Nobel winners JM Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk at Jaipur fest

Two Nobel laureates and seven Booker Prize winners including JM Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and Kiran Desai will be attending the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival from January 21 to 25 next year.

Two Nobel laureates and seven Booker Prize winners including JM Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and Kiran Desai will be attending the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival from January 21 to 25 next year.

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The festival, in its sixth edition, will host more than 210 authors from around the world including Martin Amis, Mohsin Hamid and Junot Diaz.

The festival will be held at Diggi Palace in Jaipur, and will include a range of activities such as debates, discussions, readings, performances and workshops.

“When I see the amazing list of names we have assembled this year I almost have to restrain myself from hugging myself with pleasure and amazement: the world’s very greatest writers are assembling in Jaipur at the end of January and my only anxiety is how we’re ever going to match this,” said William Dalrymple, festival co-director, in a press release.

Discussions on caste and racial issues, cinema, religion, gender and the environment will also form a part of the festival. It will have special focus on writing from the North-east of India and from the United States, as well as sessions on Indian writing in different languages.

Other authors expected at the festival include Candace Bushnell, Chimamanda Adichie, Irvine Welsh, Jung Chang, Patrick French, Richard Ford, Rory Stewart and Vikram Seth.

The five-day festival will be open to the general public completely free of charge.

“We are delighted that the festival has grown to be one of the five biggest literature events in the world, the largest free literature festival and the largest festival in Asia attracting over 30,000 visitors,” said Sanjoy K Roy, producer-DSC Jaipur Literature Festival and MD of Teamwork Productions that is helping organise the festival.