Eleventh Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival from Jan 17th
12 Bestselling Authors, 4 Women Bosses in Publishing amongst over 100 speakers / Poets to grace the 11th edition.
Jan 17- Jan 19th 2020
Save the dates for India’s largest literature festival Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2020, here is the unveiling speakers list and schedule for the 11th edition of the festival.
AKLF 2020 HIGHLIGHTS
- Venues – Allen Park, Park Street, Alliance Francaise, Park Mansions, Max Mueller Bhavan and Tollygunge Club
- Voices – 12 Bestselling Authors, 10 Columnists, 4 women bosses in Publishing, Over 100 speakers and poets across genres and age groups.
- Writers’ Awards–Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award in association with Oxford Bookstore will announce its winner. The 2nd edition of the Award that celebrates fresh Indian voices in women’s writing.
- Book Cover Design Awards – Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize will unveil its shortlist book covers. This is the 5th edition of the Award in association with Jaipur Literature Festival
- Global representation – Authors from 8 countries Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, UK, US and Italy
- Tributes – Celebrating iconic women whose voices originated from our City of Joy and rang globally – Soumitra Chatterjee and Aparna Sen to pay tribute to Late novelist and award-winning author Nabaneeta Dev Sen along with her daughters Nandana Sen and Antara Sen & Celebrate life and journey of singer Usha Uthup
- Oxford Junior Literary Festival, featuring leading children writers, a dance workshop, a quiz, wildlife filmmaking, interactive sessions and storytelling.
- Poetry Café, featuring protest and performance poetry, new poems, by Indian and International poets.
List of speakers announced: Bestselling and award winning authors Anand Neelakantan, Abhinav Chandrachud, Francesc Miralles, Prayaag Akbar, Preeti Shenoy, Paul Zacharia, Rajat Gupta, Shobhaa De, Vikram Sampath, William Dalrymple. Film and Theatre Personalities and Activists like Aparna Sen, Kaushik Sen, Bollywood actors like Saurabh Shukla and Vivaan Shah. Celebrated Singer Usha Uthup. Renowned Director Anik Dutta. Journalist, Authors and Columnists include Kaveree Bamzai, Bachi Karkaria, Shutapa Paul, Manogya Loiwal, Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey and Sharmistha Goswami Chatterjee.
AKLF has always been a wonderful hub for literature lovers where they portray on everything literature or everything related to literature. If you are a book worm, then this festival will keep you glued till the end, save the dates, and feel free to be here at Allen Park,Park Street.
Through the decade long festival many writers, journalist, filmmakers had shared their views on writing and nationalism, few shared tips to the new generation. All total, the sessions were lit and redefined with cultural aspects.
This year AKLF will celebrate briefs on women empowerment and views on Nationalism and identity. These 3 days will surely enlighten you and will give you higher motivations. If you are in Kolkata and don’t want to miss the literary moments feel free to attend the event starting from 17th of Jan, 2020.
Major Sessions at the festival:
Day 1: The inaugural session on Forgotten Treasures with William Dalrymple presenting his new book Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, In a New Light: Revisiting Dara Shukoh, Sri Chaitanya and Veer Savarkar with Vikram Sampath, Avik Chanda, Chitrita Banerji and Oindrilla Dutt; a session on the issues we all are grappling with at present Homelands: Identity, nationalism and belonging with Samrat Chowdhury, Bronwyn Fredericks, Carlo Pizzati, Saira Shah Halim and Saaz Aggarwal; Aparna Sen discusses her latest film Ghawre Bairey Today – contemporizing the classic with much loved Piya Chakraborty and Samik Bandyopadhyay and Modhurima Sinha; Tribute to Late Nabaneeta Dev Sen with Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Samik Bandyopadhyay and her daughters Antara Dev Sen & Nandana Dev Sen; Stories of Individual Vs State cases and struggles – David vs Goliath with Jawhar Sircar, Lal Bhatia, Sumona Chakravarty and Jael Silliman.
Day 2: Second day starts with discussion on ‘Reading as Empowerment’ with the event ABC Go! with Bulbul Sharma, Savvy Soumya Misra, Kaveree Bamzai and Devi Kar, followed by a book launch of Beyond Charity by Savvy Soumya Misra; Regret to Redemption? Rajat Gupta with his tell-all memoir in conversation with Kaveree Bamzai; Reigning Supreme? Interrogating the judiciary with legal eagle Abhinav Chandrachud, Arunava Ghosh in conversation with human rights lawyer Debjyoti Ghosh. Bringing in a different flavor to the programme will be special Adda sessions like Pride and Prejudice – experiences and perspectives across the Pride Rainbow spectrum. Pawan Dhall, Anuradha Bhagwati, Sangeeta Dutta, Jhimli M Pandey, Debjyoti Ghosh and Sandip Roy; Sing my Beloved Country: Usha Uthup on how music celebrates a multicultural India in conversation with Bachi Karkaria; A exceptional session Metamorphosis: The journey from book to screen with Bachi Karkaria, Prayaag Akbar, Saurabh Shukla, Anand Neelakantan and Raju Raman; Orient Express: French author Irene Frain discusses her connections with the Orient with Christine Cornet followed by the launch of the new Alliance Francaise space.
Day 3: The last day will captivate romance session with Preeti Shenoy, Lisa Heidke and Milee Ashwarya; a session on Dissent and Democracy with Abhinav Chandrachud, Prayaag Akbar, Ruchir Joshi, Anuradha Bhagwati, Kaushik Sen and Sharmistha Goswami Chatterjee. The Adda session of the day will be Northeast India and Questions of Belonging with Manogya Loiwal, Samrat, Prajwal Parajuly, Bijoya Sawian and Sabah Al-Ahmed; a specially curated session on the inner workings of the publishing world from the bosses in The Last Word: Publishing and the Woman Boss with the distinguished publishers Karthika V K, Preeti Vyas, Milee Ashwarya, Niti Kumar with Anjum Katyal; the most anticipated conversation of the day with the international bestselling author Francesc Miralles and his famous book ‘IKIGAI — The Japanese Secret to a Long Happy Life’, a book that touches on the various aspects of life based on ancient, well-practised Japanese technique called IKIGAI. The festival closes with a flourish with ‘Many Sides of Saurabh Shukla’: Actor, Screenwriter and Playwright in conversation with Vinay Sharma.
Full schedule of AKLF is published.Follow the link to download the schedule.
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