A Nobel Literature laureate, a Booker Prize winner, a Jnanpith awardee and authors with whom a generation of readers have grown up – a sample of the 2024 edition of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet in association with Victoria Memorial Hall and The Telegraph.
The 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, will be speaking about his acclaimed novels, Paradise and By The Sea, among other works, on the opening day, January 23.
The literary meet will be on till January 27.
The 2021 Booker Prize winner, Damon Galgut, Sudha Murthy, John Boyne, Sebastian Faulks and Amitav Ghosh will also speak at the literary bonanza.
Murthy will be at the festival for the first time and will be speaking about multilingualism and literature. Another festival debutante, Galgut will speak about his celebrated novels chronicling South Africa in the years after the fall of apartheid.
Faulks, the author of Birdsong, Boyne who authored Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and Sri Lankan author Ashok Ferrey will be at the festival.
With several stalwarts from diverse worlds penning books, speakers like designer Tarun Tahiliani, advertising legend Prahlad Kakar and corporate leader-author Gurcharan Das will speak at the festival.
Amitav Ghosh will be back to discuss his recent work Smoke and Ashes and will also be part of a panel with Bangladeshi author Kazi Ashraf on River Padma.
Women in art is a focus area and sessions are being planned to celebrate Amrita Sher-Gil, Meera Mukherjee and contemporary artist Jayshree Barman.
The Junior Kolkata Literary Meet (JKLM) — the festival for young readers that is embedded within the main fest — will be held on January 24, 25 and 27.
Murthy and Boyne will speak to the young readers as well. The JKLM features topics ranging from cricket writing to new readings of the two great epics and also features a session on the Abol Tabol centenary. A session in the main meet would be celebrating 100 years of Sukumar Ray’s classic.
Young authors, including Janice Pariat, Radhika Iyengar and Sathyarth Nayak, will showcase topics that range from the Ghats of Benares to travel through time. The festival will for the first time feature a State of Interest, which is Kerala this year. KR Meera and AJ Thomas will speak in this segment.
Now in its 12th edition, the festival has always presented performances that celebrate literature. This year, Ismat Apa Ke Naam featuring Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah will headline the segment.
An Indo-Polish dance production What I Have Not Seen Before and Eka Anupam by Anupam Roy would also be on the programme.
The finale by classical vocalist Shubha Mudgal will round off the festival days filled with literary discussions.
“While most of the sessions and speakers have been finalised, finishing touches
are being made to the programme, particularly to our amazing array of sessions and performances in Bangla. It is the most glittering and literary list we have had,
and I’m looking forward to an enriching five days of diverse sessions,” said festival director Malavika Banerjee.