Book lovers in Jalandhar can look forward to a literary gathering this November as the city prepares to host the Jalandhar Literature Festival on November 29. The celebration will showcase books by local writers while giving visitors an opportunity to meet well-known authors from throughout the country and interact with them.
The event is being organised by CT Group of Institutions, Bookworms (Jalandhar- based book club set up in 2017) and Kumaon Literature Festival. The event will be centred on the theme ‘Women in Literature’, bringing readers and writers together for a day of literary interactions and storytelling, while celebrating women’s voices and their contributions to literature, according to organisers.
The festival will take place at the Old Walls Amphitheatre in Urban Estate, where books written by city-based authors will be mainly displayed to encourage readers to explore the literary talent within Jalandhar. Among the authors anticipated to attend are Maharani Meera Basant Kaur of Kapurthala, Anuja Chandramouli, Koral Dasgupta, Jyoti Barmola, Bahar Dutt, Madhulika Liddle, Afsana Cherian Kapoor, founder of NamaH and Jyotsna Mohan.
A day ahead of the celebration, visiting authors will be part of a series of curated activities including a session on Cinemaazi, in which writer Asha Batra will trace the history of Punjabi cinema. Sumant Batra, founder of Kumaon Literature Festival, has also guided the organising side in putting the occasion together.
The day will also offer an author’s evening featuring Fauzia Dastango, India’s only female Dastango. She will present Dastangoi, a traditional Urdu art of storytelling that brings stories alive through oral narration and performance. The evening will be hosted by Bookworms members Anshu Kharbanda, Kaveri Kalsi, Shveta Rajput and Neetu Sapra.
Anjali Dada, founder of Bookworms remarked, “To attend the festival, residents will have to register online which is free of cost. The registration link will be shared soon on the Instagram page of Jalandhar Lit Fest and will remain open till November 26. The festival will be held from 10.30 am to 5 pm,” she remarked. The celebration is being put together by the Bookworms team comprising Reema Sodhi, Anandita Cheema, Rashima Singh, Anshu Kharbanda, Pritika Thukral and Anjali Dada.
