14th Edition of Jaipur Literature Festival embraces a paradigm shiftwith specially curated virtual experiences

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HIGHLIGHTS

• Festival dates – A virtual edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 is scheduled from 19 – 21 February and 26 – 28 February 2021.

• The first list of speakers announced – The Festival has announced its first list of speakers. With over 100 speakers expected to attend the 2021 edition,the first list includes Albie Sachs, Anne Applebaum, Ann-Sophie Barwich, Avni Doshi, Ben Macintyre, Bibek Debroy, Camilla Townsend, Carlo Rovelli, Cauvery Madhavan, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Chinmay Tumbe, Colum Mccann, Craig Brown, Daniel Simpson, Dharini Bhaskar, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, George H. Packer, Harish Trivedi, Hermione Lee, Himanshu Prabha Ray, HM Naqvi, John Zubrzycki, Marina Wheeler, Mehr Afshan Farooqi, Michael Puett, Michael Sandel, Moin Mir, Moni Mohsin, Navtej Sarna, Nikesh Shukla, Oliver Craske, Patrick Radden Keefe, Peter Frankopan, Priyanvada Natarajan, Prasoon Joshi, Priya Atwal, Ramachandra Guha, Ranjit Hoskote, Robert Macfarlane, Rupert Snell, Sarbpreet Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Shylashri Shankar, S. Hareesh, Samira Shackle, Samit Basu, Samanth Subramanian, Simon Winchester, Sonia Faleiro, Sujit Sivasundaram, Stephen Brusatte, Sunil S. Amrith, Tansen Sen, Tim I. Gurung, Vincent Brown, Wajahat Habibullah, Yamini Aiyar, Yashaswini Chandra, Zorawar Daulet Singh.

Jaipur:27/1/21:For over a decade, Jaipur has played host to the annual Jaipur Literature Festival, dubbed the ‘greatest literary show on Earth!”, a haven for literature-lovers and festival-goers alike.  This year, a time of many firsts, the Covid-19 pandemic shifted paradigms of engagement to the virtual world, and the Jaipur Literature Festival too will feature an online programme spread over two extended weekends in February 2021. After much anticipation, Teamwork Arts, the Festival producer, announced the dates for its 14^th edition today, setting them between 19 – 21 February and 26 – 28 February 2021.

The live virtual sessions will showcase a plethora of themes and writers curated specially for audiences across the world. Audiences will be offered an immersive experience that will recreate the magic of the original literary extravaganza with augmented reality and virtual venues replete with a bookstore, a bazaar featuring traditionally handcrafted goodies, and various engagement zones. In its ability to reach out to geographies across the world, the online edition of the iconic Festival will actually be a dream-come-true for many who have craved to be at Jaipur every January in the last 14 years. In its milestone online edition, the Festival aims to be even wider in its reach and longer in duration covering two extended weekends.

The Festival continues to remain committed to its core values: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform offering free and fair access to all. The programming this year will bring together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sportspersons, and entertainers, speaking on a range of subjects to enthusiastic audiences. Some of the themes that the Festival will explore this year include Technology & AI, Politics & History, Environment & Climate Change, Mental Health, Business & Economics, Translations, Poetry & Music, Food & Literature, Geopolitics, Science & Medicine, Democracy & Constitution, Water & Sustainability, Historical Fiction, Film & Adaptation, Travel etc.

The first list of speakers released today includes former South African Constitutional Court JusticeAlbie Sachs, a distinguished lawyer, anti-Apartheid activist, scholar & author; Bibek Debroy, writer, translator, Sanskrit scholar and Chairman of India’s Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister whose recent books include the translations of Bhagavata Purana and the Markandeya Purana;Carlo Rovelli, renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,The Order of Time and the recently released Helgoland; Daniel Simpson, Yoga philosopher & author of The Truth of Yoga, a comprehensive guide to the history of practice; John Zubrzycki, an Australian journalist, researcher and author of The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India’s Most Glamorous Royal Family; Marina Wheeler, British lawyer, columnist and author of The Lost Homestead:My Mother, Partition and the Punjab; Michael Sandel, American political philosopher,  Harvard University professor and author of The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?

The list continues withiMir, author of Surat: Fall of a Port, Rise of a Prince: Defeat of the East India Company in the House of Commons, which traces the annexation of Surat; Moni Mohsin, famous for writing the long-running satirical column ‘The Diary of a Social Butterfly’ for The Friday Times and author of The Impeccable Integrity of Ruby R; Navtej Sarna, author, columnist, and former diplomat and India’s Ambassador to the United States; Oliver Craske, author of the biography Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar; Prasoon Joshi, celebrated poet, writer, lyricist and screenwriter and Chairperson of India’s Central Board of Film Certification; Priya Atwal, a historian of the empire, monarchy & cultural politics in Britain and India and author of Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire.