VIJAYAWADA: The much-awaited 34th edition of Vijayawada Book Festival is all set for inauguration on Thursday, offering a diverse array of thousands of books in different languages, besides creating a platform for discussions, book inaugurations, literary meetings, speeches by eminent writers, and a dedicated section for children’s books.
The fest, organised by Vijayawada Books Exhibition Society (VBES), will captivate visitors with a rich display of books from various publishers across the country. The 11-day literary event will be conducted at Government Polytechnic College ground in the city.
Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, Sahitya Akademi chairman Madhav Kaushik and secretary K Sreenivasa Rao will inaugurate the festival.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Emesco Publications founder and chairperson D Vijay Kumar shared that the book festival is named after Varahalu Chetty, a famous bookseller in Andhra Pradesh, and the main dais is named after Kethu Vishwanadha Reddy, a Sahitya Akademi winner and the separate enclosure provided for children is named after Srirama, an eminent journalist.
Sahitya Akademi secretary said that despite the prevalence of gadgets and online books, the physical book-reading habit persists among Indians. He highlighted India’s status as the third-largest publication country globally, following America and China, and disclosed the various services provided by Sahitya Akademi.
VBES president T Manohar Naidu announced that the programmes would commence on Thursday evening and the festival gates will be open daily from 2 pm to 9 pm. Naidu said 204 stalls with lakhs of books will be exhibited by nearly 150 publishers, and nearly 5 lakh visitors are expected this year.