has extended the Festival into two overseas locations, Belfast and Toronto by
making the Festival more accessible and
taking India to the world!â€
The Jaipur Literature
Festival sets literary conversations and dialogue against a cultural backdrop promoting
India’s traditional heritage including curated art installations, cultural
evenings and the Jaipur Music Stage, which runs parallel to the Festival.
While entry to the Festival
is free and open to all, attendees can choose to purchase Delegate Packages,
which offer a special experience of the Festival and take them on a compelling
cultural journey.
As a former Festival
Delegate said, “A wonderful experience.
As a delegate, I had the opportunity to meet people from all parts of the world
and share our love of literature and writing. The concerts were amazing - the
venue, music, food and people combined to create an unforgettable experience.â€
In addition to enjoying the
Festival programme, Delegates get access to the Delegate Lounge, reserved
seating at selected sessions, free entry to the Music Stage, invites to special
heritage evenings, shop at the Festival Merchandise Area, lunches with authors
and fellow delegates, a cocktail evening and much more.
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