<p>International Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, bestselling British crime writer Clare Mackintosh, politician Shashi Tharoor and comedian Vir Das are some of the big names who will participate in the 14th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival, scheduled for December 6 and 7. </p>.<p>This year, the festival will be held at a new venue — Freedom Park on Seshadri Road. The change is in keeping with the growing scale of the festival, says co-founder Srikrishna Ramamoorthy. “We felt a larger venue would do more justice to the festival and the crowds it draws. It is also a public space and in that sense is more inclusive,” he says. </p>.<p>The easy accessibility to public transport was another factor that drew the organisers to the venue. It is an eight-minute walk from the Sir M Visvesvaraya metro station and a 15-minute walk from the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda metro station. Paid parking will also be available, he says.</p>.Why Bengaluru's women bartenders are in low spirits.<p class="bodytext">Close to 300 speakers will participate in the two-day event which will cover a diverse range of topics from crime, sports and romance to history, politics, gender, AI, culture, music, film and food. Some of the major topics this year include contemporary India, and death and grief, with multiple sessions centred on these themes. Translations, debut writers and young Kannada writers are other major focal points of the festival. </p>.<p class="bodytext">In a session titled ‘I promise it won’t always hurt like this’, Clare Mackintosh will be in conversation with Shobhaa De about her book of the same name. Clare, a crime fiction writer, wrote the memoir on the first anniversary of her five-week-old son’s death. In ‘The shape of us’, Ghazala Wahab, Pankaj Mishra, Santosh Desai, Shefalee Vasudev and Manish Sabharwal will talk about contemporary India and what shapes society today.</p>.<p class="bodytext">About 25% of the sessions will focus on Kannada and other Indian languages. A session titled ‘Samiksheyalli kanda badukina kathegalu (Life stories from the census)’, featuring Guruprasad Kantalagere, Haseena Malnad, Sudha Adukala with Abdul Rasheed, will shed light on the recently concluded census. </p>.<p class="bodytext">The 21-acre park will hold the festival’s four stages and a bookstore, in addition to the children’s literature festival which will have three stages. “It is a beautiful venue in the heart of the city, with immense possibilities for public events. Work is underway to ensure it is ready for the large numbers we anticipate,” Ramamoorthy shares.</p>.<p class="bodytext"><span class="italic">December 6 and 7, 9 am onwards. At Freedom Park, Seshadri Road. For details, visit bangaloreliteraturefestival.org. </span></p>
<p>International Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, bestselling British crime writer Clare Mackintosh, politician Shashi Tharoor and comedian Vir Das are some of the big names who will participate in the 14th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival, scheduled for December 6 and 7. </p>.<p>This year, the festival will be held at a new venue — Freedom Park on Seshadri Road. The change is in keeping with the growing scale of the festival, says co-founder Srikrishna Ramamoorthy. “We felt a larger venue would do more justice to the festival and the crowds it draws. It is also a public space and in that sense is more inclusive,” he says. </p>.<p>The easy accessibility to public transport was another factor that drew the organisers to the venue. It is an eight-minute walk from the Sir M Visvesvaraya metro station and a 15-minute walk from the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda metro station. Paid parking will also be available, he says.</p>.Why Bengaluru's women bartenders are in low spirits.<p class="bodytext">Close to 300 speakers will participate in the two-day event which will cover a diverse range of topics from crime, sports and romance to history, politics, gender, AI, culture, music, film and food. Some of the major topics this year include contemporary India, and death and grief, with multiple sessions centred on these themes. Translations, debut writers and young Kannada writers are other major focal points of the festival. </p>.<p class="bodytext">In a session titled ‘I promise it won’t always hurt like this’, Clare Mackintosh will be in conversation with Shobhaa De about her book of the same name. Clare, a crime fiction writer, wrote the memoir on the first anniversary of her five-week-old son’s death. In ‘The shape of us’, Ghazala Wahab, Pankaj Mishra, Santosh Desai, Shefalee Vasudev and Manish Sabharwal will talk about contemporary India and what shapes society today.</p>.<p class="bodytext">About 25% of the sessions will focus on Kannada and other Indian languages. A session titled ‘Samiksheyalli kanda badukina kathegalu (Life stories from the census)’, featuring Guruprasad Kantalagere, Haseena Malnad, Sudha Adukala with Abdul Rasheed, will shed light on the recently concluded census. </p>.<p class="bodytext">The 21-acre park will hold the festival’s four stages and a bookstore, in addition to the children’s literature festival which will have three stages. “It is a beautiful venue in the heart of the city, with immense possibilities for public events. Work is underway to ensure it is ready for the large numbers we anticipate,” Ramamoorthy shares.</p>.<p class="bodytext"><span class="italic">December 6 and 7, 9 am onwards. At Freedom Park, Seshadri Road. For details, visit bangaloreliteraturefestival.org. </span></p>