JLF to focus on 70 years of Independence

Jaipur: A galaxy of stars from the world of literature, art and entertainment will descend in Jaipur to participate in what is being described as the “the greatest literary show on Earth”.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje will formally inaugurate the Jaipur Literature Festival along with lyricist Gulzar and American poet Anne Waldman. For the next five days beginning on Thursday people from across the world will have a chance to listen, interact and rub shoulders with their favourite authors and artists.

“This year we have so much to offer that it is difficult to know where to begin. We delve deeply into areas of world literature we have so far failed to explore, notably the novelists and poets of the Caribbean, Turkey and Iran, while returning to examine eternal classics such as the work of Homer, Firdausi, Yeats, Nabokov and the Thousand and One Nights,” author and festival director William Dalrymple said.

Such is the fame this festival has attained, that the organisers have had no difficulty in getting writers of genius as diverse as the war correspondent Dexter Filkins, the economist Ha Joon Chang and the amazing European aesthete and polymaths, Roberto Calasso and Neil MacGregor. Playwrights and novelists, including Mark Haddon, David Hare and Man Booker Prize winners Alan Hollinghurst and Richard Flanagan along with the world’s greatest living archaeologist, Barry Cunliffe will also be present.