For the literature lovers, 10-day long annual literature extravaganza, the Jaipur Literature Festival is all set to take place between 28th January to 1st February 2022 on-ground in Jaipur and until February 6th online.
Set to return in a hybrid avatar, this year, the festival will host over 250 speakers, writers, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons from across a vast array of nationalities, representing 21 Indian and international languages as well as major awards such as the Nobel, the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Sahitya Akademi, the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Shri, the DSC Prize for Literature, the JCB Prize for Literature and many more.
The festival has hosted over 5000 speakers & artists and welcomed over a million book-lovers over the past editions, evolving into the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’.
The programme, unveiled today, is vast and kaleidoscopic, with themes ranging from the arts, biographies, business & economics, climate change, current affairs, food, poetry, science & technology, Artificial Intelligence, and the writing process, etc.
Some highlights from the programme include Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah’s session. Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 and is celebrated as one of Africa’s greatest living writers.
In a session, Nobel Laureate Abhijit V Banerjee will be in conversation with artist and illustrator Cheyenne Olivier.
This session will explore a totally different dimension of the economist donning the cap of a gourmet chef. Discussing his delicious cookbook Cooking To Save Your Life, Banerjee will take the audience through the recipes he has delighted his friends, colleagues, and students with. He will speak movingly of the bonds of food and memory, friendship and community, across cultures and continents.
The 2021 Booker Prize-winning author Damon Galgut will discuss his writing style, process, inspirations, and the essence of his latest work The Promise. Galgut is a master of the knot, the stubborn rope which chafes and binds people to places, politics, prophets and the past.
Besides, an Indian-American businesswoman and former CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi’s memoir, My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future, follows her journey of grit and determination as she broke through several glass ceilings and the barriers of gender and race to become a global business leader.
In conversation with Seema Goswami, celebrated Indian actress Neena Gupta will discuss the backstories behind the glamorous facade, the ups and downs, the triumphs and heartbreaks that she has manoeuvred in her extraordinary life. In Gupta’s candid autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh, she chronicles her extraordinary journey, both personal and professional, deconstructing Bollywood to tell her version of the realities behind the star-studded screen.
Bringing a historical flavour to the programme, acclaimed writer and historian Manu S. Pillai and writer and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor will get into a conversation with author Ira Mukhoty.
Apart from many of these, the audience will also witness a session that looks at the relations between India and Bangladesh and examines the socio-political, cultural and economic way forward to fuel and supports the rich diversity of the two neighbouring countries and commemorate 50 years of Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
Eminent Bangladeshi journalist Mahfuz Anam is the editor of The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s foremost English language daily newspaper.
He will be in conversation with the author of The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community and The Eastern Gate, Sudeep Chakravarti.
They will discuss the shifting axis of Bangladesh’s socio-economic, political and religious ethos and the emerging roadblocks around migration, refugees, water-sharing and development that await the road ahead. Former diplomat and columnist Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty will also be a part of the session.
The Festival will also explore the artistic side of literature with some sessions concentrated on art, culture, music, poetry etc. at a dedicated venue for sessions on the arts. Arundhathi Subramaniam is an award-winning poet, author and critic who has contributed greatly to contemporary spiritual writing and exploration.
Subramaniam will discuss the confluence of literature, culture and yoga, the ultimate practice and meeting-place for individual consciousness and the universe.
The Tourism Minister of Rajasthan, Vishvendra Singh said, “I am delighted that the Jaipur Literature Festival is returning on-ground in the Pink City. I believe that the Festival truly provides an exceptional platform for both Indian and global authors and thought leaders to engage and strengthen Our literary heritage and culture. I look forward to warmly welcoming all Authors, Speakers, Artists, Musicians and Visitors to Jaipur and the State of Rajasthan for the Festival in January 2022.”
Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher, and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival said, “My co-director William Dalrymple, producer Sanjoy K. Roy, and our committed colleagues at Teamwork, have crafted a programme, both on-ground and virtual, that conjures the elusive spirit of our transforming times, and gives us healing and resilience.”