The eleventh Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet in association with Victoria Memorial Hall will take place from January 21 to January 26, 2023. The festival will be held on the grounds of Victoria Memorial Hall. The festival will be inaugurated by renowned literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
Winner of the Booker International Prize 2022, Geetanjali Shree and her translator Daisy Rockwell will be speaking at the festival. Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka will speak about his novel ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,’ which won the Booker Prize 2022. Jnanpith awardees Damodar Mauzo and Amitav Ghosh, Sahitya Akademi Award Winner Bratya Basu and JCB Prize winner Khalid Jawed will also speak at the meet.
Many non-fiction titles from the academic world that examine writings on India as the country celebrates the 75th year of Independence will be featured at the festival. Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Sankar will remember the August of 1947 alongside Semanti Ghosh and Aparajita Dasgupta. Special Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal’s ‘Revolutionaries’ and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s ‘Independence’ also will look at the road to independence and the moments before freedom through their respective books.
The Bengali segment features Srijato, Chandril Bhattacharya, food writer Chitrita Banerji, author academic Chinmoy Guha, actor Anirban Bhattacharya, singer-poet Anupam Roy, theatre stalwarts Kaushik Sen and Suman Mukhopadhyay and poet Subodh Sarkar.
The festival has always had a strong line-up of theatre, music and performing arts. The iconic Shakti, featuring John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Ganesh Rajagopalan and Selvaganesh will be performing at CCFC on January 24. The acclaimed Hamlet with Riddhi Sen in the title role, Sonam Kalra’s Sufi Gospel Project and a presentation of ‘India in Song, India in Word,’ which is the finale of the festival, comprise the cultural segment.
It is our privilege to return to the City of Joy with the 11th Edition of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet. Our literary festivals, including those in Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, seek to inspire and entertain by offering innovative platforms that help audiences discover new ideas and re-imagine the world around them,” said Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel. “Over the years, the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet has brought together Nobel Laureates, Booker Prize winners, renowned novelists, historians, environmentalists, musicians and more to contribute to the Meet’s global conversation. We are certain that this 2023 Edition will continue to act as a catalyst for change and inspire the changemakers of tomorrow,” he added.
Dr. Jayanta Sengupta, Curator, Victoria Memorial Hall said, ‘It’s a great pleasure, as always, to be gearing up for the Kolkata Literary Meet, in its 2023 edition at the Victoria Memorial this year. These conversations are our most important aides in our efforts to put our lives back on track after the ravages of Covid.’
‘We have created what is possibly our most literature heavy literature meet! There are serious literature discussions as well as ones which mix humour, thrillers, cinema and entertainment into the mix. Food for the mind melds with real food on the plate. We are emerging from the shadow of the pandemic and all that makes reading nourishing and vital is part of the festival,’ said festival director Malavika Banerjee.
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