Our reading challenge for 2019 is in place and we're ready to talk about the fabulous books we've read in 2018. The conversation can't get better when the authors are themselves present and fellow book nerds are in the audience. AKLF (the Appejay Kolkata Literary Fest) is just two days away to make this scene happen, and here's what's keeping us super excited.
AKLF's Just Two Days Away & Here's What Is Keeping Us Excited
A Host Of Literati
We canât keep calm because the line up is giving our nerdy bone a real poke. Playwrights to poets, journalists and novelistsâa host of eminent literati is coming to the lit fest and engage in talks with you. Jerry Pinto, Ramachandra Guha, Sudeep Nagarkar, Devdutt Pattanaik, Anuradha Roy, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Prajwal Parajuly are just some of the names that make up the tip of one giant iceberg.
You will definitely want to facepalm yourself later if you give this event a miss because Andrew Greer will be here to discuss his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Less. Be there to listen to Nigerian-American journo Frankie Edozien talk about 'responsible journalism today', Arunava Sinha and Ananda Lal discuss translating Bengali literature and hear Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak and Benjamin Gilani talk about their theatre group. So, hurry up and head to the Oxford Bookstore to pick your books and get them signed by the authors.
A Fest For Kids
Kolkataâs full-fledged childrenâs book festival, the Oxford Junior Literary Festival (OJLF), is coming back too. This three-day extravaganza â open to all kids and young adults â will have performances, workshops, quizzes, storytelling sessions, games and lots more. Authors like such as Anita Ratnam, Paro Anand, Coonoor Kripalani and others will steer the sessions that'll be held in Allen Park and in other Park Street venues.
Celebrate Park Street
The theme of the fest this year is celebrating the iconic Park Street. Think you've explored Park Street enough? Here's your chance to to listen to some amazing speakers while exploring some amazing Park Street spaces whose history are otherwise not always open to all. Sessions will be spread across Park Street's heritage sites and monuments such as Allen Park, Park Mansions Lawns, 2288 Development House (Celica Park), Oxford Bookstore and others.
Poetry Cafe
AKLF is also coming back to open shutters of their Poetry Café in the festival, and this time in the Goethe Institut at Park Mansions. After three successful years of hosting acclaimed poets like Ben Okri, Bashobi Fraser, Neal Hall, Sankha Ghosh, Anita Nair and many more, Poetry Café 2019 will host readings and conversations on all three days of the fest. Urdu to Kashmiri, Punjabi, Sindhi, French, Russian, German and others - poetic strains in multiple languages will be performed this time.
Cafe Litteraire
This one is a brand new feature in the festival this year. Talks, seminar and author meets aside, AKLF has organised special literary discussion session to discuss Indo-French literature and relations. Scheduled to be held in Alliance Francaise du Bengale, there will be one session on each day of the lit fest. Be there to catch Ruchira Gupta and Prof. Paromitra Chakravarti discuss Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, Prof. Chinmoy Guha talk on modern French poetry and Cameroonian author LĂ©onora Miano discuss her body of work.
Workshops, Walks & Exhibitions
Everything aside, the thing to look out this year are the numerous workshops, exhibitions and walks that AKLF has organised as a part of this literary and cultural fest. Scheduled to be held in Oxford Bookstore, there'll be poetry workshops by Madhura Baneree, writing workshops by Amanda Sodhi and illustrative art by Hijibiji Society. An extension of the theme to celebrate Park Street, there're also several heritage walks that you can take with the Heritage Walk Collective. All of these are open to all, but prior registrations must be done at Oxford Bookstore.