Bengaluru: Indira Lankesh will make her first appearance at the Bangalore Literature Festival this year, to discuss her upcoming autobiography, bringing a new facet to the lineup. BLF 2017 makes its way across the spectrum, from the perils of business reporting with Josy Joseph, Maheshwar Puri and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, to a Kavya Sanjay that explores poetry in Kannada.
Political activist Kanhaiya Kumar is back on the list, on what promises to be an action-packed panel titled Nationalism, Populism and the Threat to the Global Liberal Order, with journalists Naresh Fernandes, Manu Joseph and R. Jagannathan. BLF 2017 boasts of a star-studded lineup this year, including Twinkle Khanna, Rahul Dravid, Ramachandra Guha, Perumal Murugan, Girish Karnad, Suketu Mehta, Anil Kumble and celebrated cricket writer Gideon Haigh.
“Everybody will get the chance to speak up,” said festival director Shinie Antony, at a press conference on Monday afternoon. That is the theme this year, with the two stages titled Speak Up and Speak Out. “BLF has the distinction of being the only community-funded festival,” said V. Ravichandar, a member of the core team. Aspiring authors can make pitches to publishing houses at Lit Mart, a BLF initiative that has proved wildly successful over the years. “We have had two success stories so far as well,” said Antony.
Kanchana Banerjee, whose three-minute pitch landed her a deal with Harper Collins, had her debut novel, A Forgotten Affair, released in 2016 and Isaac John, who has been picked up by Penguin.
Kannada authors have a strong presence at the festival this year. “We made a focussed effort to bring in young, contemporary writers, especially those doing short stories, which are very big in Kannada," said BLF co-founder Srikrishna Ramamoorthy. The Red Couch, an informal, author-audience setting that proved hugely successful last year is back for round two.
On Oct 28, 29
The Bengaluru Literature Festival will take place on October 28 and 29 at the Lalit Ashok, Kumara Krupa Road. For details, log on to http://bangaloreliteraturefestival.org/
Atta Galata awards
Bookstore Atta Galata will give out awards in three categories: Best Writing in Fiction in English, Non-Fiction in English and Literary Achievement in Kannada.
