Literary Leanings

An annual event that sees writers from the city as well as from outside present their works and interact with local audiences,will have many women writers participate in seminars and talks this year. Local writers and members of the Akademi will get to interact with Urvashi Butalia,author,historian and director and co-founder of Kali for Women,who is also the author of The Other Side of Silence. The book is a product of more than 70 interviews that Butalia conducted with the survivors of the Partition of 1947.

Mridula Garg,a renowned Hindi writer who has published 20 books,will also be a part of the festival. She will talk about the themes of her novels,short story collections and plays. There will also be Lakshmi Kannan,who writes in English and Tamil,to share her experiences as a novelist,short story writer,poet and translator. Besides,Rajee Seth,Manjula Rana,Sagari Chhabra and Sanjukta Dasgupta are also part of the esteemed line-up.

One of the highlights of the festival is an academic session with Punjab’s very own poet,Surjit Patar,who’s been conferred with the Padma Shri. Shafi Shauq,a distinguished poet,critic,translator and author of Kashmiri books,will also interact with the audiences. The festival will conclude with an evening with journalist,writer,poet and lyricist Neelesh Misra,who is known for his TV show Yaadon Ka Idiot Box.

“Festival of Letters is an attempt to cut across different interests and age-groups and bring them all together for a collective celebration of literature. Finding representation this year are varied voices from Hindi,English,Punjabi,Tamil,Urdu,Kashmiri and Bengali literature,” says Manju Jaidka,chairperson of the Akademi,adding that the Annual Awards Ceremony this year will see both young as well as senior writers receive recognition for their literary endeavours.

The festival will be on from February 10 to 12 at the UT Guest House and Panjab University’s English Auditorium