Early To Rise
The litfest season is beginning unseasonably early this year with the first Kovalam literary festival kicking off in Trivandrum’s beach resort on October 6. The three-day affair may look like a clone of the more established Jaipur litfest (the same cliched mix of regional versus English writing). But the temptations of an unexplored books-hungry readership coupled with five-star luxury and exotic locale are proving hard to resist. The festival’s stars include Patrick French, William Dalrymple, Shashi Tharoor, Shobhaa De, Gulzar, Tarun Tejpal, recent Crossword awardees Usha K.R. and Namita Devidayal, personable poet (and now novelist) Tishani Doshi and Penguin’s latest, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan.