The three-day Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest will also present its annual literary awards for fiction, non-fiction and business books
The 14th edition of the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest will kick off its online edition on October 25-26 with renowned authors such as Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak, among others. The on-site festival, which aims to recognize literary talent across genres among established and new writers, will take place from October 27 to 29 in Mumbai.
Earlier this week, the festival, which annually awards literary prizes for fiction, non-fiction and business books, announced the longlisted titles, including Black river by Nilanjana Roy, Yuri’s education by Jerry Pinto, India is broken by Ashoka Mody, The bandit queens by Parini Shroff and South versus North: the great divide in India by Nilakantan R.
Storytellers and thought leaders from India and 15 other countries, including Vivek Shanbag, Faye D’Souza, Jerry Pinto, Kunal Vijayakar, Luke Coutinho, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Manoranjan Byapari, Marcus du Sautoy, Meeran Chadha Borwankar, Mehdi Hassan, Michel Bussi, and Peter Frankopan will be part of lectures on fiction, art, society, nature and economics at the Litfest.
Besides the literary prizes, the festival’s highlights include the prestigious Poet Laureate and Lifetime Achievement awards, an introduction in a language other than English (this year it’s Kannada) and 14 book launches. During this edition of the Litfest, the Binod Kanoria Awards for Children’s Literature and the Rotary Writing For Peace Award, introduced last year, will also be presented.
“This year, Litfest will spotlight the work of both women and regional writers. The hybrid format introduced last year is here to stay as the festival will offer both digital and physical sessions,” said Harish Bhat, brand manager, Tata Sons, in a press statement.
For the first time, the festival, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, will also present The Infinite Library, a traveling installation that uses virtual reality and other media to reimagine the future of libraries as interactive spaces that engage people through multisensory forms of storytelling narrate. .
It also includes a spoken word performance, explores how artificial intelligence influences the creative process and a dramatic presentation of epic Kannada poetry and stories. The festival will conclude with the announcement of the literary prize winners on October 29.
The festival will take place from October 27 to 29 at the NCPA, Nariman Point and St Pauls Institute of Communication Education and Title Waves bookstore. There is no charge for entry and registration is not required.