Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest returns with its 13th edition to its traditional venue at the NCPA, Nariman Point, also with sessions at St Pauls Institute of Communication Education (SPICE) and Title Waves book store in Bandra after the last two virtual editions during the pandemic. The festival is scheduled to take pleace from November 11-13.
To meet the expectations and demands of the highly successful virtual editions with over 8.5 million views in 2021, the festival, this year will see yet another innovation: a hybrid festival, with the online sessions taking place on November 9-10.
Celebrated authors like Geetanjali Shree, Tony Fadell, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Shashi Tharoor, Paul Morland, Jerry Pinto, Naushad Forbes, Rohini Nilekani, Ashwin Sanghi, Sanjaya Baru, Mallika Sarabhai, Ian Cardozo, Mamang Dai, Onir, Rinki Bhattacharya and many others will be part of the festival as speakers. Online participants will include Damon Galgut, George Monbiot, Pankaj Mishra, Colm Tóibín, Susan Liautaud, John Pilger, among others.
The highlights of the will be the prestigious Tata Literature Live! Literary Awards, the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award and the appointing of a Poet Laureate, the energetic Great Debate, poetry recitations scintillating performances, popular workshops and the Book Swap. The festival will features various themes featuring Mumbai - a new novel, coastal marine life, history and communities.
Two new prizes: The Binod Kanoria Awards for Children’s Literature and The Rotary Writing For Peace Award, will also be presented under the aegis of the Festival. The Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards will alos return.
In line with its spirit of literary expansion the Litfest has started sessions on languages other than English. Last year‘s language was Marathi and the sessions were enthusiastically received. This year there will be an introduction to Gujarati prose and poetry.
There will also be two international collaborative sessions this year, with France and UK. Noir in Mumbai will be premiered in India as part of the Litfest. Three rising stars of French crime fiction – Johana Gustawsson aka the Queen of French Noir, Sophie Hénaff and her Awkward Squad and Jérôme Loubry – will present their work for the first time to an Indian audience.
The literary festival will culminate with an event called Great Investigation, inspired by its sister activity in France and imagined by Indian author Kalpana Swaminathan, in which participants will have five hours to resolve the mystery of the theft of the Blue Sapphire! The collaboration with the UK will present new work being performed exploring the relationship between language and queerness, as the outcome of a project which will bring together six diverse and multicultural poets from India and the UK through residencies in both countries.
Just like every year, this edition will also feature books and authors ranging across subjects like innovation, mentorship, philanthropy, media, food, gender issues, art, environment.
Director of the Festival, Amy Fernandes said: “We are excited to be launching a re-invention of the Litfest in a hybrid model. This will enable us to include authors who are still unable to travel, as well as our global virtual audiences who so enjoyed the Litfest during the pandemic. At the same time we are also delighted to be able to welcome back in person, the authors and audiences who have missed the distinctive Litfest activities, buzz and vibe at our physical venues."
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