NEW DELHI CURTAIN RAISER – KERALA LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2020

New Delhi: 11th December 2019: The New Delhi curtain raiser of the Kerala Literature Festival 2020 gave a sneak peek of the event, touted as the largest cultural gathering in South India and the fastest-growing literature festival on the continent. Renowned author and MP from Thiruvanthapuram Dr. Shashi Tharoor hosted the evening at the national capital that saw attendance from prominent personalities, authors and publishers. The fifth edition of the 4-day festival will be held from the 16th to 19th of January 2020 at Calicut. Dr. Shashi Tharoor praised the people of Kerala for their eclectic and "tremendous" love for literature and said the state had taken a lead in setting high standards for the written word.

“Kerala Literary Festival is different from every other literary festival in the world as this is entirely a people's festival. Set along the beaches of Calicut, the festival will bring readers and writers together for inspiration, entertainment, and discussion. The focus theme for KLF 2020 will be environment and climate change. The Guest Country this time is going to be Spain represented by a team of twenty artists, writers, and journalists. The Indian language in focus is Tamil with ten writers. We have five participants from China, and many from Great Britain, Slovenia, Egypt, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka and of course India” said Ravi Deecee, Chief Facilitator.

The fifth edition of KLF will also see independent publishing consultant Hemali Sodhi join the organizers in the capacity of Festival Advisor. Over the Years, KLF has seen unparalleled growth amongst literature festivals in the continent and this edition promises to be the grandest of all with the introduction of two new initiatives: The KLF Literature Awards in the categories of Fiction, Non Fiction, Popular Science, Travel and a grand prize for the Best Book in Malayalam, and the announcement of the Vagamon Residency, a fully supported residency for writers and artists.

KLF 2020’s programme introduces new formats like debates, straight talk, book discussions and reader’s sessions besides ten minutes slots for the audience to introduce an original idea. The festival offers talks, debates, and discussions on a variety of themes ranging from literature, history, science and journalism to cinema and environment.

“Gandhi and environment, the Gadgil Report in the context of Kerala's floods, organic agriculture and  the impact of rock mining, deforestation and sand mining on our environment are some of the themes that will be taken up for analysis and debate. Islam and Women, the entry of women in Sabarimala, the Ayodhya Verdict, the emergence of community dialects  and tribal tongues as literary languages,  the new short story, new versions of Don Quixote, the novels of Miguel Delibes, cartography, new discoveries about the early Indians, Robotics and the future of mankind, the role of social media in an opinion formation, current trends in art, music, and caste,  literature in the time of trauma etc are some of the themes being discussed at the festival” said K. Satchidanandan, Festival Director.

Authors at the 5thKLF Festival

The eminent speakers include Literary Luminaries, Booker Prize Winners, Oscar Winners, Jnanpith Laureates, Environmentalists, Head of States, Film & Theatre Personalities, Performers & Artists, Poets, Historians, Media Personalities, Diplomats and celebrities from diverse professional backgrounds.

Rajdeep Sardesai, BRP Bhaskar, Karan Thapar, Francisco Lopez (Spain), Angel Lopez (Spain) thinkers and artists and writers like T M Krishna, Shashi Tharoor, Krishna Ramanujan, Chandan Gowda, Monica Rodriguez, historians and writers like Manu S Pillai, William Dalrymple, M. Venkatachalapathy, Tony Joseph, Perumal Murugan, Isai, Namita Gokhale, Anita Nair, Nishi Chawla, Paramita Satpaty, Navdeep Suri, Anand Teltumbde, Vinay Lal, Muni Narayana Prasad, M T Vasudevan Nair, K R Meera, Benyamin and  Subhash Chandran, environmentalists like Madhav Gadgil and Vandana Shiva, art curators and publishers like Alka Pande, Riyaz Komu, Subodh Kerkar, Kannan Sundaram, S. Ramakrishnan, poets like Cheran, S. Patmanathan (Srilanka), Chris Agee (Ireland)  Ari Sitas (South Africa), Beita (Chinese), Salma, S. Pathmanathan (Tamil), Hemant Divate, Sachin Ketkar (Marathi), Subhro Bandopadhyay (Bengali), Arundhati Subramaniam, Jerry Pinto (English) and actors/ actresses like Padmapriya are some of the names attending KLF 2020.

Fireside chats at nights with a plethora of the biggest acts and performing artists from around the world will make up the cultural nights. From Carnatic concerts to Progressive Rock bands, from Kijote Kathakali to Larissa, Classical, and Flamenco dance from Spain, to Puppet shows and theatre, a dance by Monica Rodriguez and music by German Diaz, the entertainment quotient will reach unprecedented levels at KLF 2020.