Jaipur Literature Festival set to begin its

 Jaipur Literature Festival set to begin its first-ever virtual show with 2021 edition

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Key Highlights

• The Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 will take place from 19th – 28th February on an exclusive virtual platform
• The eighth edition of, Jaipur BookMark (JBM), the B2B platform that runs parallel to the Festival will be held from 22nd to 25th February 2021
• Jaipur Music Stage will premiere seven exclusive performances from across the world by renowned musicians like Jack Warnock, Shye Ben Tzur, Anirudh Varma, Dhruv Visvanath and many more
• Inaugural keynote address on The Art of Innovation by Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group and Dr Tilly Blyth, Head of Collections and Principal Curator, Science Museum, London, are on the anvil

Hailed as the 'greatest literary show on Earth' and the ‘Kumbh of Literature’, the Jaipur Literature Festival 2021, will open tomorrow on its brand-new virtual platform which recreates the iconic Diggi Palace Hotel, offering an immersive experience for literature-lovers and festival-goers. The Festival continues to 'celebrate the word', bringing together a diverse set of voices and a gamut of ‘stories’ - fearless and funny, fiery and tender, fantastical and true-to-life, equivocal, atypical and every day.

With an ever-astounding line up of speakers and sessions, the Festival this year features over 300 speakers and performers representing around 25 Indian and 18 international languages and over 23 nationalities as well as major literary awards ranging from the Nobel, the Man Booker, the Pulitzer, the Sahitya Akademi, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, JCB Prize for Literature.

India’s rich, diverse and colourful literary heritage remains at the core of the 14th Jaipur Literature Festival as it brings together writers from across India representing a multitude of the country’s languages. This year, the Festival hosts speakers from the vast canvas of Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Assamese, Sanskrit, Braj, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Odiya, Bhojpuri, Khaasi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Santhali, Bodo, Manipuri, Sindhi, Nepali, Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Dogri, Kannada. The Festival will also have speakers representing a number of global and international languages like English, Italian, Irish, Nepali, Dutch, Estonian, Bhutanese, Sinhala, Afrikaans, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh, Kurdish, to name a few.

The 14^th edition of the Festival will begin on Friday, February 19^th, with the inaugural keynote address by renowned author Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group and Dr Tilly Blyth, Head of Collections and Principal Curator, Science Museum, London.

Speakers at the Festival this year include American business magnate and co-founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates; American economist, public policy analyst and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz; Pakistani activist for female education and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai; Man Booker Prize-winning author Douglas Stuart; journalist and Pulitzer awardee Jeffrey Gettleman, to name a few.

National Film Award-winning actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas made her American TV acting debut on the ABC TV-hit drama Quantico where she made history as the first Indian-born actor to star as the lead of an American TV drama series. Unfinished is a book following her journey through life and cinema. In conversation with author and columnist Shobhaa De, Chopra will explore her childhood in India, through her formative teenage years in the US, to her return to India where she unexpectedly won the national and global beauty pageants (Miss India and Miss World) that launched her acting career.

There will be an intense session on the interrelated schools of Indian music, which will discuss the constant creative interplay between classical and folk music as well as that of hybrid and popular genres in our online digital age. Acclaimed poet, writer, lyricist, CBFC chairman, communication specialist Prasoon Joshi and scholar, singer, musician, writer and social activist Vidya Shah will speak of their understanding and appreciation of musical traditions, and their evolution, occasionally breaking into song to explain or expand on a point. They will also throw light on the cultural diversity as well as the intrinsic unity of this vast heritage and its new offshoots.

Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal’s co-authored play Betrayed by Hope follows the chequered life of poet and writer extraordinaire Michael Madhusudan Dutt. The script captures the anguish of a fractured identity as well as Dutt’s remarkable innovations in literary genres such as the epic and the sonnet. In a fascinating session of readings and discussion, Gokhale and Lal will be in conversation with actor and multidisciplinary artist Oroon Das and explore the paradoxes of Dutt’s life and work.

