Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2019 hosts 500 speakers from 30 countries!

The twelfth edition of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, the world’s largest literary festival, accessible and open to all, was successfully held from January 24-28, 2019. The litfest announced a total footfall of around 400,000 over the five days and hosted over 500 speakers from around 30 countries including Iceland, Norway, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Uganda, Australia, America, England, South Africa, Denmark and China. Over 250 sessions featured conversations, debates and dialogue spanning themes ranging from the classics, war, espionage, intelligence, politics, environment and climate change, gender issues, entrepreneurship, science and technology, along with broader areas such as fiction, adapting screenplays, mythology, crime, history, cinema, art, activism and the psychological aftermath of migration.

Conversations on the final day showcased a multiplicity of voices, from iconoclast novelists to experts and policy veterans, reflecting the truly global and relevant reach of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. With a large chunk of the audiences representing the young, the Festival’s outreach to shape minds and inspire imaginations has tremendous transformative potential. As always, the Festival empowered participants through the stories it told and the importance it continued to emphasise upon the idea of dialogue to seek solutions — something which the divisiveness of the modern world chooses often to dismiss.

Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2019 hosts 500 speakers from 30 countries!

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Over 4000 people contributed to bringing the Festival together including a dedicated group of nearly 300 volunteers.

The 6th edition of the B2B arm of the Festival, Jaipur BookMark (JBM) began on January 23 with a keynote address from Juergen Boos and included sessions on the fate of independent bookstores, skilling for the publishing industry, translations and rights, market trends, art and design work in publishing, distribution models and many engaging discussions.

While, the festival’s ongoing Youth Outreach programme with Yuva Ekta Foundation and School Outreach programme with Pratham Books engaged a large number of children and young people.

The Festival Bazaar with a vast array of artisanal products did brisk business and was a favourite haunt of attendees as was the JCB Prize for Literature Festival Bookstore, which stocked books by all participating authors and literary prize-winners, was managed by Full Circle, and had a steady stream of bibliophiles going in to browse, buy and savour the feel and scent of new books.

Festival Producer Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts announced the dates of the next edition as January 23-27, 2020 and mentioned some of the big-ticket authors who will be addressing the next edition of this truly incomparable grand literary carnival, which includes Adam Tooze, Anand Neelkantan, Anish Kapoor, Aruna Chakravarti, Bettany Hughes, Christina Lamb, Ganesh Devy, Devapriya Roy, George Saunders, Grayson Parry, Gulabi Sapera, Irshad Kamil, Kiran Desai, Lawrence Wright, Michael Sandel, Neelam Sarangpur, Neil Gaiman, Olivia Judson, Paul Muldoon, Peter Carey, Peter Frankopan, Ravi Subramanian, Ruchir Sharma, Rupert Everett, Simon Winchester, Stacey Schiff, Stephen Greenblatt, Tahmima Anam, Tilda Swinton, Tina Brown, Vineet Bajpai and Xiaolu Gup.