Bibliofile
Feminists will dominate both the Delhi and Mumbai litfests, and then there are the annual Crosswords awards. But the question is: who gets the Worst Sex award?
Crossword, Anyone?
Yet another event competes for limelight with Kitabfest: the annual Crosswords awards in Mumbai on Feb 21. Curiously, instead of tying up with Crosswords to showcase the winner at Kitabfest, the two events work oblivious of each other. Last year being the year of the biggies, both the fiction and non-fiction shortlist has big stars like Vikram Seth (Two Lives), Vikram Chandra (Sacred Games), Kiran Desai (Inheritance of Loss), Manju Kapur (Home) competing with debut authors like Sanjay Suri (Brideless in Wembley) and Kalpana Swaminathan (Bougainvillea House). And in non-fiction: Janaki Bakhle (Two Men and Music), Yashodhara Dalmia (Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life), Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth (The Shaping of Modern Gujarat).
A Prize For Bad Sex
One of the most entertaining, if not illuminating, litawards is the bad sex award. At the Kitab litfest, writers will read their choice samples of worst sex extracts. Of course, they won't be from their own works (or their friends!)