Meghana HarikumarOver 160 international, Indian, and city authors and speakers, 4 program forums including a new ‘AMA with An Author’, bookstore, exciting conversations on fiction and non-fiction, Indian cinema, tech and start-ups, Covid-19, music and art, life, and grief, biographies, languages of Karnataka, politics, psychology, science, and sport.
At the festival, meet David Baldacci, Rutger Bregman, Chetan Bhagat, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Shashi Deshpande, Remo Fernandes, Lori Gottlieb, Andy Griffiths, Jugal Hansraj, Josy Joseph, Gagandeep Kang, Pranay Lal, Damodar Mauzo, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Sania Mirza, Manish Mundra, Rob Reich, Bee Rowlatt, Vivek Shanbhag, Ma Anand Sheela, Preeti Shenoy, Samanth Subramanian, Ravi Venkatesan, Jeet Thayil and many others.
Bangalore Literature Festival, Bengaluru city’s flagship literary event, is all set for a 10th edition on 18-19 December 2021 at the Bangalore International Centre in Domlur.
The two-day event will feature many literary luminaries, artists, and analysts, including Jahnavi Barua, AT Boyle, Anuja Chandramouli, Vasundhara Das, Ravi Shankar Etteth, Stutee Ghosh, Sabrina Janesch, Syeda Hameed, Samar Halarnkar, Moin Mir, Pratibha Nandakumar, Mohandas Pai, Aakar Patel, Humra Quraishi, Rukmini S, Ashwin Sanghi, Arshia Sattar, Sahana Singh, Sugata Srinivasaraju, Sharda Ugra, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, Rajiv Vijayakar, Shabnam Virmani and many others.
Close to 120 authors and speakers will be at the venue over the two-day event, while around 40 international and Indian authors will be participating in the Festival virtually. The full list of participating authors and speakers can be found on the website www.bangaloreliteraturefestival.org.
This year, the Festival has a special focus – ‘Languages of Karnataka’ – curated by Prateeti Ballal. Conversations around themes include Scripting a Future for Endangered Languages, History of Kannada Literature, and Fiction Without Boundaries. Participating speakers include Purushottam Billimale, Shakira Jabeen B, Rajendra Chenni, Kaveri Ponnappa, Sayeegeetha Hegde, Melvyn Rodrigues, Brinda Somaya, Gayathri Shetty, Shantala Anil, Vittal Shenoy, Seetharama Kevala, Vishwanatha Badikana, N A Mahamed Ismail and B M Haneef, Prof. MN Sayeed, Taltaje Vasanthakumara, Panju Ganguli, Padekallu Vishnu Bhatta, and Deepa Ganesh. The sessions will focus on languages including Tulu, Konkani, Beary, Dakhni Urdu, Arebhashe, Kundagannada, Sankethi, and Kodava.
The Bangalore Literature Festival remains among the most sought after and must-attend events for readers and writers from Bangalore, India, and the world, with its lively discussions, interviews, and literary sessions.
As with each year, this year too, the Festival has partnered with Atta Galatta, the city-based bookstore, and hub for literary events, to give out the Atta Galatta–Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize to honor the best of English fiction and non-fiction, and Kannada writing. Other Festival partners for the 10th Edition include Indian Music Experience, IVM Podcasts, and Pratilipi, Singapore Poetry Festival, Asia Pacific Writers & Translators.
Festival Founder and Director Shinie Antony said, “The festival comes to you once again with the certainty that literature is hope and sunshine and all our tomorrows.”
Brought to you by Friends of BLF – a group of eminent citizens of Bengaluru, who firmly believe that the city comes alive in its public spaces, in its arts and culture events that foster meaningful dialogue, enriching discussions and healthy debates; a group whose support has laid the foundation for an independent, community-funded literary event that the city can be proud of. Friends of BLF help create – with their generosity, energy, and time – this world of words.
The Festival opens at 10 am on Dec 18 and Dec 19. Entry is free, open to all, and registration is recommended. All sessions are at the venue only and there will be no live streaming. Video recordings will be available for eventual viewing on the Festival’s YouTube channel. Due to the prevailing situation with Covid-19, the Festival will be enforcing safety precautions. Attendees need to be double vaccinated. Temperature checks will be done at entry and the use of face masks is mandatory.
For registration, complete schedule of events, full list of participating authors and speakers and other information check www.bangaloreliteraturefestival.org or follow blrlitfest on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The Bangalore Literature Festival celebrates the creative spirit of Bengaluru and commemorates the literary diversity it offers, bringing it into conversation with the best minds in the world of literature. The 2021 edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival is a two-day literary extravaganza that will bring together some of the biggest names in literature – within and outside India.
The objective of the Bangalore Literature Festival is to put together a literary experience that brings writers – both established and aspiring, readers, publishers, students, and young professionals, and other stakeholders of the city together on a common platform and create a compelling space for engaging and thought-provoking discussions on literature and life.
The Bangalore Literature Festival is a non-profit run by an eclectic pro-bono team and supported by advisors and volunteers.
Meghana Harikumar
Editor
Ranjani Govind
