Vijayawada: The poster for the upcoming 36th Vijayawada Book Festival was released here on Tuesday. Members of the Vijayawada Book Festival Society announced that the festival will be held at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium from January 2 to January 12.

Addressing the media at the society’s office, the organisers expressed their gratitude to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for granting permission to conduct the book festival at the stadium. Head of Emesco Publications Vijay Kumar recalled that Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan had taken the initiative last year to obtain permission for organising the festival. He also announced that Chief Secretary K Vijayanand has agreed to attend the inaugural function as the chief guest. Book Festival Society president T Manohar Naidu informed that a ‘Walk for Books’ will be organised on January 6. He added that a series of literary programmes will be conducted throughout the festival period. These include sessions on “25 Years of the Publication Sector,” “25 Years of Poetry,” “25 Years of Short Stories,” “25 Years of Novels,” “25 Years of Translation Literature,” “25 Years of Literary Criticism,” and “25 Years of Children’s Literature.” In addition, centenary celebrations of Mandali Venkata Krishna Rao, Acharya Tumati Donappa and Munipalle Raju will also be held.

Secretary K Lakshmaiah, Joint Secretary ABS Sairam, Treasurer K Ravi, SriSri Publications’ Visweswara Rao and others were present on the occasion.