Everything You Need To Know About Attending This Year's Tata Lit Live

The Tata Lit Live is back with a boom with a four-day festival focusing on literature, books, and their interaction with other forms of culture.

There will be sessions every hour, going up to even four sessions at one time at different venues. On Nov 16, NCPA will be the only venue, so you’ll have to head to South Mumbai. On Nov 17, 18 and 19, you can visit both NCPA & Prithvi Theatre for different events, so Juhu-dwellers should be pleased as well.

You’re no novice to well-known sayings. We mean it, though. It’s best to come at least 45 minutes before each session that you wish you attend. There will be a registration desk at both venues – NCPA and Prithvi Café, and you have to get your session passes. The desk closes 30 minutes before each session. The sessions, however, are free, and on a simple first-come, first-serve logic.

On Nov 17, the opening ceremony is a conversation between Shashi Tharoor and Oxford historian, Peter Frankopan, and it couldn’t be a more articulate affair if we tried. There’ll be a session by art directors from MOMA, New York, Boston Museum of Arts and more, discussing the conflict of culture. There’s a discussion by Vir Sanghvi on the rising Hinduisim, and an interesting discussion on ‘reading like a writer’.

On Nov 18, attend the talk on ‘Writing For Young Adults’, and ‘The Launch Of Talking Films’, a discussion by Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi, and even a session on writing about cricket.

We’re quite excited about the sessions on Nov 19 and 20 which include discussions on the future of the economy by P. Chidambaram, RBI Governor and HSBC Head, talks about how cities influence our writing, a talk that finally demystifies the hype around J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher In The Rye’, and writing about humour.

There’s more with interesting panel discussions on Nov 20 on butlers and the art of crime, the legalities of sexual harassment and short stories getting the shorter end of the stick.

Take a close look at the full schedule here so that you don’t miss out on your favourite writers.

For the uninitiated, a TBR pile is a stack of books To-Be-Read, which only ever keeps on increasing in number and is oddly satisfying to own. Landmark is setting up stalls at the venues, and you can buy different books.

You can also swap your book with anyone else’s book {with their permission, obviously}, so take home gems and put it in that empty spot in your book shelf. There will be over 1,000 books to choose from. Get more information here.

Talking about books passionately can exhaust even the more experienced of us, so you can always refuel yourself with tea and a light snack at NCPA and at The Privthi Café. Don’t however, come with expectations of a full-blown lunch. It’s finally time to eat your words instead!