Author and Jaipur Literature Festival Co-Director Namita Gokhale said, “The virtual edition of Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 is an absorbing immersive experience where we encounter an outstanding roster of great writers from around the world. It could be called a living library, or indeed a library of life. The challenges and disruptions of 2020 have transformed into the triumphs of 2021.”

Author and Festival Co-Director William Dalrymple said,” Despite pandemics and political upheavals around the world, the Jaipur Literature Festival continues to spread its wings and has transformed itself into one of the world's most popular online spaces for profound discussions about books and writing. While this year's Jaipur will be a quieter affair than usual, our commitment to literary excellence continues undimmed as we present one of our most extraordinary lists to date."

Sanjoy K Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts, the producer of Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 has a stellar list and is possibly one of our best festival line ups ever with Nobel Laureates - Joeseph Stiglitz and Malala Yousafzai, an exclusive session with Bill Gates and Priyanka Chopra and an array of visually exciting sessions on music, dance, theatre, food, sustainability, innovation and much more.”

“We hope to enhance the online digital experience and capture an essence of the colour and diversity represented by Diggi Palace   the home of this vibrant edition of the festival,” he added.

Preeta Singh, President, Teamwork Arts, said, “It's been an exhilarating challenge and opportunity to work on this edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, one truly unique and pathbreaking. Our immersive virtual format will delight our existing as well yet untapped audiences far and wide. With a bright vision of what festivals of the future will be like, we've created a masterful experience for literature lovers as well as brands that have partnered with us generously to celebrate the word and the power of stories, ideas, and dialogue in shaping our times.”

In a special session titled ‘The Connections and Disconnections Between India and China’, in conversation with author and Jaipur Literature Festival Co-Director William Dalrymple, Director of the Center for Global Asia and Professor of History, NYU Shanghai, Tansen Sen will set out on a singular mission: to fill the gaps in the narratives tying the regions, breaking through traditional conceptions of understanding India-China connections and proposing new ways to explore historical and contemporary relations.

Patrick Radden Keefe has always had a way with his words, powerfully laying out stories that illuminate a much larger picture. An award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker, Radden Keefe will give us a glimpse into his writing process and the source of his inspirations, in conversation with author and literary editor Finton O’Toole.

A powerful narrative on the stark realities of climate change, We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by award-winning author Jonathan Safran Foer takes a hard-hitting look at the day-to-day human contribution to the unfolding environmental catastrophe. Weaving personal stories, facts and metaphors, he will analyse what motivates some people to sacrifice short-term comfort for the sake of the long-term preservation of our climate by eliminating animal-based products from their diet. In conversation with journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Gettleman, Foer will dwell on the changes that each one of us can make to mitigate the imminent and unfolding crisis.

The digital landscape is perhaps the most exciting space for creative potential today, having revolutionised traditional modes of consuming, interpreting and interacting with text-based narratives. The tide has increasingly shifted in support of online content, as streaming platforms constantly evolve, challenging viewer expectations and subverting the ways in which stories are created, absorbed and shared. In a fascinating session, the panelists - author Vikram Chandra, film directors and screenwriters Sudhir Mishra, Vikramaditya Motwane and Vice President, Content, at Netflix India Monika Shergill, in conversation with Vani Tripathi Tikoo, will exchange ideas on the process of adapting dynamic scripts to the screen, reimagining the text for the visual medium and broadening the possibilities of immersive, authentic storytelling.

In another session, celebrated director and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi will take the audience on an extravagant journey through the life, mind, method and madness of perhaps one of the greatest filmmakers Bollywood has seen today. Over the past three decades, Chopra has seen it all - from putting together low-budget student films to establishing the largest production house within the Indian film industry - he has presented the biggest blockbusters of the era while also introducing the audience to a sparkling list of actors who he took under his wing and nurtured to stardom. In conversation with journalist and actor Vani Tripathi Tikoo, they will dive into a session on Chopra's life and work and a friendship spanning decades.

