Summary
The Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival is going all-virtual for the first time
Notable speakers include actors Kabir Bedi and Tusshar Kapoor, chefs Vikas Khanna and Sanjeev Kapoor, and authors Devdutt Pattanaik and William Dalrymple
The 13th edition of Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF), which attracts bibliophiles and aspiring authors from across the country, will be streamed live on the social media pages of AKLF from January 21 to 23.
This is the first time that the festival is going all-digital with live-streaming on Facebook and YouTube. The festival will be inaugurated at 2.45pm on January 21 and be streamed till 9.40pm. The sessions on January 22 and 23 will be streamed from 2pm to 9.40pm.
“Our theme this year is celebrating a century in books by the iconic Oxford Bookstore on Park Street. The festival started from the bookstore in 2010 and was the first of its kind in eastern India,” said Maina Bhagat, director, AKLF.
One of the highlights of the event is the shortlisting of the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize — a unique award that applauds and encourages book cover designers. Another event of great importance, Bhagat said, is a centenary tribute to late film historian Chidananda Dasgupta.
“The sessions will see renowned personalities like Aparna Sen, Kalyan Ray, Aseem Chhabra and Goutam Ghose participate. We will also pay tribute to Pandit Birju Maharaj at the festival,” Bhagat said.
Blending the vintage and the contemporary, AKLF is set to focus on themes like contemporary fiction, culinary arts, holistic wellbeing and non-fiction. The 24 curated sessions will focus on children and adult literature, poetry, politics, parenthood, and translations among others.
The shortlist for the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize 2022 will be announced by the jury members — historian and author Alka Pande; author and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor; author Kunal Basu; novelist and columnist Shobha De; director of Apeejay Surrendra Group Priti Paul; and guest jury Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, a French diplomat.
Some of the eminent speakers who will be a part of this edition of AKLF are children’s author Andy Griffiths; author and journalist Jeet Thayil; author, journalist and film critic Anupama Chopra; actor and director Aparna Sen; actors Kabir Bedi and Jugal Hansraj, and veteran theatre actress Dolly Thakore.
For more details on speakers and the full schedule click https://www.aklf.in/
Last updated on 19 Jan 2022
