The Alchemist Hay Festival, bringing together Wales and Indian writers to spark a cross-pollination of creativity, is being held at Kanakakunnu Palace here from Thursday to Saturday.
The Hay Festival of Literature and Arts is an annual event started in Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Over the years, the event has spread to 10 countries, providing a platform for writers and artists to get to know the trends in creative expression across the world. The first edition of the festival in Kerala was held here last year.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, Lyndy Cooke, executive producer of the Hay Festival in Kerala, said the event being held here this time would feature the presentation of poetry from various parts of the world, especially from India and Wales.
Poets K. Sachithanandan, Simon Armitage, Twn Morys, Anupama Raju, and Eurig Salisbury are among those who will interact with readers at the event.
Mr. Tharoor, who attended the press meet, said the capital city was gradually emerging as the literary headquarters of the State with annual events such as the Kovalam Literary Festival and the Hay Festival, in addition to several book fairs.
The inauguration of the festival at 10 a.m. on Thursday would be followed by a session with Jnanapith winner M.T. Vasudevan Nair in conversation with novelist M. Mukundan. They will take the listeners to a journey through their creative world.
Sajoy Roy of Teamwork Productions, which handles the production part of the festival, said three sessions would run simultaneously at the festival to afford the literature lovers the choice of attending sessions according to their individual taste.
There will be sessions on translating with vitality poems from one language to another.