Sport and a billion dreams: 2021 is a huge sporting year with the postponed Olympics and Paralympics and the men’s World Cup scheduled back-to-back. The women’s World Cup is also less than a year away in February 2022. From the recent evidence of the Australia series, it is clear that through sport, a new India is speaking out: an India that isn’t divided, that isn’t toxic and one that is secular and vibrant. This panel, which includes some of India’s best athletes and para-athletes like Pullela Gopichand and Mansi Joshi, men and women who are all great stories themselves, will celebrate the spirit of a new India and look ahead at the huge year in prospect. They will be in conversation with renowned author and sports journalist Boria Majumdar who has documented their stories in his books on cricket and Olympic sport.

Jaipur BookMark (JBM), the B2B platform that runs parallel to the Festival, will return for its 8^th edition.  JBM has become a one-stop-shop for publishers, translators, literary agents, booksellers and writers to meet, discuss ideas, and ‘talk business’. Jaipur BookMark 2021 features sessions on the challenges for publishers and booksellers in the post-pandemic era, skilling for the publishing industry, translations and rights, market trends, distribution models and many other engaging discussions. 

The Festival presents not just stimulating conversations on literature and the written and spoken word, but also includes musical performances giving it a vivid cultural backdrop. Similar to the on-ground experience, the audience will be able to enjoy Morning Music every day during the virtual Festival with eminent musicians like - singer-songwriter from Srinagar Ali Safuddin, known throughout the valley for his magnetic and captivating voice that amplifies the plight of his people and the cultural heritage of the Kashmiri community; versatile and popular singer Harpreet; HimaliMou who sing 'Pahaadi' or mountain folk music from Uttarakhand; internationally acclaimed performer, composer, cultural entrepreneur and music educator Shubhendra Rao; UK-based vocalist and composer Supriya Nagarajan; popular Hindustani classical vocalist Ujwal Nagar.

This year, the electrifying Jaipur Music Stage will showcase a variety of artistes from the national and international spectrum and a multi-genre abundance. The sessions will be streamed every evening during the Festival featuring The Anirudh Varma Collective, a contemporary Indian classical ensemble led by Delhi-based pianist, composer and producer, Anirudh Varma; Belonging: a Belfast-Kolkata online musical collaboration featuring Jason O’Rourke and Deepmoy Day; singer-songwriter, producer and accomplished acoustic guitarist from New Delhi Dhruv Visvanath; the popular Kutle Khan Project; renowned Israeli musician Shye Ben Tzur; BBC NI/Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Young Musician Platform Award-winning singer Jack Warnock.

The Festival has been made possible with the support of partners who are committed to promoting it and believe in the value it brings to its audiences and literature-lovers from across the world.

This year the Festival has been ‘Protected by Dettol’ and ‘Supported by The JCB Prize for Literature’.

Diageo has joined hands with the Festival as Celebration Partner and Primus will be Knowledge Partner. The Delegation of the European Union to India, The European Union Prize for Literature, Cultural Relations Platform and Creative Europe will be Festival Partners and the Royal Norwegian Embassy will be Country Partner for JBM.

Amazon India has joined hands with the Festival as the Online Sales Partner. Talking about the collaboration, Pragya Sharma, Director, Category management, Amazon India, said “We at Amazon.in , strive to build the love for reading and learning. We are excited to partner with Jaipur Literature Festival as their official online book store. We continue to build a strong portfolio of books providing customers with vast selection and an unmatched shopping experience. Customers on Amazon.in can access a wide range of titles launched by bestselling authors during Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 on the specially curated store here.”

Session partners include British Council, British Council Wales, Bank of Baroda, North India Office US Embassy, The Embassy of Ireland, Embassy of Italy in India, Etsy, Netflix, Oyo, The University of York-UK, University of Chicago.

