The tenth edition of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival will focus on women issues, health, current affairs and children’s literature. The festival, which commenced in 2010, will have eminent personalities from all walks of life attending the function, which will be held at Park Street Heritage of Kolkata.
The author of Less, Andrew Sean Greer, who is also the 2018 Pulitzer Winner for fiction, will grace the occasion, along with feminist writer Ira Mukhoty. Mythology author Devdutt Pattanaik and historian Ramchandra Guha will also participate in the debates. With presence of authors like Shobhaa De, debates on the #MeToo movement could take centre-stage.
Writers Upamanyu Chatterjee, Ravish Kumar, historian Rajmohan Gandhi and parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor will participate in the three-day event—from January 18 to 20. Formed ten years back, the Kolkata Literary Fest is the distant cousin of the Jaipur Literary Fest, endeavouring to bring "Kolkata to globe and globe to Kolkata". The fest is now a regular fixture in the city, which commercialises books and arts but had never commercialised the debate on literature and social issues.
Apeejay Surendra Group also runs the famous Oxford Book Stores across India. The fest has now entered its tenth year. In 2020, the Kolkata outlet of the iconic Oxford bookstore will complete 100 years. "We are proud that the bookstore has been a mecca for generations of book lovers. It is quite remarkable that AKLF has, while representing diversity, continued to be firmly rooted in our community in Kolkata, a rare city whose citizens still value the life of the mind," said Maina Bhagat, director of Oxford Bookstores.
The fest will not be confined to literary intellect. Like previous years, there would be live theatre performances, heritage walks, street theatre, eclectic live musical performances, film screening and even cooking worships, amid food for serious thought.