Kochi’s feast of literature gets bigger

Marathi-English writer Kiran Nagarkar will inaugurate Krithi International Literary Festival today

Students at Krithi International Book Fair in the city on Monday.

Marathi-English novelist and playwright Kiran Nagarkar will inaugurate Krithi International Literary Festival 2018 held as part of the ongoing book fair at Marine Drive on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Minister for Tourism and Cooperation Kadakampally Surendran will preside over the event. Each day till March 11 will witness five sessions as part of the lit fest at Bolgatty Palace.

Registration

A total of 12 overseas writers, 60 writers from outside Kerala and 250 Malayali writers will take part in the festival, for which online delegate registration is open. There is facility for spot registration at Bolgatty Palace on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. The delegate fee is ₹500. Entry is free for the general public.

Keynote addresses at the lit fest will be delivered by poet K. Satchidanandan on March 7 and writers N.S. Madhavan, M. Mukundan and C. Radhakrishnan respectively on the days till March 10.

Conversations and talks will be held on everything from overseas literature and Indian literature to India after 1990, the concept of equality, the ideas that changed the world, on media, theatre and cinema, publishing, artist and society, India’s traditional knowledge, scientific thinking, free knowledge, emerging technologies, history, Kerala 2050, music, health, housing and agriculture.

The organisers have firmed up plans to ensure free road transport and boat services to Bolgatty for those heading for the festival. Two tempo vans will hold services between the Marine Drive book fest venue and Bolgatty Palace. The boat services will be held from the branded quay at Marine Drive.

The first batch of overseas writers who will be talking in sessions termed Literature Across Frontiers has arrived. Alexandra Buhler and Sian Northey from the U.K. Swiss-born Vanni Bianconi; Spanish writer Marti Sales and Sampurna Chattarji, who was born in Ethiopia, arrived on Monday.

Mexican novelist and publisher Eduardo Rabasa, author of the famous A Zero Sum Game , also landed on Monday.

A host of Malayalam poets and writers will be seen at the festival on Wednesday.