13th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival goes virtual, starts Jan 21

The three-day 13th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF2022), which will held in a virtual mode on January 21-23, will celebrate the written word with a splendid line-up of authors, journalists, influencers, thinkers, poets, international best-selling writers and Bollywood actors.

13th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival goes virtual, starts Jan 21
Source: IANS

Kolkata, Jan 20 (IANS) The three-day 13th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF2022), which will held in a virtual mode on January 21-23, will celebrate the written word with a splendid line-up of authors, journalists, influencers, thinkers, poets, international best-selling writers and Bollywood actors.

The lineup of speakers extends from film personalities Kabir Bedi, Aparna Sen and Tusshar Kapoor to best-selling authors William Dalrymple, Shobhaa De and Devdutt Patnaik, as well as French novelist, journalist and historian Irene Frain, film director Rahul Rawail, theatre actress Dolly Thakor, celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor and holistic health guru Mickey Mehta.

The AKLF2022, which will also mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations of Oxford Bookstores, will focus on both fiction and non-fiction, gastronomy, mental and physical health, poetry, politics, current affairs, parenthood, translations, history, and children's literature in 24 interactive sessions, which will be live-streamed on the festival's official Facebook and YouTube handles.

The Festival would host more than 50 national and international delegates from around the globe.

Along with marquee sessions, the Festival will also be marked by the announcement of the seventh-edition shortlist of the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize by jurors Shashi Tharoor, Shobhaa De, Alka Pande, Kunal Basu, Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens and Priti Paul.

Festival Director Maina Bhagat said: "The 13th edition sets its sights on our fast-evolving world and the changes that lie in store in the years ahead. Curated meticulously to meet the challenges of the Virtual format, with a view to continuity and innovation, and with delegate participation from across three time zones, this acceleration to digital connectivity has not stopped us from moving forward with this key initiative."

Some of the other eminent speakers will be poet, novelist and journalist JeetThayil; filmmaker and writer Vandana Kohli; French diplomats Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens and Christine Cornet; author, journalist and film critic Anupama Chopra; poet, journalist and dancer Tishani Doshi; eminent journalists and authors Sagarika Ghose, Nandini Sengupta, Nilanjana S. Roy, Samrat Choudhury and Sandip Roy; celebrity performer and radio jockey Mir Afsar Ali; and translator Arunava Sinha.