CONSIDERED AS one of the leading literature events in the South-Asian region, the Jaipur Literature Festival hosts a celebration of renowned international and national writers, columnists, playwrights, authors, poets, lyricists, actors, politicians, economists and bloggers, encompassing a wide range of activities such as discussions, debates, music, poetry and workshops.

The 2012 literary festival is scheduled to be held from January 20 to January 24, at Diggi Palace in Jaipur, with the famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie attending it. The event celebrates the free flow of ideas and opinions and draws a host of writers and readers from across India and the wider world. With thousands of participants and regular speakers from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, this festival offers discussions on diverse subjects such as religion, art, culture, dance, music, myth, economics, heritage and music to architecture and philosophy.

To present their thoughts and ideas in relation to their own works, the Jaipur Lit Fest will bring together a mix of mainstream Indian and international writers, authors and playwrights such as – Michael Ondaatje, Tom Stoppard, Ariel Dorfman and David Hare and many more like – Girish Karnad, Iftekhar Gilani, Gurcharan Das, Sahil Maqbool, Vinod Mehta, Chetan Bhagat, Ayesha Jalal and legendary Bollywood lyricists Gulzar and Javed Akhtar.

The schedule of the five-day Jaipur Literature Festival is finally frozen and will host 135 sessions this year. The event will showcase a team of prize-winning biographers like Purushottam Agarwal (Kabir), James Shapiro (Shakespeare), Peter Popham (Aung Saan Suu Kyi), Rosamund Bartlett (Tolstoy), Sugata Bose (Subhash Chandra Bose) and Joseph Lelyveld (Gandhi). The festival will also highlight the masters of long form journalism – David Remnick (Editor- New Yorker) and Philip Gourevitch (Former Editor – Paris Review). 

The Jaipur Literature Festival, an astonishing extravaganza of sorts, is all set to intellectually stimulate book lovers. In addition to die-hard bookworms, the festival’s music and dancing events attract tourists, students and even celebrity glitterati. This year’s music and dance performances will mainly focus on the tradition of Bhakti poetry and Sufi music – enlightening the literature of medieval South Asia – from Kabir to Meera Bai to Rumi and Shams Tabrizi.

Some of the major sessions, as sourced from the orgnizers, which will be highlight of the five-day literary event are:

January 20 - Day 1:

‘From Ink Lake’ – Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje in conversation with Amitava Kumar.

‘The Disappointment of Obama’ – Pulitzer Prize winner and Editor of the New Yorker David Remnick in conversation with Samanth Subramanian.

‘Midnight’s Child’ – Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie in conversation with Hari Kunzru.

‘Prison Diaries’ – Iftikhar Gilani, Anjum Zamarud Habib, Sahil Maqbool – moderated by Siddharth Vardharajan.

January 21 - Day 2:

‘In Search of a Story’ – Chetan Bhagat in conversation with John Elliot.

‘Tigers Mothers’ – Amy Chua in conversation with Madhu Trehan.

‘Gandhi, Ambedkar and the Crossroads at Jantar Mantar’ – Joseph Lelyveld, MJ Akbar, Sunil Khilnani, Aruna Roy, S Anand – moderated by Urvashi Butalia.

‘Lucknow Boy’ – Vinod Mehta in conversation with Tarun Tejpal.

January 22 - Day 3:

‘Holy Wars’ – Ayesha Jalal in conversation with William Dalrymple.

‘On Pakistan’ – Fatima Bhutto, Ayesha Jalal, Ziauddin Sardar in conversation with Karan Thapar.

‘O: Oprah in Jaipur’ – Oprah Winfrey in conversation with Barkha Dutt.

‘The Art of the Playwright’ – Tom Stoppard, Ariel Dorfman, David Hare in conversation with Neelam Mansingh.

January 23 - Day 4:

‘Journeys: Readings’ – David Davidar, Kunal Basu introduced by Nilanjana Roy.

‘Adaptations’ – David Hare, Salman Rushdie, Annie Proulx, and Tom Stoppard, chaired by Girish Karnad.

January 24 - Day 5:

‘Contested Will: Who wrote Shakespeare?’ – James Shapiro.

‘Lava: The Drama of Words’ – Javed Akhtar in conversation with Asghar Wajahat.

‘Between the Lines, Beyond the Headlines’ – Mark Tully and Kuldip Nayar, moderated by Nidhi Razdan.

‘Stoppard in Arcadia’ – Tom Stoppard introduced by Mukund Padmanabhan.

The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival directors are the writers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple and is produced by Sanjoy Roy of Teamwork Productions. The Lit Fest is an initiative of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation founded by Faith Singh.

The festival is open for all and seating is on a first-come, first served basis. Registration is mandatory.

Venue: Diggi Palace, Shivaji Marg, C-Scheme, Jaipur – 302004, Rajasthan (India).