The 11th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLT) is all set to kick off on Saturday, December 3, at Hotel Lalit Ashok. The two-day festival will feature over 250 international, Indian, and city authors and speakers, four programme forums, and two children’s venues, said organisers.
They added stimulating conversations around a breadth of fiction and non-fiction topics, including history, biographies, translations, literature, religion, mythology, travel, art and music, feminism, food, cinema, publishing, technology, startups and more will also feature in the festival.
BLT will host several authors and speakers, including historian William Dalrymple, author and poet Jerry Pinto, poet and novelist Jeet Thayil, researcher and journalist Akshaya Mukul; author-politician Arun Shourie, author-playwright Cyrus Mistry, screenwriter-children’s writer Honey Irani, and author and constitutional lawyer J Sai Deepak among other guests.
Members from the film fraternity including Alankrita Shrivastava, Natesh Hegde, and Kamal KM, will be participating at ScreenLit—the pitching platform for screenwriters. Noted editors, journalists, and media personalities, including T J S George, Senthil Chengalvarayan, Bachi Karkaria, Kaveree Bamzai, Malini Goyal, R Kaushik, Stutee Ghosh, and Suresh Menon, will be among others at BLT.
Mukhtiyar Ali, a renowned folk singer from Rajasthan, will also enthral the audience with Sufiyana. He traces his lineage to the Mirasis, a nomadic community that has been the traditional carrier of the oral tradition of Sufiyana Kalam. Mukhtiyar blends Rajasthani folk idiom with refined classicism to sing the poetry of Kabir, Mira, and Sufi poets.
A few firsts
This year, BLT will feature members from the Asia-Pacific Writers and Translators (APWT), the region’s longest-running and largest literary network, launch ScreenLit, a platform for budding screenplay writers to pitch their stories to eminent filmmakers, and LitMart returns—a platform where first-time writers can present their story pitch to a jury of publishers, editors and literary agents.
BLT will also commemorate the life of Puneet Rajkumar through venue names based on the late Kannada actor like Gandhadagudi, Raajakumara, and Yuvaratna. A festival bookshop that caters to all ages, tastes, and lovers of any genre, and an app launch for an enhanced audience experience at the venue are also on the cards.
The festival will also have a children’s programme for the first time and it will be called Children|Literature|Fun – (C|L|F)’. It will include two forums—an activity stage and a literary stage, on both days of the festival, and writing workshops, illustration, storytelling, creative games, and music performances for children.
The BLT and Atta Galatta, a city-based bookstore and hub for literary events, will also give out the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize to honour the best of English fiction and non-fiction and Kannada writing. There will also be a session in partnership with The New India Foundation for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize for the best non-fiction book on modern/contemporary India.
BLT organisers say the festival celebrates the creative spirit of Bengaluru and commemorates the literary diversity it offers, bringing conversations with distinguished guests from the world of literature. Founded by Shinie Antony, BLT looks to put together a literary experience that brings writers—both established and aspiring—readers, publishers, students, young professionals, and other stakeholders of the city together on a common platform and creating a compelling space for engaging and thought-provoking discussions on literature and life.
First uploaded on: 01-12-2022 at 10:35 IST
