By IANS
Jaipur : The pink city of Jaipur is set to host a five-day literature festival from Jan 23, with participation of famous writers including American novelists Gore Vidal and Donna Tartt and booker prize winning English novelist Ian McEwan.
Legendary Bollywood actor and producer Dev Anand, Bengali actress and film director Aparna Sen, Indian-American mathematician and writer Manil Suri, author and journalist Namita Devidayal, author and film producer Pradip Krishen will also be in Jaipur for the festival.
“Young poets Jeet Thayil, Tishani Doshi, Sampurna Chattarji and graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee, Robin Robertson, newcomers Ambarish Satwik, Sonia Faleiro and Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi are among others slated to participate in cultural exchanges,” said Vinod Joshi, the regional director of the festival.
The festival will also have a number of well-known writers from Pakistan including Moni Mohsin, Kamila Shamsie and Shahbano Bilgrami.
The state’s poets and authors will come together to explore and discuss Rajasthani poetry, contemporary fiction and folk literature.
Joshi added that the festival this year includes a range of fun-filled activities, talks and debates, including an editing workshop run in conjunction with the British Council and Oxford Bookstores called “Am I Writing Rubbish?”, music performances by Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale, Susheela Raman, Sam Mills and Paban Das Ball, and children’s workshops focusing on education, literacy and citizenship.
The Jaipur literature festival is an initiative of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation, an NGO that works with Rajasthan’s musicians and craftsperson to preserve skills and promote economic livelihoods while generating awareness about the value of heritage.
This year, the festival is being produced by Teamwork Production, which runs 14 festivals annually around the world in cities such as Cape Town, Durban, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Singapore and Valladolid.