For this year, the media partners are Amar Ujala, Rajasthan Patrika, Morning Standard, Sunday Standard, Business Standard. Additionally, The Week will be the Magazine Partner and Dailyhunt will Streaming Partner for the Festival. Radio Partners will be Fever FM, Radio Nasha, Radio One and MY FM.

The other partners include the Aga Khan Foundation, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Department of Arts & Culture, Jan Michalski, Penguin Random House, Public Health Engineering Department, Rajasthan Tourism, The State Bank of India. Penguin has joined hands in partnership with a ‘Virtual Reading Room’ at the Festival.

Jaipur Literature Festival Announces Programme for

 Jaipur Literature Festival Announces Programme for Virtual 2021 Edition

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Set to take place between 19^th to 28^th February 2021, the Jaipur Literature Festival returns with a stellar online programme, spread over 10 days, for its 14th edition.

The ‘greatest literary show on Earth’ returns in a virtual avatar, featuring a spectacular line-up of speakers from across the world, consisting of writers, poets, playwrights, thinkers, politicians, journalists, cultural icons and recipients of major literary awards including the Man Booker, the Pulitzer, JCB Prize for Literature, Commonwealth, European Union Prize, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, PEN Award for Poetry in Translation etc.  

The programme, unveiled today, is vast and kaleidoscopic, with themes ranging from Technology & AI, Politics & History, Environment & Climate Change, Mental Health, Economics, Translations, Poetry & Music, Food & Literature, Geopolitics, Science & Medicine, Democracy & Constitutions, Water & Sustainability, Historical Fiction, Travel, etc.

Some highlights from the programme include Glasgow-born author Douglas Stuart whose 2020 Booker Prize-winning debut novel Shuggie Bain evokes the essence of addiction, parenthood, courage and love. Following the bond between a son and his mother, fractured by alcoholism, poverty, aspiration and human misery, the novel graphs an intimate, devastating yet ultimately hopeful journey through their lives.  In conversation with writer and playwright Paul McVeigh, Stuart will unravel the thought and process behind bringing this heartbreaking story out into the world.

Celebrated American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist Noam Chomsky’s latest book, Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power, sharply questions the utopian idea of neoliberalism and the consequences of markets dictating all aspects of society. Evaluating the ten principles that have fuelled this idea, he will unravel its roots and its troubling impact on American society, culture and politics, in conversation with journalist Sreenivasan Jain.

Covering the ongoing pandemic, doctors and co-authors Randeep Guleria, Chandrakant Lahariya and Gagandeep Kang will discuss their exciting new project in conversation with award-winning journalist Maya Mirchandani. The focus of the session will revolve around whether India wins the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, is an MD in Medicine and the first DM in Pulmonary Medicine in the country, and has been at the forefront of the Government of India’s efforts on the COVID-19 pandemic’s preparedness and response. Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya is a leading public policy and health systems expert and a recipient of the Indian Council of Medical Research's Dr. BC Srivastava Foundation Award for his work on translating community-based health research in public policy interventions. Dr. Gagandeep Kang is a renowned infectious disease researcher and virologist who serves on many advisory committees in India and internationally, including for the World Health Organization.

During the Festival, award-winning Irish writer Colm Tóibín will take us through the rhythm and roots of his writing process and celebrated career. A master of expression and text, Tóibín possesses a unique ability to inhabit and blend through his words an expansive universe of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. He is the bestselling author of The Master, The Blackwater Lightship, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster; his upcoming book is The Magician.

Marina Wheeler, a Queen’s Counsel in England, opens the portals of memory as the daughter of a woman traumatised by the Partition of 1947 that divided British India into Pakistan and India. Wheeler follows her mother's buried past, her marriage and move to England where she refuses to look over her shoulder at a lost world. In conversation with Navtej Sarna, the former High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, she will explore the meaning of the Punjabi Sikh identity as it survives through cultural transitions.

