The Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) will be back in 2014, promising three days of literary brainstorming. Also, understanding the intertwining of art with literature, performing arts like theatre, painting, video art, music and so on will be part of the events.
This mean that apart from conversations, readings, book launches by local, national and international writers, the literature festival will include workshops on theatre, Haiku, music, photography, story-writing, print-making and paper airplane-making. Popular writers like Mallika Sarabhai, Bill Wolak, Githa Hariharan, Mahesh Dattani, Rajmohan Gandhi, Anand Gandhi and Mridula Garg will be attending the festival. Participants can engage in discussions with the writers and sit in on reading sessions.
Being conducted from January 24 to 26, the HLF 2014 will have new and interesting categories like the ‘Street Fest’ which will cover sessions of Mushaira, Hindi plays by Vinay Varma’s Sutradhar, ‘Wall stories’ with short filmsbeing projected onto street walls and popular literary activities like meet-the-author corner, a book-swap point, publisher kiosks and informal book-signing gatherings with authors.
“We are expecting school, college students and families to attend the festival. Electronic buggies will be arranged for physically challenged,” informs Anita Desai, director, Goethe Zentrum, Hyderabad which is one of the partners of the festival. She added that the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department is the primary sponsor of the festival, with other cultural agencies from the city supporting it.
Speaking about the significance of literature festivals in the city, GSP Rao, managing editor, Muse India, who has been part of HLF from 2010, opines that from the past decade the city has seen many developments like the emergence of Information Technology and modern sectors like finance, and this has created a motley audience for the festival, spanning various interests. “With this, there has been an influx of people from different parts of the nation and the place has become cosmopolitan. They have different inclinations towards literature and we wanted to fulfill their needs,” says Rao.
He shared that when the festival was launched in 2010, the concentration was on poetry, but other genres of literature were added in the subsequent festivals. “To increase participation of people with different interests, we have included other art forms also,” explains Rao.
HLF 2014 will also feature delegates and writers from Ireland, Singapore, Germany, Sri Lanka and USA.
Every year, around 10 regional languages are included in HLF. From 2013, a particular national language was focused on; while it was Telugu last year, this time around it will be Hindi.
Events will take place at Lamakaan, Ashiana, Saptaparni and Kalakriti Art Gallery, centering the activity around Road No 8, Banjara Hills. Log onto www.hyderabadliteraryfestival.com.