Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer, Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, American writer-filmmaker Chris Kraus, and noted American Indologist Wendy Doniger are among the 400 speakers scheduled to appear at the sixth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF), which begins on January 20.
To be held at the beaches of Kozhikode, the four-day literary extravaganza, touted as the "second largest festival" of its kind in Asia, aims to map literature through discussions on several aspects shaping human consciousness including art, cinema, environment, pandemic, and its impacts, politics, history, and economy.
"While the movie buffs are seen in numbers at International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), and art lovers wait for Kochi Muziris Biennale, KLF combines both these worlds seamlessly covering a wide spectrum of interests. Fireside chats at nights, music concerts, classical, theatre, and performing artists will make up the entertainment quotient at KLF 2022," the organisers said in a statement.
"This year the organizers will introduce curated gastronomical exuberance with food trucks and ethnic cuisines," it added.
Hosting 200 plus sessions and writers, experts, and performers from over a dozen nations globally -- apart from India -- the eclectic line-up this year would also include names like Shashi Tharoor, Ada Yonath, Abhijit Banerjee, Remo Fernandes, Sagarika Ghose, Manu S Pillai, Devdutt Pattanaik and Sudhir Kakar.
"It is a privilege to be back at KLF and to remind oneself why this is among India's best literature festivals. The lineup of speakers is not only exceedingly impressive, the time and space allocated to writers across languages, and on themes that are so diverse, makes attendance a richly rewarding experience," said author-historian Pillai.
Organized by the DC Kizhakemuri Foundation, and supported by the government of Kerala and Kerala Tourism Board, the director of KLF 20222 is a renowned poet, critic, and writer K Satchidanandan.
It will come to a close on January 23, 2022
[With Inputs From PTI]
