Author and politician Shashi Tharoor hosted the curtain raiser for the seventh edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) in the national capital on Tuesday, December 12, which was attended by diplomats, publishers, and authors.
The curtain raiser offered a glimpse into KLF-2024 with Turkey taking centre stage as the guest country of honour. The country will be celebrating its 100 years of republic at KLF 2024 and will be represented through music, dance, food and various art forms. The UK, Wales, Spain, Japan, USA, Malaysia, Spain, and France will be the other participating countries.
The festival will feature 400+ global speakers and will be officially inaugurated by the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "KLF has truly flourished over the years, transforming into one of the leading literature festivals in the region. This upcoming edition promises to be the most spectacular one yet. Right from the beginning, KLF has been committed to spotlighting India's remarkable literary talent on the global stage, bringing together some of the world's most exceptional storytellers," said Ravi Deecee, Chief Facilitator, Kerala Literature Festival.
The sessions at KLF aim to map literature through discussions on Science and Technology, History & Politics, Environment, Literature, Business and entrepreneurship, Health, Art, Cinema, Theatre, Music and Leisure, Travel and Tourism, Gender, Economy, and various facets that shape human consciousness.
The festival will feature Nobel laureates, Booker Prize winners, literary luminaries, historians, diplomats, senior politicians, poets, journalists, Film & Theatre Personalities and celebrities from diverse professional backgrounds.
Some of the notable attendees include Gurcharan Das, Shashi Tharoor, Prakash Raj, Raghuram Rajan, Abraham Verghese, Piyush Pandey, Mallika Sarabhai, P Sainath, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Raghuram Rajan, Kailash Satyarthi, Perumal Murugan, Jerry Pinto, Parakala Prabhakar, Francesc Miralles, and Jiban Narah, among others.
The Kerala Tourism & Cultural Department join hands with DC Books to make the KLF a mega event and one among the top six festivals in Kerala. The festival will also host concerts by TM Krishna and Vikku Vinayakram; Surbahar and Sitar concert by Padmabhushan Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee.