BANGALORE: With discussions on everything that spans the spectrum of literature — from politics to fashion to food to conflict — the third edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF), which will feature more than 150 authors, will kick off at Crowne Plaza, Electronics City, on Friday.
The three-day event, which will be held between 10 am and 8 pm, will also see a ‘Lit Mart’, where aspiring authors can pitch their stories to editors of reputed publishing houses.
Unpublished authors had been invited to submit a 250-word proposal with the idea and/or a plot summary, as well as a 250-word excerpt from the manuscript, by September 20. The 25 writers who have been shortlisted will now get three minutes each on Saturday to pitch their manuscripts before the panel.
The fest will also host curated conversations every day on popular themes to help readers converge, discuss and debate ideas, and share opinions on their favourite books.
Party With Books
On Saturday, the curated conversation will see a BYOB (Bring Your Own Book) party, wherein, in collaboration with Barter.li app, BLF will host an ‘evening of barter’ for people to share a part of their bookshelves.
Taking the home-grown literature festival to the world, for the first time, the sessions on all three days will be live-streamed on the BLF website.
The festival is dedicated to the memory of author U R Ananthamurthy, who passed away recently. A film on him, commissioned by the Sahitya Akademi, will be screened on all days.
The festival will also feature quite a few authors from the north-east. Aboriginal writers from Australia too have been invited.
Other authors on the panels this year are Girish Karnad, Arun Shourie, Leila Seth, Natwar Singh, Chandrashekhara Kambar, Sanjaya Baru, Jerry Pinto, Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi and Sundeep Bhutoria.