In a special session, director and writer Devashish Makhija’s latest book, Oonga will be launched followed by a conversation exploring the book.  The book is a powerful novel based on his film of the same name. Capturing the inherent paradox between dystopian ‘development’ and utopian ideologies, the book narrates the journey of a little boy in the midst of a clash between Adivasis, Naxalites, the CRPF and a mining company.

Acclaimed author and historian Vincent Brown's groundbreaking geopolitical thriller Tacky′s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War takes on the Atlantic slave trade with a subversive and powerful reconstruction of the history of insurgency, rebellion, victory and defeat. With a keen emphasis on the seminal uprising that upended the dominant imperial rule of the British Atlantic world, eventually becoming known as the Tacky’s Revolt, and ultimately leading the way for abolition. At as session titled ‘Tacky′s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War’, in conversation with writer and academic Maya Jasanoff, Brown will unpack the complex narratives binding the conflicting histories of Europe, Africa and America, offering illuminating insights into the condition of terror and war, more relevant than ever in the era of BLM and socio-political change.

Our knowledge and information of the Aztec empire, their history and their conquest, for generations have been informed by the Western pen. Author and historian Camilla Townsend’s Cundill History Prize-winning Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs brings to light a complex and riveting history of the Aztecs based entirely on direct translations of the annals written in the neglected Nahuatl language. The author will speak to acclaimed author and Oxford professor Peter Frankopan and explore the precarious survival and brutal conquest of the people of the sun and their journey of endurance.

Journalist and writer George Packer’s Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century is an enduring account of the force behind the Dayton Accords which famously ended the Balkan wars. Packer’s sweeping diplomatic history is based on Holbrooke's diaries and papers and gives a peek into the life of a man equally admired and detested. In conversation with journalist and writer Basharat Peer, Packer will dive into the life and career of an extraordinary and deeply flawed man and the political and social circles he inhabited.

Journalist and writer Meenakshi Ahamed’s latest book, A Matter Of Trust, charts the complex relationship between India and the United States from the years following Indian Independence to today’s evolving politics. Based on her research of presidential papers, newly declassified documents, memoirs and interviews, the book evaluates the dynamics between the people in power in both countries against the backdrop of constantly developing socio-political-economic changes. At a book launch session, the writer will be in conversation with former Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, Shyam Saran and former diplomat Frank G. Wisner, and will discuss the far-reaching implications of this relationship and the current global political climate.

Tripurdaman Singh's latest book Sixteen Stormy Days: The Story of the First Amendment of the Constitution of India is a fascinating look into the turbulent history and contentious legacy of the First Amendment of the Constitution. In conversation with journalist and writer Karan Thapar, Singh will explore the nascent years of India in the context of what he calls ‘the first great battle of ideas.’

Democracy is an inherently participatory process that ensures the role of constituents in the direction and operation of political and social life. Electoral systems convert individual votes and choices into larger decisions that impact societies, cultures and nations. At a special session, a distinguished panel consisting of author and the 16^th Chief Election Commissioner of India Navin B. Chawla, former Chief Election Commissioner of Nepal Neil Kantha Uprety and the Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan Dasho Kunzang Wangdi will decipher and evaluate the electoral process in conversation with anthropologist and writer Mukulika Banerjee.

These are dangerous times for democracy. In his new book, The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? renowned philosopher Michael Sandel shows how the polarised politics of our time reflects the deep divide between winners and losers. He argues that we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalisation and rising inequality. In conversation with celebrated author and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, Sandel will offer an ethic of dignity and solidarity that points the way to a new politics of the common good.

The Festival continues its rediscovery of the vast heritage of India’s languages. In a session focused on Hindi poetry, scholar and academic Rupert Snell will speak of the enduring legacy of the Bihari Satsai with its evocative romantic imagery and visual vocabulary, in conversation with fellow scholar, academic and translator Harish Trivedi. The Bihari Satsai is a work of the early 17^th century by the poet Biharilal in Braj Bhasha. The Satsai was written in the court of Raja Jai Singh of Amber near Jaipur. The poet was rewarded with a gold coin for each verse; 700 verses were compiled into the Bihari Satsai, which has been considered an outstanding representative of the Riti period, weaving together worldly experience and divine immanence, and adapting the writing style of court poetry. Rupert Snell’s translation for the Murty Classical Library is scholarly yet accessible and brings alive the tradition for modern readers.

