13th edition of Hyderabad Literary Festival opens on Jan 27

Hyderabad: The forthcoming 13th edition of Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF-2023) will have a gamut variety of activities which promise a vibrant confluence of literature, culture, and arts.

After being held virtually for two consecutive years owing to the Covid pandemic, the HLF will be held here between January 27 and 29 at Vidyaranya High School, Saifabad. HLF, which began in 2010, became an annual calendar event in their itinerary for Hyderabadis coinciding with the Republic Day week-end.

The inaugural edition of the festival was held at Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP). It hosted nearly 100 writers from across India. Into its second decade, the festival was hosted in various parts of the city, such as Taramati Baradri, Malualana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad Public School, and others. In 2020, the venue was moved to Vidyaranya High School. The festival, which has free entry, expects nearly 20,000-25,000 visitors across three days. HLF organizers teamed up with the Hyderabad Metro and will provide free shuttle services from the Lakdikapul station to the venue.

Every year the festival invites a foreign country and leading authors and artists from an Indian language to show case their literature, art, and culture. This year's festival will feature Germany as the guest nation, and the language in focus will be Konkani. Jnanpith Awardee Damodar Mauzo, an eminent Konkani writer, will be the chief guest at the inaugural session.

The festival will bring together academicians, authors, poets, literary lovers, performing artists, story tellers and film directors spanning across the diverse regions of the country. The event will also witness several book launches, interactions with authors, stalls for book lovers, panel discussions, movie screenings, story-telling workshops for children and adults.

Konkani, being the language in focus for the festival, a film of award-winning director Bardoy Barretto, who blossomed into one of the country's best editors, will be screened. Damodar Mauzo, Pritha Sardesai, Salil Chaturvedi, Nirmala Shenoy are the other speakers. The festival will also host several folk and cultural performances from the Konkan region. Dhalo and Fugdi, a cultural expression by Sardessai and Dyanjyoti Mahila Mandal will be performed.

In this year's edition, prominent speakers include, Aayush Puthran, Deepti Naval, Helene Bukowsi, P. Sainath, Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, Sathya Saran, Shrayana Bhattacharya, Vidya Rao and others.

This year's HLF will feature performances by Jerry Pinto, a dance performance based on Sarojini Naidu's poetry, Bharti Kapadia and Manjari Chaturvedi's artwork at the exhibition, Hum Aisich Bolte, a collection of poems from 40 city-based poets and others.