Jaipur Literature Festival announces impressive second tranche of speakers

·         List includes celebrated culinary expert Madhur Jaffrey, Pulitzer Prize winner Dexter Filkins, Condé Nast Chairman Nicholas Coleridge and acclaimed author Elizabeth Gilbert 

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HIGHLIGHTS

• Second tranche of 25 speakers announced - The Festival announced its second list of 25 speakers out of over 250 speakers expected to attend the 2020 edition. The second list featuresAnand Gopal, Anuradha Bhagwati, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, ÅsneSeierstad,BrunoMaçães, Devangana Dash, Dexter Filkins, Elizabeth Gilbert, Fintan O'Toole, Keshava Guha, Leïla Slimani, LemnSissay, Madhur Jaffrey, Neelum Saran Gour, Nicholas Coleridge, Parvati Sharma, Peter Frankopan, Paul Muldoon, Peter Hessler,Ravish Kumar, R.Gopalakrishnan, Roshan Ali, Shekhar Pathak, Simon Armitage and Supriya Gandhi.
• Early Bird offers on Delegate Experience – A special early bird discount of 25% is being offered on the Festival Delegate Experience. The offer is valid until 30^th November 2019.
• Jaipur BookMark Announces iWrite – The B2B arm of the Festival, Jaipur BookMark (JBM) announced the 2^nd edition of theiWriteprogramme for emerging writersin September 2019. Shortlisted participants will get a platform to share their work and receive constructive guidance from international publishers, literary agents, translators and other industry experts in a pitching session at Jaipur during JBM through the platform.The last date for submitting entries for iWrite 2019 is December 10, 2019.

The annual Jaipur Literature Festival announced its second list of speakers for the much-awaited 13^th edition, set to take place from23-27 January 2020 at its customary picturesque home: the Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur. As the just-released list shows, the Festival will once again be a grand marathon of ideas between idealists, realists, visionaries, intellectuals, the avant-garde and the iconoclasts, who will engage in informed discussion and be united by an abiding love for literature.

The second list of 25 speakers include recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award Anand Gopal, author of ‘No Good Men Among the Living: America’; activist Anuradha Bhagwati, award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed book ‘Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience’; noted IndianpoetArvind Krishna Mehrotra, author of ‘Blue Is Like Blue’; bestselling author ÅsneSeierstad, author of 5 books based on Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Chechnya and Norway; ex-Minister of European Affairs in Portugal Bruno Maçães who wrote the Financial Times Book of the Year ‘The Dawn of Eurasia’; New Delhi-based bookmaker Devangana Dash, author and illustrator of ‘The Jungle Radio: Bird Songs of India’ and veteran journalist Dexter Filkins, who received the Pulitzer for covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The list also includes a vastly diverse mix of journalists, activists, columnists, broadcastersandpoets. The eminent names are National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of ‘Eat Pray Love’, which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide; columnist Fintan O'Toole, author of seven books, including the bestselling ‘A Traitor's Kiss’; Delhi-born authorKeshavaGuha,whowrites regularly on politics, literature and sports for a host of publications; novelist and activist Leïla Slimani, winner of the prestigious French literature award Prix Goncourt for her second novel, ‘Chanson douce’; poet LemnSissay, who has read on stage throughout the world from the Library of Congress in the United States to the University of Addis Ababa.

The list consists of celebrated people like acclaimed actress and author of several cookbooks Madhur Jaffrey, recipient of an honorary CBE and winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival; columnist Neelum Saran Gour, recipient of The Hindu Prize for Fiction 2018 for her latest novel, ‘Requiem in Raga Janki’; Editorial Director, Managing Director, President and Chairman of CondéNastandChairman of the Victoria & Albert Museum Nicholas Coleridge, author of 14 books, including his memoir ‘The Glossy Years’.

The list continues with Indian columnist Parvati Sharma, author of the historical biography titled ‘Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal’; and of‘The Silk Roads’,PeterFrankopan, who was named one of the World’s 50 Top Thinkers by Prospect Magazine; Paul Muldoon,a former BBC radio and television producer and author of 13 collections of poetry, including ‘Moy Sand and Gravel’ for which he was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prizefor Poetry;National Book Award finalist Peter Hessler, recipient of the Kiriyama Prize for his book ‘River Town’; well-known TV anchor and journalist, Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awardee, recipient of the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, author of ‘The Free Voice - On Democracy, Culture and The Nation’,Ravish Kumar, host of NDTV’s flagship shows: ‘Prime Time’, ‘Hum Log’ and ‘Ravish Ki Report’; author of nine books, including the bestselling ‘The Case’ R. Gopalakrishnan, who served as the Chairman of Unilever Arabia, MD of Brooke Bond Lipton, Vice Chairman of Hindustan Lever and as Director of Tata Sons.

The list also includes novelist Roshan Ali, author of ‘Ib's Endless Search for Satisfaction’ which has been shortlisted for the 2019 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the 2019 JCB Prize for Literature; Indian academician Shekhar Pathak, recipient of the Padma Shri; UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, who published 12 full-length collections, most recently ‘Paper Aeroplane’ and ‘Selected Poems’; and Mughal historian Supriya Gandhi, author of ‘The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India’.

Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The second list we have announced for January 2020 has an intriguing mix of new and established, popular and unexpected speakers. Some of our favourite writers, including Ravish Kumar, Shekhar Pathak and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Leila Slimeni, and Peter Frankopan, return to Jaipur. I am excited about welcoming all these wonderful authors to the Festival, and listening in to Bruno Macaes, Anuradha Bhagwati, Roshan Ali, and of course the one and only MadhurJaffrey.”

William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said"The names we are revealing this week include some of the great masters of contemporary literature: three of our greatest poets, Simon Armitage, the brilliant British poet laureate, LemnSissay and Arvind Krishna Malhotra; Leila Slimani returning with her explosive new novel; Peter Hessler of the New Yorker, with his highly acclaimed new book on Egypt; Dexter Filkins, one of the world's most acclaimed war correspondents; Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame and the great AsneSeierstad, author of the Bookseller of Kabul. And that's not including brilliant new talent like Supriya Gandhi with her book on Dara Shukoh. I can barely believe the talent we are bringing together this year.”

Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said,“As we gear up for the 13^th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, we reinforce our commitment to bringing the best literary experience for our audiences through discourse and debate. This year’s programme features the best writers and academics from across the world including Nobel Laureates, Booker, Commonwealth, Sahitya Akademi, JCB and Crossword prize winners, as well as a host of new voices who will disarm you with their perspective of our world.”

The Festival’s B2B arm, Jaipur BookMark (JBM), now in its 7^th edition, is a platform for publishers, literary agents, translation agencies and writers wanting to talk business along with focussed sessions with major industry players from across the world. In an effort to engage with emerging writers who are looking for platforms to showcase their work, JBM launched the ‘First Book Club’ in January 2017, a mentorship programme for first-time writers, which was repositioned as the ‘iWrite’ mentorship initiative to include all aspiring authors with unpublished manuscripts sitting in their heads or on their computers. The last date for submitting entries for iWrite 2019 is December 10, 2019. The top 10 shortlisted candidates will be announced in the last week of December. The shortlisted candidates will get a platform to share their work and receive constructive guidance from both national and international publishers, literary agents, translators and other industry experts at a pitching session at Jaipur during JBM. Post the pitching session,some stand a chance to perhaps even sign a book deal!

The Festival has announced an exclusive early bird discount of 25% on its Delegate Experience, which offers a compelling cultural journey at the Festival, with delegate-only sessions, a chance to rest and recharge in the quiet of a well-stocked Delegate Lounge with refreshments and beverages on offer, a networking cocktail, lunches where one can mingle with authors, and passes to the Festival Heritage Event and the Jaipur Music Stage.The early bird discount is available at 25% for the Delegate Experience registrations (on using the code: EARLY25).

About the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020

Described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the Jaipur Literature Festival is a sumptuous feast of ideas.

The past decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon having hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers from across India and the globe.

Our core values remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform offering free and fair access.

Every year, the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue.

Writers and Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, alongside producer Teamwork Arts, invite speakers 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.

Past speakers have ranged from Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and Muhammad Yunus, Man Booker Prize winners Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Paul Beatty, Sahitya Akademi winners Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, M.T. Vasudevan Nair as well as the late Girish Karnad, Mahasweta Devi and U.R. Ananthamurthy along with literary superstars including Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Vikram Seth. An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also hosted Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.

The Jaipur Literature Festival is a flagship event of Teamwork Arts, which produces it along with over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across more than 40 cities globally.

Teamwork Arts also produces JLF London, JLF Belfast, JLF Houston, JLF New York, JLF Colorado, JLF Toronto, JLF Adelaide and for the first time in 2019, JLF Doha.

Website: www.jaipurliteraturefestival.org

About Teamwork Arts

The arts of India are unrivalled in their depth, diversity and mystery and showcasing it to global audiences requires a deep understanding of our culture, an acute sense of relevance in programming and an unflinching attention to detail. Above all, we at Teamwork Arts believe in love and respect for the artist.

Teamwork Arts is a highly versatile production company with roots in the performing arts, social action and the corporate world. Our expertise lies in the area of entertainment and includes documentary and feature films , television, the conceptualisation and development of contemporary performing/visual arts and literary festivals around the world, and in nurturing new talents across all art forms.

For over 25 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to India, presenting the finest of Indian performers, writers and visual artists in the cultural and art space in India and abroad.

Every year, we produce 25 performing/visual arts and literary festivals in 11 countries, including Australia, Canada, Egypt, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the USA. Teamwork Arts produces 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) Festival, international festivals Shared History in South Africa, India by the Nile in Egypt, 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.

Our musical extravaganza, Bollywood Love Story: A Musical, continues to tour the world and has sold out shows in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Egypt.

Our international festivals in India have included the bi-annual Bonjour India, a festival of France with more than 200 events across 18 cities in India and featuring over 250 artists, designers, researchers and entrepreneurs, and OzFest, a festival of Australia in India.

For more information, visit: www.teamworkarts.com