Even as the boom of literary festivals in the sub-continent continues to gain momentum, it is the versatile list of speakers from several quarters of the world that sets the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival apart from others of its kind. And the first list of 60 speakers for its 2018 edition, announced Tuesday, lives up to this promise.

Teamwork Arts, producers of the annual gathering, has announced that the 2018 edition of Zee JLF, to be held from January 25 to 29 next year, will present over 250 writers, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons from over 35 different nationalities. The line-up of speakers include winners of the Nobel Prize, Man Booker prize, Pulitzer prize, the Padma Vibhushan and the Sahitya Akademi award.

The first list of 60 speakers released Tuesday include Akhil Sharma, award-winning writer and creative writing professor; Amy Tan, author of the widely adapted book The Joy Luck Club; award-winning Indian film director and producer Anurag Kashyap, Indian art critic, art historian, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee, B.N. Goswamy and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The discussions at the upcoming edition will feature around works that span both Indian and the international literary landscapes. Festival co-director Namita Gokhale’s sustained efforts to promote translations has also resulted in the genre being under the spotlight, which is, in the organisers own words, “a bid to reinforce a diverse and flavourful cultural matrix”. Furthermore, the 2018 edition hopes to welcome speakers representing over 15 Indian and more than 20 international languages, a feat unaccomplished so far by any other literary event.

“As we wait to celebrate yet another milestone year of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018, we look forward to the infectious energy of intellectual debate and the dynamism that charges the Festival’s atmosphere and comes from a mingling of celebrated minds, diverse perspectives, and heightened cultural experiences. What is heartening is that this incredible global phenomenon that the Festival has evolved into is still deeply rooted in its core identity as a completely accessible and democratic platform,” said Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts who produce the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival.

Also included in the list of speakers are English novelist and author of the iconic Bridget Jones Diary, Helen Fielding; Man Booker winner and author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje; Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter from The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, Michael Rezendes; Sahitya Akademi Award winner Mridula Garg; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laurate Mohammad Yunus; essayist and novelist Pico Iyer; New York Times bestselling poet and illustrator Rupi Kaur; Indian classical dancer and Padma Vibhushan awardee Sonal Mansingh; Indian philanthropist and writer Sudha Murty; Academy and Tony Award winning Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard; and Grammy Award winning tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, among others.

Like every year, festival co-director William Dalrymple has once again predicted the upcoming edition of the festival to be “the best Jaipur ever”.

“2018 may be the best Jaipur ever, fielding an unrivalled literary ‘First Eleven’ made up of star poets and acclaimed novelists, historians and biographers, thinkers and dreamers and scribblers and critics, genii and half the faculty of Harvard. It’s an astonishing lineup and I can’t wait for the 25th of January to see it all become a reality,” said Dalrymple, no mean writer himself.

The organisers also said that the festival will set literary conversations, debates and dialogue against the backdrop of built and cultural heritage including curated art installations, world music performances at the Music Stage and cultural evenings at heritage venues like the Amber Fort and Hawa Mahal. The 2018 edition of the festival will again be held at the historic Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur.