Lit fest to feature engrossing sessions

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Bhubaneswar, June 4: Over 200 celebrities from the worlds of literature, cinema, media and politics will assemble in Orissa’s temple city to deliberate on ‘Literature for Peace and Harmony’ at the three-day Kalinga Literature Festival (KLF) to start June 10. Briefing reporters at a press conference, KLF founder and director Rashmi Ranjan Parida said, “KLF has emerged as one of the leading literary platforms in India attracting both experienced and young litterateurs. Bigger than ever before, the fourth edition of the festival will rope in nationally and internationally acclaimed names on one platform to discuss, debate and explore commonalities in the diverse voices in literature, peace and harmony.”
Eminent Hindi writer and poet Dr Kedarnath Singh will attend the event as a keynote speaker and renowned writer and academic Dr HS Shivprakash will be the guest of honour apart from being the second keynote speaker. ‘Baahubaali’ producer Anand Neelakantan, Meera Nair, Suhasini Haidar, Vineet Kumar, Piyush Mishra, Ravi Mantha and Manohar Mouli Biswas are among others who will participate in the festival. The three-day festival will cover several dimensions of the interconnections between literature, peace and harmony. The key sessions will be on topics such as ‘Literature for Peace and Harmony’, resurgence of nationalism, literature beyond class privilege, democracy in the age of social media, Odissi, branding of Oriya literature beyond classical status, Indian films and grassroots reality, transformative Dalit literature and youth, women, media, sports, folk and regional literature. That apart, more than 20 new books will be released during the festival. This year, KLF is introducing special sessions, ‘Mystic Kalinga’ for poets and Kalinga Art Festival for artists. “As part of ‘Mystic Kalinga’, poetry sessions will be held with around 50 poets participating. Over 35 internationally acclaimed artists will exhibit their works in the Kalinga Art Festival. Another crucial addition to the festival is the establishment of literary awards including the Kalinga International Literary Award, Kalinga Literary Youth Award and the Kalinga Karubaki Award,” Parida said. The 4th Kalinga Literary Award will be given to Haraprasad Das. Anand Nilakantan will be felicitated with the Kalinga International Award, while Paramita Satapathy will receive the Kalinga Karubaki Award. As many as 30 young minds have been selected from the state for the Kalinga Literary Youth Award.