Indian constitution, Climate, Poetry to be the focus of JLF 2020

The 13th edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), also known as Kumbha Mela of Literature, will begin in the city on Thursday, January 23.

The five-day festival, to be held from January 23 to January 27 at the Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur, will have over 250 speakers, including Pulitzer winners Forrest Gander and Stephen Greenblatt, 2010 Man Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson, Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and renowned author Elizabeth Gilbert. The youngest author to launch his book is a nine-year-old from Jaipur.

This year, besides poetry and fiction/nonfiction, the festival intends to discuss important topics such as constitution, climate change, science and technology along with other relevant themes. The sessions under the theme ‘Women Uninterrupted’ will bring to the fore several pressing issues of women.

Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and co-director of Jaipur Literature Festival said: “Every year, we have various authors from different parts of the world, representing different nationalities and languages in attendance at the Festival. This year, once again, we have endeavoured to get many speakers from varying genres and languages to attend. I believe we have succeeded in our efforts as stalwarts from over 20 countries and as many as 20 international and almost 15 Indian languages will be in attendance at the 13th edition of the Festival. We are eagerly looking forward to welcoming them and to the literary revelations they will bring with them.”

According to the producer of JLF Sonjoy Roy, the festival is more about the immersive experience of attending in person. Among the many new features of this edition, the festival will focus on the Indian constitution, which turns 70 this year. A reading of tje preamble is slated on January 26.