The ninth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) will be held from January 22 to 25, at the beachfront in Kozhikode, India’s first UNESCO City of Literature. The festival will feature more than 400 speakers and 250 sessions across seven parallel tracks, along with evening performances, musical events and late-night fireside conversations by the sea.
KLF brings writers from 17 countries
This year, KLF will feature participation from 17 countries, making it India’s most globally represented literature conclave.
Germany has been announced as the ‘guest nation’ for the upcoming edition. German Ambassador to India Philipp Ackermann, who attended a curtain-raiser in Delhi, described the festival as a “remarkable meeting point for cultures, ideas and artistic expression”. He said Germany was honoured to participate in a celebration that brings together some of the world’s most influential literary voices.
German programming at KLF 2026 will be curated in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut and partner institutions. Michael Heinst, director of the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bengaluru, said contemporary German writers such as Mithu Sanyal, Christopher Kloeble, Shida Bazyar, Max Czollek and Hadija Haruna would take part in conversations with Indian artists and authors.
Delegations from 17 countries, including the US, Canada, France, the UK, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Nigeria, will take part in the festival.
KLF 2026 will also host a wide-ranging line-up of Nobel laureates, Booker Prize winners, historians, economists, activists, filmmakers and artists. Notable participants include American astronaut Sunita Williams, Nobel laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah, Olga Tokarczuk and Abhijit Banerjee, along with business leader Indra Nooyi, essayist Pico Iyer, environmental activist Vandana Shiva, historian Romila Thapar, novelist Anita Nair and actor Prakash Raj, among others. “At KLF, we strive to create a space where ideas transcend borders,” said Ravi Deecee, chief facilitator of the festival.
Jaipur Litfest poised for its most ambitious chapter
As winter settles over the Pink City, Jaipur prepares to host what promises to be its most imaginative literary spectacle yet. From January 15-19, the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) will be hosting over 300 sessions and 500 speakers across its iconic venues—Front Lawn, Charbagh, Surya Mahal, Durbar Hall, and Baithak.
At the heart of the festival is Booker Prize-winner Kiran Desai, who will discuss her novel The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Former diplomat and thinker Gopalkrishna Gandhi will reflect on India’s post-Partition journey through The Undying Light and India and Her Futures. International Booker Prize 2025 winner Banu Mushtaq will present Heart Lamp, her piercing collection on the inner lives of Muslim women.
Economic and political analysis will take centrestage as Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian discuss India’s transformation as detailed in A Sixth of Humanity. Sahitya Akademi awardee KR Meera brings her genre-defying narratives to Jaipur, while global cultural icon Stephen Fry will offer witty reflections from A Bit of Fry. Chess legend Viswanathan Anand revisits the early years of his meteoric rise in Lightning Kid.
International voices add formidable depth: Pulitzer Prize–winner Percival Everett on James, Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the Web, Jimmy Wales on transparency in digital ecosystems, and former Irish PM Leo Varadkar on leadership and public life. Sessions on manga with Yoshitoki Oima, and landmark poetry panels with Alice Oswald and Tamim Al-Barghouti further expand the festival’s creative contours.
The lineup also includes Nobel laureates and global thinkers such as Esther Duflo, Anne Applebaum, Stephen Greenblatt, and Fredrik Logevall, alongside leading Indian voices, including Sudha Murty, Amish, Shobhaa De, Navtej Sarna, Jeet Thayil, Prasoon Joshi, and Anand Neelakantan. This year’s edition is also shaped by strong thematic conversations on equity and innovation.
Safeena Hussain, the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, will speak on education and social change, while Google DeepMind researcher Ali Eslami will explore the intersections of digital creativity and emerging technologies.
Namita Gokhale, co-founder and festival co-director, says: “We speak in many tongues and celebrate multilingual discourse.” Co-director William Dalrymple calls this edition their boldest yet: “We are bringing together some of the finest minds on the planet… in a spirit of genuine intellectual encounter.”
Sanjoy K Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts, emphasises: “With speakers representing more than 25 countries, the festival is a testament to the power of cultural exchange… and an invitation to discover new ways of seeing.”
