The festival continues to maintain its hallmarks of inclusivity, diversity, and innovation encompassing nationalities, genders, geographies, communities, and languages…reports Asian Lite News
The 14th edition of Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest is around the corner! With committed audiences both online and on the ground, the festival will run its online edition from 25th to 26th October with leading international authors such as Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak.
The on-ground festival will commence on the 27th till 29th of October at the NCPA, Nariman Point, and St Pauls Institute of Communication Education and Title Waves bookstore in Bandra.
The festival continues to maintain its hallmarks of inclusivity, diversity, and innovation encompassing nationalities, genders, geographies, communities, and languages.
Co-Director of the LitFest Amy Fernandes said, “We are delighted to present the 14th edition of the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest, and so proud that it has become an integral part of Mumbai’s life. This year we have, as always, a blend of established stars and fresh faces, concurrent themes and traditional motifs, and sessions ranging from serious cogitation to dashes of sparkle!
Celebrated thought leaders, wordsmiths, and storytellers from India and 15 other countries, will explore issues at the heart of fiction, poetry, mathematics, economics, communications, business, sport, health, history, art, society, nature, food, with fresh and unique perspectives that characterize the Litfest.
Participants will include Abanti Sankaranarayanan, Anuja Chauhan, Arjun Raj Gaind, Gulzar, Gurcharan Das, Faye D’Souza, Jerry Pinto, Kunal Vijayakar, Luke Coutinho, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Manoranjan Byapari, Marcus du Sautoy, Meeran Chadha Borwankar, Mehdi Hassan, Michel Bussi, Prahlad Kakar, Peter Frankopan, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ranjit Hoskote, Sam Miller, Shanta Gokhale, Shashi Tharoor, Shobhaa De, Sudha Murty, Tenzin Tsundue, Vivek Shanbhag, Zac O’ Yeah, Zai Whitaker among others.
The Festival highlights will never fade: the prestigious Poet Laureate, Lifetime Achievement, and Literary Awards; the packed-hall Great Debate; an introduction to a language other than English (Kannada this year); 14 book launches; gripping indoor and outdoor stage performances; the fully subscribed workshops and the popular Book Swap. The Binod Kanoria Awards for Children’s Literature and The Rotary Writing For Peace Award, introduced last year under the aegis of the Festival, will also be presented.
Each year the festival aims to bring new experiences to its visitors. This year, in conjunction with the Goethe Institute, the festival is bringing The Infinite Library- a travelling installation that uses VR and other media to reimagine the future of libraries as interactive spaces that engage visitors through multisensory forms of storytelling. There will also be a brand new Spoken Word performance and an outdoor performance from the UK that merges pottery and dance.
“Due to the circumstances of the past few years we have acquired a vast global digital audience, so online programming is also now a permanent strand of our festival. We look forward to engaging with our loyal audiences both virtual and on the ground for an invigorating five days, celebrating The Power Of Words, which resonates through all our Festival activities,” adds Quasar Thakore Padamsee, Co-Director of the Litfest.