“The Greatest Literary Show On Earth!”
-Tina Brown, The Daily Beast
- Scenes from earlier festivals
Welcome
The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival considered Asia’s leading literature event is a celebration of national and international writers and encompasses a range of activities including film, music and theatre. The Festival is held every year from 21st to 25th January. Entering its sixth year, the festival has already hosted some of the best-known national and international writers including John Berendt, Kiran Desai, Christopher Hampton, Ian McEwan, Vikram Seth, Nadeem Aslam, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Pico Iyer, Simon Schama, Thomas Keneally, Hanif Kureishi, Vikram Chandra, Anoushka Shankar, Michael Frayn, Stephen Frears, Alexander McCall Smith, Donna Tartt, Tina Brown, Shashi Tharoor, Mohammed Hanif, Paul Zacharia among many others.
DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2011
The festival programme for 2011 includes readings, talks, literary lunches, debates, performances, children’s workshops and interactive activities held in the beautiful heritage property, Diggi Palace in central Jaipur, Rajasthan.
In 2011 we have gathered luminaries from the world of literature including Orhan Pamuk, JM Coetzee, Kiran Desai, Richard Ford, Anthony Beevor, Jay McInerney, Mohsin Hamid, Monica Ali, Jung Chang, Fatima Bhutto, Candace Bushnell, Germaine Greer to name a few.
The five-day festival promises to be among the finest literary events for 2011 with over 400 accredited press from across the world, delegations from UK and USA and book lovers from across Asia and abroad.
2010 REVIEW
DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2010 brought together writers and artists from across continents, cultures, forms and genres including: Vikram Chandra, Alexander McCall Smith, Hanif Kureishi, O P Valmiki, Wole Soyinka,Stephen Frears, Roberto Calasso, Tina Brown, Shashi Tharoor, Gulzar, Tarun Tejpal, Arvind K Mehrotra, Girish Karnad, Roddy Doyle, Lawrence Wright, Niall Fergusan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The festival also hosted writers from Pakistan, including Salima Hashmi, Ali Sethi, Asma Jahangir and Shoukat Shoro. There were more than 170 authors attending the festival with a healthy mix of the east with the west.
The USP of the festival is that it is accessible to the general public at no cost.
Capacity press attendance has generated over Rs 40 crores of publicity in India alone.
KEY FEATURES
• Wole Soyinka – In Conversation with Jasbir Jain.
• French and Italian Dinners.
• The Intelligence Square debate with leading luminaries from the social and political sector.
• In Conversation with Vikram Chandra, Alexander McCall Smith, Hanif Kureishi.
• In Conversation with Shobhaa De.
• In a Tough Neighbourhood.
• In Conversation –Gulzar and Pavan Varma.
The festival also had a host of evening concerts. Over the 5 days, we had Titi Robin (world music) from France, Shah Jo Raag : The Sufi Qawalls from Sindh, Pakistan, Mrigya – India world music, Paban Das Baul, a master of the dubki (a small tambourine) and a hypnotic vocalist, Rajasthan roots – a collective of folk musicians which promotes the performing arts of Rajasthan, by bringing folk to a multicultural platform, creating contemporary folk music, appealing to varied musical tastes. Susheela Raman and Sam Mills from the UK performed exclusively for the festival. There were also poetry readings by Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi.
ATTENDEES
Over 30000 people attended the many sessions and workshops during the course of the festival. These included High Commissioners and Ambassadors and Cultural heads of International missions, delegates from Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi who travelled down especially for the festival, publishers, students, University professors and guests of sponsors and supporters of the festival. 30% are international guests, 30% from the metro cities and 40% from Jaipur.
PHOTOS 2010 (click here to view)
Bookaroo – Children’s Literature Festival
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia