The event at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi was packed with publishers, authors and supporters of the […]
Namita Gokhale
Things to Leave Behind follows the intertwined story of spirited Tilottama Uprety, whose uncle is hanged during the […]
Nearly a decade after its inception, Jaipur Literature Festival is heading to Boulder in the US this September for three days of books, ideas, performance art, dialogue and debate on contemporary issues.
Over 100 authors, thinkers, poets and performers have been lined up to participate in the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival at Boulder in Colorado beginning on September 18, organisers said today.
Nobel laureate ‘overwhelmed’ at public event to celebrate A House for Mr Biswas: The Guardian
Will he or won’t he? The question that has hung over the lead-up up to the eighth Jaipur literature festival was answered on its opening day when a frail VS Naipaul was wheeled on to the open air stage for his first public reunion in 19 years with Paul Theroux.
Festival directors William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale set the scene by programming a celebration of Naipaul’s name-making 1961 novel, A House for Mr Biswas. It was, said Theroux, “the foundation of Naipaul’s genius” – a novel without precedent, about a little man from Trinidad with big dreams. He recalled discovering it in 1966. “It’s one of the finest books I’ve ever read. I used to go home every night and read five to 10 pages.”
Are you frightened by shrinking enrollments in literature courses? Does the crisis in the humanities induce heart palpitations? Do you experience nausea when reading about the decline of reading? To anyone suffering from these symptoms, I recommend a rejuvenating travel to the East: attend the Jaipur Literary Festival.
In 2004, ten days after I moved my family to a new life in India, I gave a reading at a small palace on the edge of the ‘pink city’ of Jaipur. Fourteen people turned up, of whom ten were Japanese tourists who had got lost. The next year, I helped organise a modest literary programme of 18 authors. Two failed to arrive, but with the aid of my co-director, Namita Gokhale, we gathered a respectable audience of nearly 100. Eight years later, however, by some strange yogic sleight of hand, the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival has shape-shifted into the largest free litfest in the world and the largest literary event in the entire Asia-Pacific region.
Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, British writer Samantha Shannon, actor Irrfan Khan and boxer Mary Kom, besides noted […]
Doordarshan to launch book-based show ‘Kitaabnama’ anchored by Namita Gokhale
Doordarshan is launching a weekly book show called “Kitaabnama: Books and Beyond” to address literary issues through dialogue and conversation.
Conceived by writer and literary activist Namita Gokhale, who is also the co-director of Jaipur Literature Festival and Mountain Echoes, Bhutan, the show will feature books, readings and encounters with writers from the spheres of Hindi, English, and various Indian languages, as well as guest appearances from international names and voices.
