Jaipur Literature Festival Celebrates a Decade of Shaping India’s Conversation with a focus on ‘India at 70’
- #10YearsOfJLF – 2017 marks ten years of the Jaipur Literature Festival and its meteoric rise from a small gem of an idea to the world’s largest free literary festival, having hosted more than 1300 speakers and attracting more than 1.2 million footfalls over the past decade.
- The Freedom to Dream: India at 70 – As a pioneering champion of literary debate and social dialogue, both Indian and international, a strong focus of JLF 2017 will be to celebrate one of the world’s largest democracies through the theme ‘The Freedom to Dream: India at 70’ and drive conversations around modern India in the context of its history and its future.
Frequently described as “the greatest literary show on Earth”, JLF will welcome over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular culture icons, and expects audience numbers to surpass last year’s figure of 330,000.
Over the past decade, the Festival has evolved into one of the largest and most accessible cultural events on the planet. A true champion for culture, ideas and democracy, it strives to spur freedom of thought and expression through a dizzying range of diverse voices engaged in intellectual discourse across India and internationally. While as part of its ongoing celebration of the word, the Festival continues to serve and inspire those who cherish literature.
As seen in previous years, the 2017 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival will partner with major Indian and global brands to continue with its high calibre of speakers and programming and enrich the audience experience.
For those looking to enjoy the Jaipur Literature Festival in the best way possible, the Festival Delegate packages are again available. As a former Festival Delegate said, “A wonderful experience. As a delegate, I had the opportunity to meet people from all parts of the world and share our love of literature and writing. The concerts were amazing – the venue, music, food and people combined to create an unforgettable experience.”
As part of the Festival’s ten-year anniversary celebrations, the Delegate package has been given a real boost as a thank you to those who have supported JLF over the years. In addition to existing facilities such as a dedicated Delegate Lounge, registration area, lunch at the Delegate and Speaker Lunch Area, access to the concerts and dinners at the Music Stage venue of Hotel Clarks Amer, the 2017 Festival Delegate package will include entry to two Festival Fringe events at a heritage monument, a ‘Delegates Only’ session and cocktail evening along with transport shuttle services between the Festival Hub of Diggi Palace and the Festival Fringe event and Music Stage venues.
In terms of programming, every year the Festival makes a concerted effort to ensure that the multitude of Indian languages are showcased while its industry arm, Jaipur BookMark, focuses on the art of translation. This is set to continue in 2017 with over 25 languages represented in works spanning the country’s literary landscape as well as international translations in a bid to preserve and promote the diverse range of life, culture and stories.
The fourth edition of JBM opens the Festival’s proceedings with a full day of programming on 18th January at Diggi Palace followed by special sessions at a dedicated venue at the Festival Hub from the 19th – 23rd January. JBM continues to provide a platform for publishers, literary agents, translation agencies and writers to meet, talk business deals and listen to major industry players from across the world.
For the first time, Jaipur BookMark 2017 will also invite budding authors to share a synopsis of their work, which will be assessed by a panel of literary agents, publishers and critics. Those shortlisted will be invited to take part in the New Writers’ Mentorship Programme, a special one-on-one session for advice from industry experts.
Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, says, “Ten years of books and ideas, readers and writers! A decade of showcasing writing from the Indian languages and connectivities across South Asia. In 2017, a special focus on translations and the pulse of world literatures. Ceaselessly celebrating the wonders of the dreaming mind, the Jaipur Literature Festival invokes the collective energy of our brilliant authors and extraordinary and engaged audiences.”
William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, says, “Each year at Jaipur we try to produce a programme more remarkable than the year before, but 2017’s Jaipur list is certainly the most astonishing we have ever fielded. We have gathered talent from across the globe — from Jamaica to North Korea and Tasmania to Zimbabwe — to present writers of genius as diverse as the war correspondent Dexter Filkins , the economist Ha Joon Chang and the Italian aesthete, Sanskritist and polymath Roberto Calasso. We import some of the world’s most admired playwrights and novelists, including Mark Haddon, David Hare and Man Booker Prize winners Alan Hollinghurst and Richard Flanagan as well as arguably the world’s greatest living archaeologist, Barry Cunliffe. We deeply delve into areas of world literature we have so far failed to explore, notably the novelists and poets of the Caribbean, Turkey and Iran, while returning to examine eternal classics such as the work of Homer, Ferdowsi, Yeats, Nabakov and the Thousand and One Nights. We will explore a vast range of subjects from the history of scent to the rise of the Trilobites; biography from Jack the Ripper to Queen Victoria via Napoleon and Anne Boleyn; tales of the spice trade to the eruption of Krakatoa; we look at Jamaican rap and mediaeval mystic poetry and the art of screenwriting; we probe the reason for the Fall of Rome, the dilemmas facing Edward Snowden, KGB assassination techniques and the secrets of the Panama Papers; the agonies of Syria and the pleasures of Ottoman Istanbul as well as enjoying the decadent swagger of the Rolling Stones 1970 World Tour. It’s going to be an incredible few days and I can’t wait for January so that we can get started!”
Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts who produce the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The Jaipur Literature Festival has developed immeasurably over the last ten years and established itself as one of the greatest literary gatherings in the world. The core values of it remain the same, to bring the very best writers from across India and the world to one of the most magical and atmospheric historic sites in the world and make the opportunity to join this celebration of literature open to all. With the help of our sponsors and supporters we can continue to offer this opportunity to everybody. It is an experience like no other. Teamwork Arts continues to extend the Festival overseas, once again to London in May and Boulder, Colorado in the USA during the Fall, and a pop-up edition at the Melbourne Writers Festival in February 2017, giving audiences abroad a taste of what they can experience in Jaipur, and we know already that some will now travel to join us for what promises to be one of the best years ever.”
~~ ENDS ~~
NOTES TO MEDIA PERSONS
Information on Registration for the Jaipur Literature Festival can be found here:
https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/registration-2017/
For Jaipur Media Coordination:
Jagdeep Singh M. 9829065787
Kamal Kant M.9571836810
About the Jaipur Literature Festival 2017
The past decade has seen the Jaipur Literature Festival grow into the world’s largest free event of its kind. Having hosted 1300 speakers and welcoming nearly 1.2 million book lovers, the success of JLF has been astonishing and heartwarming.
Celebrating writers from across the globe, the Festival has hosted some of the best regarded and loved names, ranging from Nobel Laureates and Man Booker Prize winners to debut writers such as Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Eleanor Catton, Hanif Kureishi, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Ian McEwan, JM Coetzee, Margaret Atwood, Mohammed Hanif, Oprah Winfrey, Orhan Pamuk, Pico Iyer, Salman Rushdie, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty, Vikram Seth and Wole Soyinka, as well as renowned Indian language writers such as Girish Karnad, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, MT Vasudevan Nair, Uday Prakash as well as the late Mahasweta Devi and UR Ananthamurthy.
Writers and Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple invite authors from across the globe to take part in the five-day programme set against the backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi Palace in the state capital Jaipur.
Equity and democracy run through the Festival’s veins, placing some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers from all walks of life together on stage. All events are completely free and there are no reserved spaces; this egalitarian access is a powerful statement in a country where access to such individuals remains the privilege of a few. On top of all this, people are guaranteed to have fun!
As Time Out said: “It’s settled. The Jaipur Literature Festival is officially the Woodstock, Live 8 and Ibiza of world literature, with an ambience that can best be described as James Joyce meets Monsoon Wedding.”
The Festival is a flagship event of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across more than 40 cities globally, and is produced by Sanjoy K. Roy.
In 2014, JLF spread its wings beyond the borders of India with an annual event in May at London’s Southbank Centre. In 2015, JLF headed across the pond to Boulder, Colorado where it hosts a similar event every September.
Website: www.jaipurliteraturefestival.org
About Teamwork Arts
For over 25 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to India.
In countries such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Israel, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA, Teamwork produces over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across more than 40 cities.
Teamwork Arts produces one of the world’s largest free literary gatherings, the annual Jaipur Literature Festival, the Ishara International Puppet Festival in New Delhi, the annual Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) and Festival, international festivals Shared History in South Africa, Eye on India in the United States of America, India by the Bay in Hong Kong, Confluence- Festival of India in Australia, and many more.
Website: www.teamworkarts.com
