Kochi may become a permanent venue of literature festivals
KOCHI: Kerala may be the most literate state, and at the forefront of nurturing a literary ecosystem transcending boundaries. Yet, the state has no literary events that can match the status and popularity of the ‘Jaipur Literary Festival’, the ‘Kolkata Literary Festival’ or the ‘Hyderabad Literary Festival.’ This may soon become a thing of the past. The Kerala government on Sunday announced the ‘International Book Fair 2018’ from March 1 to 13 at Marine Drive grounds, Kochi, and a parallel ‘International Festival of Books & Authors 2018 from March 6-10’ at Bolgatty Palace, Kochi, bringing in renowned authors and cultural icons from across the world.
The event, organised by the Department of Co-operation’s Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society Ltd, is the state’s attempt to have its own literary festival on the lines of other prestigious literary conclaves in the country. Addressing a meeting of media editors on Sunday, Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Co-Operation, Tourism and Devaswom, said the government would consider making Kochi the venue for the annual literary festival. The department is providing `2 crore for the event. “We are hoping the festival gets proper support from the corporate houses in the city so that Kochi emerges as the permanent venue for the festival,” the minister said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the two-week-long festival on March 1. Jnanpith award winner M T Vasudevan Nair is the festival patron while Vysakhan Mash is the festival director. Shaji N Karun is the creative director and Rajan Gurukkal is the programme consultant. A total of 72 publishers from across the globe, including Penguin Random House, PAN Macmillan, Harper Collins, Sage Publishers, among others are participating in the 11-day event. Some of the key topics in the inaugural edition include ‘India since 1990’, ‘Idea of Equality’, ‘Ideas that changed the world’, ‘Indian knowledge heritage’, ‘Kerala in History,’ ‘Kerala 2050’, ‘Emerging technologies’, ‘Living Aesthetics’, ‘World Literature’, ‘Indian Non-Malayalam Literature’ and ‘Indian English Literature’.
Some of the prominent speakers include Z P Dala from South Africa; Ewoud Kieft, writer, historian and musician; Vladimir Pistalo, contemporary Serbian writer; Nenad Saponjat, editor in chief of AGORA Publishing House, Serbia; Eduardo Rabasa, editor and writer from Mexico; Diego Valverde, editor and writer from Germany; Alexandra Buchler from Literature Across Frontiers; Kiran Nagarkar; Perumal Murugan; Salma, Sachidandan; M Mukundan; N S Madhavan and Shashi Tharoor.