Neil Gaiman to speak at JLF Brave New World on Saturday, 20th June, at 7:00pm IST

The popular & celebrated Neil Gaiman to speak at JLF Brave New World

Teamwork Arts, the producer of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival, launched “JLF Brave New World”, an online literature series to celebrate books, their power and positivity at a time when a global pandemic locked the world down into isolated compartments and deglobalisation became the new normal.

This weekend, British author Neil Gaiman, a master of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films, will be in conversation with author and journalist Nilanjana S. Roy about his life and work, and how he is surviving the lockdown. The session titled “Good Omens” will be live-streamed on Saturday, 20th June, at 7:00pm IST. Audiences will be able to access the session on the Festival’s official social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Neil Gaiman was scheduled to visit the 2019 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, but could not come due to other personal commitments. He informed his Indian fans about not being able to be a part of the Festival through twitter. 

Neil Gaiman is credited as one of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as among the top ten living post-modern writers and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. His most notable work includes the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He is the recipient of many awards including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. His most popular works Good Omens and American Gods have been adapted to TV Series.

It has been more than two months since the launch of this weekly tranche of fascinating conversations between some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers and the response from literary enthusiasts and book-lovers has been heartwarming. The series has hosted sessions crackling with ideas, wit and intellect, with speakers like Abhijit V. Banerjee, Asma Khan, Benjamin Moser, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Colm Toibin, His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ira Mukhoty, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manu S. Pillai, Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk, Paul Muldoon, Peter Frankopan, Peter Carey, Peter Morgan, Ruskin Bond, Rupi Kaur, Shubha Mudgal, Shashi Tharoor, Siddhartha Mukherjee, to name a few.

About JLF presents Brave New World:

These are strange and unsettling times. The extraordinary Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted us in every way and made us distance ourselves physically from one another while finding resilience in the invaluable ties which connect us to one another.

Book-lovers are never truly alone. We’re certainly never lonely, not when we have books, and certainly not when we have each other.

We, at the Jaipur Literature Festival, have always believed in the spirit of community. We believe that these challenging times are also the moments in which we need to interrogate and make sense of our world through books and ideas, debate and dialogue, music and philosophy, science and the arts. The festival, which has always been a platform that celebrates the spirit of human connection, is now ready to go straight into the hearts and minds and homes.

We are privileged to present ‘JLF presents Brave New World’, an online literature series in which the sprawling grounds of Diggi Palace are replaced by the boundless possibilities of the Internet. In short, our digital platform is your virtual stage.

Reading gives us strength, inspires and instils new hope. The iconic Jaipur Literature Festival, the "greatest literary show on Earth" embodies the power of the word and the spirit of connection. For over 13 years, the Festival has connected thousands through the universal language of literature.

We need now, more than ever before, to keep alive a free-flowing exchange of thoughts and ideas, nurture and keep open partnerships and literary connections. So, let the words flow and the ideas come as you tune in from your homes and join our stellar list of speakers and authors.

About the Jaipur Literature Festival

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.

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