The Vijayawada Book Festival Society has selected Kannada as theme for its 23 annual book festival that will begin on January 1. Society president R. Ramaswamy, secretary D. Ashok Kumar and vice-president B. Babjee said that the concept of a theme for the festival was introduced three years ago. Starting with ‘Translations' the festival society had ‘Tamil' and ‘Malayalam' as the themes in the subsequent years.
Kannada writer A.R. Mitra will inaugurate the festival along with veteran Telugu writer Kalipatnam Rama Rao. Union Minister Daggubati Purandreswari and Secondary Education Minister Kolusu Parathasarathi were invited as special guests, they said.
The birth centenaries of three men of words — Gadde Lingaiah, Kovvali and Karunasri who were all born in 1912 — would be celebrated this year. Several Telugu and Kannada writers would participate in the two-day seminar to be held on the subject of the theme.
As it is the tradition the venue of the book festival (Swaraj Maidan) has been named after Sivalenka Sambhu Prasad who was the publisher of Andhra Pathrika. He was instrumental in encouraging several new writers through his publication. The main dais at the venue has been named after Mullapudi Venkataramana who passed away this year.
They office-bearers of the festival said that Mr Venkataramana was a patron of the book festival encouraging its development in every way he could, they said.
Noted advocate, rights activists and writer Vasantha Kannabiran would lead the “Walk for Books” from the Vijayawada Press Club to the venue of the book festival on January 4.
A face-to-face programme has been scheduled with writer Goreti Venkanna on January 6. The valedictory of the festival will be held on January 11. Competitions will be held for school and college students from January 2 to 10.
