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JLF announces second tranche of speakers

JLF announces second tranche of speakers

New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) The annual ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) on Monday announced its second list of speakers for the much-awaited 12th edition, set to take place from January 24-28, 2019.

The Festival will once again be a grand marathon of ideas between idealists, realists, visionaries, intellectuals, the avant garde and the iconoclasts, who will engage in informed, and sometimes rather heated, discourse, united, above all, by an abiding love for literature.

'The second list of 30 speakers include trailblazing Indian writers and literary powerhouses such as the bestselling Ashwin Sanghi, ranked among one of India’s most popular authors with two New York Times bestselling crime thrillers written along with James Patterson under his belt among other numerous books; Shobhaa De who comments extensively on India’s socio-cultural-political contours and is author of 20 books and countless columns; the acclaimed Rana Dasgupta, author of the short story collection Tokyo Cancelled, winner of the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book for Solo and a nominee for the Orwell and Ondaatje Prizes in 2015 for Capital; Amitabha Bagchi, author of the recent Half the Night is Gone and a nominee of the Dublin IMPAC Literary Prize 2015 for This Place, Professor of English at Vassar College and a Guggenheim Fellow, Amitava Kumar whose latest work, Immigrant, 'Montana: A Novel',' a statement said.

'Other authors include--Anita Nair, Sahitya Akademi awardee, playwright and poet of The Better Man, Ladies Coupé, Mistress, Lessons in Forgetting, Idris: Keeper of the Light, Malabar Mind, among others; and New York Times; Guardian columnist, BBC presenter of the popular radio show Museum of Lost Objects and much feted debutante novelist Kanishk Tharoor, author of Swimmer Among the Stars, which was named the Guardian and NPR Best Book of theYear,' it said.

'The list is a vastly diverse mix of historians, impresarios, educationists, activists and administrators with KJ Alphons, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Culture and Tourism and author of 'Making A Difference' and 'India Mattathinte Muzhakam'; Egyptian writer and cultural commentator Ahdaf Soueif, bestselling author of 'The Map of Love'; the legendary social activist Aruna Roy who helped co-found the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) to campaign for wages and other rights which eventually led to transformational Right to Information movement, and wrote 'The RTI Story: Power to the People', with the MKSS Collective; Sandeep Unnithan, Executive Editor with the India Today magazine, and author of 'Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai 26/11' and an exciting hitherto-untold naval intelligence chronicle 'Operation X',' it said.

'Kim A Wagner, who has written extensively on the subject of ‘Thuggee’, the Uprising of 1857 and colonial violence; Makarand R Paranjape, whose latest books include Debating the; Condition in India, Cultural Politics in Modern India and The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi; former bureaucrat and India’s vastly experienced 16th Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla, known internationally for his astute steerage of the 2009 General Elections and, in his forthcoming book 'Every Vote Counts: The Story of the Great Indian Election'; erudite historian, Professor of South Asian History at Emory University, Ruby Lal who has recently published biography, 'Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan',' it said.

'As always, the Festival list sparkles with the grit of journalist-writers with two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll, Dean of the Columbia Journalism School since 2013, a writer at The New Yorker since 2005 where he writes on politics, national security and the media, former reporter, foreign correspondent and senior editor at the Washington Post and author of eight non-fiction books,' it said.

'The Festival juxtaposes wide-ranging themes and writers with ease which the second list is

evidence of, featuring in it Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairperson of Altico Capital India Ltd who is on the boards of Max Financial Services, CIPLA, Nayara Energy and Larsen and Toubro, former head of the boards of HSBC Asia Pacific, HSBC India and Nestle, who has authored 30 Women in Power: Their Voices, Their Stories and Survive Or Sink: An Action Agenda for Sanitation, Water, Pollution and Green Finance; and Devdutt Pattanaik, who has made mythology chic writing voraciously on its acute relevance in modern times, especially in management, governance and leadership and has 30 books and 600 columns, including bestsellers such as My Gita, Jaya, Sita, Business Sutra and the 7 Secret Series, to his credit,' it added.

While more speakers featuring at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival will be announced over the coming weeks, the second list has enough grist and mettle for attendees of the forthcoming 12th edition to ponder upon and make plans.

The Festival’s B2B arm, Jaipur BookMark (JBM), now in its sixth edition, is a platform for publishers, literary agents, translation agencies and writers wanting to talk business along with focussed sessions with major industry players from across the world.

In an effort to engage with emerging writers who are looking for platforms to showcase their work, JBM has announced a new initiative - iWrite #MyStories calling out to writers to share their unpublished manuscripts, be it short-stories, poems, and works of fiction or non-fiction, with literary stalwarts who will help critique and fine tune their work.

If an entry makes it to the top 10 shortlisted, it gets a chance to be seen by international publishers, literary agents, translators and other industry experts in a pitching session and perhaps get close to even signing a book deal.

The Jaipur Music Stage, which runs parallel to the Festival, celebrates 'all things music', with a variety of music genres coming together on the same platform, along with exciting collaborations between diverse artistes, opening up a world of musical discovery.

Rooted in the heart of India but flavoured with offerings from across the globe, the Stage features a variety of artistes from the international spectrum with a multi-genre abundance in style, sound, and history.

Apart from breathtaking evenings of performances, Jaipur Music Stage will also feature workshops, masterclasses, talks and sessions, giving music-lovers a chance to interact with musicians, learn more about instruments and nuances within musical genres.

UNI PY ADG 1902

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