The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) on Tuesday announced its fourth list of ten speakers who will be appearing at the JLF scheduled for January next year. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, JLF is announcing ten speakers every week for ten weeks, every Tuesday, between October 18 and December 20.

Winner of the 2012 Bihari Puraskar for his Hindi novel Dhooni Tape Teer, and author of When Arrows Were Heated Up and Travels in the Adivasi World, Rajasthani author and poet Hari Ram Meena, an IPS officer, will return to JLF. It was Meena’s posting in the tribal and dacoit-marred areas which inspired him to write novels and poems.

Formerly, a professor of English and Head of English Department (HoD) at Government Women College, Srinagar, Neerja Mattoo, who has translated a collection of Kashmiri short stories under the title The Stranger Beside Me, will be in attendance at the JLF. Bangladeshi poet, activist and entrepreneur, The Stranger Beside Me, also co-director and producer of the Dhaka Literature Festival, will also be in attendance. Another personality in attendance will be former US ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan. Read more