SOURCE: THE HINDU

Bangalore Literature Festival is back on a bigger scale on December 3 and 4

Organisers have planned around 150 different sessions with an aim to appeal to different kinds of audiences, including children 

The 11th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) is back to its full glory after a gap of two COVID-19 impacted years. This year’s edition will feature more than 250 international, Indian, and city authors and speakers, four programme forums, and two children’s venues.

The festival, which is one of the biggest literary events in the city, will be held on December 3 and 4 on the lawns of the Lalit Ashok Hotel on Kumara Krupa Road.

Over 20,000 literary enthusiasts are expected to attend the festival, according to the organisers.

The line-up

The last two years (2020 and 2021), BLF was held in Bangalore International Centre and was a low-key affair.

This year, as there are no COVID-19 restrictions, the festival is being held on a larger scale and many leading writers including 2022 Booker Prize Winners Geetanjali Shree and Shehan Karunatilaka, will be present.

Popular travel writer Pico Iyer, Jnanpith awardee Damodar Mauzo, Sahitya Academy winner Sarah Joseph and Ambai, Padmashree awardee Manjamma Jogathi, actors Farhan Akhtar, Ramesh Aravind, and Kabir Bedi, author of Sacred Games Vikram Chandra, and Indian national football team captain Sunil Chhetri are among those who will attend the BLF. 

“We are hoping to continue from where we left off in 2019, seamlessly as far as the BLF is concerned. We hope and expect that the enthusiasm among the public is regenerated and those who love literature and this kind of space come in large numbers. Personally, I have observed that there is a hunger to get more involved in physical events and there is a desire to engage. Even authors want to interact with their audiences. Hence, we are reasonably optimistic,” said V. Ravichandar of BLF.

Remembering Puneet

BLF, in association with the bookstore Atta Galatta, will award the best of English fiction and non-fiction and Kannada writing with the BLF Book Prize. To commemorate the life of Puneeth Rajkumar, the venues have been named as Gandhadagudi, Raajakumara, and Yuvaratna, the organisers said. There is no entry fee for the event.

For more details long into bangaloreliteraturefestival.org.