The first Bhojpuri novel to be translated into English, Phoolsunghi, is a period piece about the life of a tawaif in the late 19^th century in colonial Bihar.  Though Bhojpuri songs and cinema have gained popular appeal, the richness of Bhojpuri literature is not widely known. Gautam Choubey,  an academic and a columnist, has innovatively translated this modern classic and rendered it with cultural nuances and poetry. Academic and author Francesca Orsini is Professor of Hindi and South Asian Literature at SOAS, University of London. In conversation with academic and award-winning translator Jatindra Kumar Nayak, Orsini and Choubey will discuss the novel, the times it was set in as well as the challenges of presenting it for contemporary readers.

In conversation with the author of Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal The Cosmos, Priyamvada Natarajan, acclaimed Italian physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli will take us through the deeper meaning of the universe and our place in it. Drawing inspiration from the ancient Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, Rovelli will take us on an illuminating journey through the unknown, exploring the mysteries of the cosmos, the fabric of space and the nature of time.

The Festival will remember legendary Indian actress Devika Rani through award-winning author and playwright Kishwar Desai’s book The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani which charts the life and career of the celebrated actress. Based on her personal letters and documents, the book narrates her journey through the creation of Bombay Talkies, India’s first professional studio, her marriages to Himanshu Rai and Svetoslav Roerich, and the struggle of being a woman in the entirely male-dominated world of Indian cinema.

Speaking on the programme of this year, author and Festival Co-Director Namita Gokhale said, “It's been a joyous challenge to work on the programming for Jaipur Literature Festival 2021. We look at our transformative times and try to understand the future through the lens of the present and the past.  Our hybrid digital outreach has opened up a new universe of possibilities. I’m excited at having Italian astrophysicist and writer Carlo Rovelli in conversation with Professor Priyamvada Natarajan, on Nagarjuna, Sunyata, and Stardust. Winner of the 2020 Booker prize, Douglas Stuart, speaks of his award-winning debut novel. We rediscover Emperor Ashoka’s ancient edicts through music with T.M. Krishna.”

“There is so much more to experience and reflect upon - from Gulabo Sapera and the dance of the serpents to the science, art and philosophy of Indian food - from the tragic life of the great Bangla writer, poet, and playwright Michael Madhusudan Dutt to the one and only M.S. Subbulakshmi. Shekhar Pathak and Ramachandra Guha tell us of the people’s history of the Chipko Movement. We present S. Hareesh’s award-winning novel ‘Moustache’, translated from Malayalam. In ‘Brown Baby’, British writer Nikesh Shukla explores shifting ideas of home. We pay tribute to the genius of S.R. Faruqi as we present his posthumously published novel, ‘Kabze Zaman’. These are some glimpses of the treats in store - a few surprises still await!” she added.

Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “A year after the world was felled by the pandemic, we have persevered and shown that human endurance can and will prevail, fuelled by knowledge and information, empathy and the right to justice. The Jaipur Literature Festival is representative of these ideals and will continue to be a platform to celebrate the joy of knowledge.”

The full programme will be available to view at : Programme - Jaipur Literature Festival

Jaipur BookMark (JBM), a B2B segment held parallel to the Festival, will open its eighth edition with an engaging virtual programme between the two weekends of the Jaipur Literature Festival. The virtual edition of JBM will run from 22nd to 25th February 2021, hosting two sessions per day. JBM will continue to bring together a wide range of publishers, literary agents, writers, translators, translation agencies and booksellers from across the world and give them an opportunity to exchange ideas and listen to major global industry players.

