JLF announces second list of speakers for upcoming 17th edition

Booker Prize-winner Damon Galgut, bestselling British novelist Diana Evans and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni of ''The Palace of Illusions'' fame feature on the Jaipur Literature Festival's (JLF) second list of 25 speakers announced on Wednesday.

Dubbed as ''the greatest literary show on earth'', the upcoming 17th edition of the festival, scheduled from February 1-5, 2024, will take place at Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur.

''The Festival will once again be a grand marathon of ideas between writers, thinkers, idealists, realists, visionaries, intellectuals, avant-garde practitioners and the iconoclasts, all of whom will engage in informed discussion, united by an abiding love for literature,'' said the organisers in a statement.

Among the speakers to watch out for in the second list are Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Hernan Diaz and Kai Bird, journalist-art critic Katie Kitamura, British art historian Luke SysonKelly Dorji, former prime minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull AC, and veteran poet-lyricist Gulzar.

''The second list of 25 speakers has a diverse and erudite mix that include Akhil Katyal, poet, translator, scholar and author of 'Like Blood on the Bitten Tongue: Delhi Poems' and 'How Many Countries Does the Indus Cross'.

''... Amia Srinivasan, academic and author of 'The Right to Sex'; Andrew Quintman, scholar in the Buddhist traditions of Tibet and the Himalaya; Arundhathi Subramaniam, leading Indian poet and Sahitya Akademi Award recipient; Bonnie Garmus, creative director and debut novelist of Lessons in Chemistry,'' read the list.

The five-day literary extravaganza, based on the theme of 'Stories Unite Us', aims to explore the transformative power of literature, how it reflects society, and brings people together.

The list continues with Bhutanese author of ''The Hidden Rainbow'' and actor Kelly Dorji, former judge of the Supreme Court justice Madan B Lokur, actor and writer of the cookbook ''From My Kitchen to Yours'' Maria Goretti and academic and writer of ''The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway'' Merve Emre.

Former diplomat Navdeep Suri, Pulitzer prize-winner Roger Cohen, graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee, award-winning author Shumona Sinha, author and playwright Vivek Shanbhag are also part of the line-up.

As in the previous years, the festival will celebrate linguistic diversity, featuring a broad spectrum of languages and host sessions that focus on literary works in languages, including Assamese, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Urdu.

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