0208 843 4444
One of the largest literary festivals in the Asia Pacific, the Jaipur Literature Festival sees eminent world personalities, having distinguished careers as writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers come together for this five day literary extravaganza. More than a million book lovers patronise the Pink City’s iconic Diggi Palace Hotel for participating in hundreds of sessions spanning five days. Moreover, the festival empowers young artisans by providing them a stage for displaying their craft. Music is intrinsic to the festival and several entertaining performances are staged from genres spanning ghazals, funk and rock. Several music workshops, masterclasses, talks and sessions are also available for the musically-inclined at the venue. Heritage Walks around the city are also arranged for festival goers for as much as 50% discount.
If you are keen on making it to Jaipur for the popular festival scheduled for January 2019, here’s what you need to know:
When: Mostly held in the second half of January, the festival in 2019 has been scheduled from January 24-28.
Where: The iconic Jaipur hotel Diggi Palace has became synonymous with the festival ever since its inception in the year 2006. The hotel is located at 10 minutes of walking distance from the Old City of Jaipur. However, this year the music stage has been shifted to the lawns of The Clarks Amer, just 15 minutes of drive from the Diggi Palace. This has been done to accommodate about 5000 more people at the literary sessions to be conducted at the previous music venue of the Diggi Palace, now renamed to “Char Bagh”.
What to Expect: Indian and international authors partake in readings, discussions, questions and answers as well as book signing events through the course of 5 days. Several stalls are put, selling everything from native Indian craft to cuisine. A common outdoor lounge is available for resting in between the sessions. The evenings are reserved for entertaining music sessions. If you are a publisher, a literary agent, translation agency or a writer, you can make utilise Jaipur BookMark, a platform given to publishing professionals from India and around the world to connect and strike business deals.
Theme for 2019: The main theme for the upcoming version of the Jaipur Literary Festival will be the struggle for gender equality with enough emphasis on science, speculative fiction, artificial intelligence and the planet’s future.Main Speakers for JLF 2019: Andrew Sean Greer, the author of 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning novel ‘Less’ and Colson Whitehead who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Underground are going to be the star speakers at the festival. The 250-member strong line-up is also expected to feature, amongst many others, Alexander McCall Smith, Amin Jaffer, André Aciman, Anish Kapoor, Anuradha Roy, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Donna Zuckerberg, Germaine Greer, Hari Kunzru , Jeremy Paxman, Jon Lee Anderson, Juergen Boos, Manisha Koirala, Marc Quinn, Markus Zusak, Molly Crabapple, N.S. Madhavan, Narendra Kohli, NoViolet Bulawayo, Perumal Murugan, Priyamvada Natarajan, Rom Whitaker, Rupert Everett, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Tawfiq E. Chowdhury, Uday Prakash, Upamanyu Chatterjee and Vikram Chandra.