The Jaipur Literary Festival concluded its 16th edition earlier this week. Where can I go from here?
The 2023 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) came to an end on Monday. This was the 16th successful edition, including the 2021 fully online version and his 2022 extended hybrid format during the pandemic.
Its origin story has been told many times, and over the years the JLF has expanded to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Maldives.in an interview with lounge In 2017, William Dalrymple, one of the two festival directors, said the JLF had risen from the depths beyond Jaipur, “rising out of the depths, tentacled and growing like a monster from Purana mythology.” Along with this, the JLF was also announced in Spain this year.
When JLF started in the mid-2000s at Jaipur’s now 163-year-old Diggi Palace, JLF was a small place of joy, waiting to be discovered. In the early 2010s, it started making serious waves. Despite wanting his share of criticism and controversy about speakers and sponsors, the JLF remained the bright kid in the class that even the strictest teachers grudgingly admired, and everyone spent time with. I wanted to be a well-read and cool kid.
And they were all possible. It was free for nearly 14 years. All you have to do is register. For many people, especially high school and college-going millennials in his late 2000s and early 2010s, this was a big calendar event. Whatever your background or education, the JLF felt like the most intense and intensive course in the liberal arts.
See your literary heroes live, raise your hand and challenge them with questions on the Bi-Tac, bump into them over chai at Front Lawn, discover new voices at Cherburgh, meet them at the festival bookstore, After the session, we will exchange opinions in the signature tent.
For readers, whether commercial, literary, historical, or non-fiction, the JLF was the place to find the larger tribes. Regardless of ideology, the JLF has been an almost idyllic place for readers and writers to meet and enrich the world.
Well, I’m a teenager. And teens are never easy.
Last year, just out of the pandemic, the 15th edition of the festival was held at Clarks Amer, a five-star hotel in Jaipur. Because JLF has outgrown his Diggi and needed space for social distancing. Entry and registration was no longer free, it was Rs. 200 rupees per day. 100 yen for students. This continued this year, but had little effect if the goal was to demotivate the crowd.
in his paper The Jaipur Literature Festival and Its Critics: World Literature as a Social Practice (Based on the 2017 edition of the JLF, published in Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 44, Issue 1), author Per Ståhlberg was interviewed by Sanjoy Roy, head of Teamworks Arts, which produces the festival. , writes: …its growing success…he barely mentioned the author, the book, the sessions….what he elaborated on was the visitor flock, how it grew It was…now made up of over 400,000 people….It was obviously very important for the producers to declare the JLF to be the world’s largest literary festival in terms of audience. ”
The JLF will always have chai and food stalls (not including separate dining areas for speakers, press and those who purchase special packages), festival bookstore, crafts and trinkets for sale There was a kiosk of a local boutique that does. Amazingly, this has now grown into a full-fledged flea market for clothing, handmade jewellery, and more, as well as three carnival-style food zones. It’s distracting, disappointing, and takes away from what the festival was understood to be.
During the sessions on this year’s Front Lawn, many people used their chairs to rest and eat snacks. No matter who is on stage, whether it is a crowd drawer such as singer Usha Youthup, lyricist Gulzar or Javed Akhtar, or someone admired by writer and politician Shashi Tarur, Booker Prize-winning Daisy Rock Literature like Well, or lesser-known stars like Wainwright Prize-winning biologist and author Merlin Sheldrake.
The confusion didn’t just stop with biryani and ice cream swapping. At one point the session paused with a sudden long yell. Crowds of students were yelling about something at a stall just 100 meters from the last row of seats.
If critics were talking about the JLF starting to lose its soul a few years ago, recent changes have made that shift all the more apparent.
But the editorial heart of JLF programming remains strong. From Booker Prize winners talking about technology and stories, to experts talking about the future of AI and the nation’s social and legal history, the wide range of voices and their relevance make the JLF accessible to all kinds of readers. It shows that you still care about offering something.
This strength and depth of conversation allows readers to inspire participants. Even casual listeners have the chance to hear Saurabh Kirpal, a lawyer, explain why he thinks the landmark sexual harassment case is not unrelated to a book on the laws affecting India’s financial landscape. there is. Writer Avinuo Quile talks about how folklore can highlight social inequalities. Or Nobel laureate Abdul Razak Gurna recalls his immigration experience vividly.
Teenage years are difficult for everyone. At 16, we try to avoid the anxiety of making milestone decisions. We think about college and the general direction our lives take. When we find a new city or a new home, we sometimes try to remember who we are and the friends we want to keep. Growing up shouldn’t change much for this her 16-year-old.
Moments from the 2023 Jaipur Literary Festival
Marlon James x Emily Benn
A 50-minute conversation between British politician and social activist Emily Benn and 2015 Booker Prize winner Marlon James was laced with his wit and punchline interjections. The session was titled “Moon Witch, Spider King,” after his 2022 book. His Dark His Star is his second in his trilogy, with the first book coming out in 2019. Both titles live in the same world, but each tells a different character story. Ideas of truth, authenticity and white eye dominated the conversation, and James also drew from other panels he participated in during the festival. Why do they think our oral traditions are primitive?” asked James at one point while talking about the discursive nature of storytelling traditions in Indian, Jamaican and Mexican cultures. I was.
Shehan Karunatilaka x Nandini Nair
This is one of JLF 2023’s most engaging and entertaining conversations. Sri Lankan author and 2022 Booker Prize-winning man of the moment Karnatilaka and journalist Naia spoke. Seven months of Mari Almeida and children’s books. Nair closed out the session with a rapid-fire round. The audience questions were amusing: A boy asked Karnatilaka about writing about such tragedies in a hilarious way. , he asked. Karnachilka’s answer about distancing himself from the story through his characters did not fully answer the intellectual question. When intrigued by his research on I was imagining based on the evidence that was investigated. ”
Catherine Randell BookMark in Jaipur
One of the biggest benefits of attending JLF is discovering the passion, clarity and humor that writers naturally express themselves with. Her charm and enthusiasm, as described by writer Katherine Randell, was inspiring. In one of his Jaipur BookMark sessions on children’s literature with her Bijal Vachharajani of Pratham Books and illustrator Kristin Roskifte, Rundell said: But the kids aren’t waiting while you’re pope. ‘ Her voice and thoughts are so unique that addressing her 2019 essay ‘Why Should You Read Children’s Literature Even When You’re So Old And Smart’ directly reflects her It’s just as fun to listen to.
invade the language of India
Despite the JLF’s long-standing efforts to create a space for non-English writing, many panels were seen as English-centric. Recently, an industry-wide interest in translation has led to a significant increase in non-English discourse. In a session on “The Spirit Of Bihari Literature,” the audience asked panelists, including poet Anamika and writers Akshaya Mukul and Abhay K, to speak in Bihari instead of English. Nudge was enough for Abhay. She had a conversation with poet Meena Kandasamy and editor-in-chief of Penguin Random House India Manasi Subramaniam on Tirukkural which was also a highlight, as she recalled many of Thiruvalluvar’s poems from her memory. It is due to simple recitation.