Jaipur Literature Festival announces impressive second tranche of speakers

• List includes celebrated culinary expert Madhur Jaffrey, Pulitzer Prize winner Dexter Filkins, Condé Nast Chairman Nicholas Coleridge and acclaimed author Elizabeth Gilbert

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HIGHLIGHTS

• Second tranche of 25 speakers announced - The Festival announced its second list of 25 speakers out of over 250 speakers expected to attend the 2020 edition. The second list featuresAnand Gopal, Anuradha Bhagwati, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Åsne Seierstad,Bruno Maçães, Devangana Dash, Dexter Filkins, Elizabeth Gilbert, Fintan O'Toole, Keshava Guha, Leïla Slimani, Lemn Sissay, Madhur Jaffrey, Neelum Saran Gour, Nicholas Coleridge, Parvati Sharma, Peter Frankopan, Paul Muldoon, Peter Hessler,Ravish Kumar, R.Gopalakrishnan, Roshan Ali, Shekhar Pathak, Simon Armitage and  Supriya Gandhi.
• Early Bird offers on Delegate Experience – A special early bird discount of 25% is being offered on the Festival Delegate Experience. The offer is valid until 30^th November 2019.
• Jaipur BookMark Announces iWrite – The B2B arm of the Festival, Jaipur BookMark (JBM) announced the 2^nd edition of the iWrite programme for emerging writers in September 2019. Shortlisted participants will get a platform to share their work and receive constructive guidance from international publishers, literary agents, translators and other industry experts in a pitching session at Jaipur during JBM through the platform. The last date for submitting entries for iWrite 2019 is December 10, 2019.

The annual Jaipur Literature Festival announced its second list of speakers for the much-awaited 13^th edition, set to take place from23-27 January 2020 at its customary picturesque home: the Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur. As the just-released list shows, the Festival will once again be a grand marathon of ideas between idealists, realists, visionaries, intellectuals, the avant-garde and the iconoclasts, who will engage in informed discussion and be united by an abiding love for literature.

The second list of 25 speakers include recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award Anand Gopal, author of ‘No Good Men Among the Living: America’; activist Anuradha Bhagwati, award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed book ‘Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience’; noted Indianpoet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, author of ‘Blue Is Like Blue’; bestselling author Åsne Seierstad, author of 5 books based on Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Chechnya and Norway; ex-Minister of European Affairs in Portugal Bruno Maçães who wrote the Financial Times Book of the Year ‘The Dawn of Eurasia’; New Delhi-based bookmaker Devangana Dash, author and illustrator of ‘The Jungle Radio: Bird Songs of India’ and veteran journalist Dexter Filkins, who received the Pulitzer for covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The list also includes a vastly diverse mix of journalists, activists, columnists, broadcastersand poets. The eminent names are National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of ‘Eat Pray Love’, which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide; columnist Fintan O'Toole, author of seven books, including the bestselling ‘A Traitor's Kiss’; Delhi-born authorKeshava Guha,who writes regularly on politics, literature and sports for a host of publications; novelist and activist Leïla Slimani, winner of the prestigious French literature award Prix Goncourt for her second novel, ‘Chanson douce’; poet Lemn Sissay, who has read on stage throughout the world from the Library of Congress in the United States to the University of Addis Ababa.

The list consists of celebrated people like acclaimed actress and author of several cookbooks Madhur Jaffrey, recipient of an honorary CBE and winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival; columnist Neelum Saran Gour, recipient of The Hindu Prize for Fiction 2018 for her latest novel, ‘Requiem in Raga Janki’; Editorial Director, Managing Director, President and Chairman of CondéNastand Chairman of the Victoria & Albert Museum Nicholas Coleridge, author of 14 books, including his memoir ‘The Glossy Years’.

