The annual jamboree of bibliophiles — Hyderabad Literary Festival — beginning on January 22 is a totally online affair this year. This was announced at a presser by chairperson of the festival organising committee Jayesh Ranjan. “The chief guest for the three-day online event will be Gulzar who has consented to inaugurate as well as read his anthology of poetry,” said Mr. Ranjan about the 11th edition of the literary festival.
“The challenge before us was whether to organise or drop the event. We realised that the literary festival has developed quite a momentum which we didn’t want to let go,” he said in the backdrop of social distancing norms due to COVID-19 pandemic. All the events will be streamed live and the recordings will also be available.
“We received twice the number of requests from publishers and authors as the participants at the event. We have avoided parallel events so that it doesn’t add to digital fatigue,” said T. Vijay Kumar, one of the directors of the festival committee.
The festival will include sessions to pay tribute to S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and Soumitra Chatterjee. “Though it is a virtual event we have 45 events spread over 50 hours with 75 resource persons, 180 artistes showing 350 works of art curated by four curators. The digital exhibitions will continue till February 11,” informed Amita Desai of the organising committee.
The speaker sessions are limited to 55 minutes with 15 minutes for question and answers. The festival can be followed live on <youtube.com/c/hlf-india>.