The list continues with Indian columnist Parvati Sharma, author of the historical biography titled ‘Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal’; and of‘The Silk Roads’,Peter Frankopan, who was named one of the World’s 50 Top Thinkers by Prospect Magazine; Paul Muldoon,a former BBC radio and television producer and author of 13 collections of poetry, including ‘Moy Sand and Gravel’ for which he was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; National Book Award finalist Peter Hessler, recipient of the Kiriyama Prize for his book ‘River Town’; well-known TV anchor and journalist, Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awardee, recipient of the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, author of ‘The Free Voice - On Democracy, Culture and The Nation’, Ravish Kumar, host of NDTV’s flagship shows: ‘Prime Time’, ‘Hum Log’ and ‘Ravish Ki Report’; author of nine books, including the bestselling ‘The Case’ R. Gopalakrishnan, who served as the Chairman of Unilever Arabia, MD of Brooke Bond Lipton, Vice Chairman of Hindustan Lever and as Director of Tata Sons.

The list also includes novelist Roshan Ali, author of ‘Ib's Endless Search for Satisfaction’ which has been shortlisted for the 2019 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the 2019 JCB Prize for Literature; Indian academician Shekhar Pathak, recipient of the Padma Shri; UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, who published 12 full-length collections, most recently ‘Paper Aeroplane’ and ‘Selected Poems’; and Mughal historian Supriya Gandhi, author of ‘The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India’.

Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The second list we have announced for January 2020 has an intriguing mix of new and established, popular and unexpected speakers. Some of our favourite writers, including Ravish Kumar, Shekhar Pathak and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Leila Slimeni, and Peter Frankopan, return to Jaipur. I am excited about welcoming all these wonderful authors to the Festival, and listening in to Bruno Macaes, Anuradha Bhagwati, Roshan Ali, and of course the one and only MadhurJaffrey.”

William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said "The names we are revealing this week include some of the great masters of contemporary literature: three of our greatest poets, Simon Armitage, the brilliant British poet laureate, Lemn Sissay and Arvind Krishna Malhotra; Leila Slimani returning with her explosive new novel; Peter Hessler of the New Yorker, with his highly acclaimed new book on Egypt; Dexter Filkins, one of the world's most acclaimed war correspondents; Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame and the great Asne Seierstad, author of the Bookseller of Kabul. And that's not including brilliant new talent like Supriya Gandhi with her book on Dara Shukoh. I can barely believe the talent we are bringing together this year.”

Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “As we gear up for the 13^th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, we reinforce our commitment to bringing the best literary experience for our audiences through discourse and debate. This year’s programme features the best writers and academics from across the world including Nobel Laureates, Booker, Commonwealth, Sahitya Akademi, JCB and Crossword prize winners, as well as a host of new voices who will disarm you with their perspective of our world.”

The Festival’s B2B arm, Jaipur BookMark (JBM), now in its 7^th edition, is a platform for publishers, literary agents, translation agencies and writers wanting to talk business along with focussed sessions with major industry players from across the world. In an effort to engage with emerging writers who are looking for platforms to showcase their work, JBM launched the ‘First Book Club’ in January 2017, a mentorship programme for first-time writers, which was repositioned as the ‘iWrite’ mentorship initiative to include all aspiring authors with unpublished manuscripts sitting in their heads or on their computers. The last date for submitting entries for iWrite 2019 is December 10, 2019. The top 10 shortlisted candidates will be announced in the last week of December. The shortlisted candidates will get a platform to share their work and receive constructive guidance from both national and international publishers, literary agents, translators and other industry experts at a pitching session at Jaipur during JBM. Post the pitching session, some stand a chance to perhaps even sign a book deal!

The Festival has announced an exclusive early bird discount of 25% on its Delegate Experience, which offers a compelling cultural journey at the Festival, with delegate-only sessions, a chance to rest and recharge in the quiet of a well-stocked Delegate Lounge with refreshments and beverages on offer, a networking cocktail, lunches where one can mingle with authors, and passes to the Festival Heritage Event and the Jaipur Music Stage. The early bird discount is available at 25% for the Delegate Experience registrations (on using the code: EARLY25).