KOCHI:
The capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, is gearing up once again for one of the largest and most accessible cultural events in God’s own country.
The 2nd edition of Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters will be held from Jan 31 st – Feb 3 rd , 2019 at Kanakakkunnu Palace with over 200 speakers from all across the world. Heralding the theme Known Lands; Unheard Voices, the festival will have a strong field of speakers from all the five continents.
The festival will have a large contingent of close to 50 foreign speakers including poets, novelists, academics, graphic novelists, filmmakers and journalists. There would are over 100 speakers from Kerala in addition to the leading Indian writers in English and other languages. It will feature high –profile conversations, reading and story-telling sessions, impromptu performances, workshops and also an exploration of traditional Kerala cuisine. Evenings will be graced by cultural performances by leading artistes.
MBIFL ’19 roster of speakers include pre-eminent feminist alive Prof Germaine Greer, writer- diplomat-politician Dr Shashi Tharoor, celebrated Iraqi novelist Shahad Al Rawi, journalist-author Joumana Haddad, one of the ‘100 powerful Arab women’,Jamacian poet laureate Lorna Goodison, and renowned Sri Lankan writer Shyam Selvadurai. British poet – lyricist Casey Bailey and another british poet-orator J J Bola will also attend. Indian- English authors like the banker-turned-writer Ravi Subramaniam, Manu Joseph, Annie Zaidi and poet-journalist Arundhati Subramanian will also be part of the event.Over 100 speakers from Kerala in addition to the leading Indian writers in English and other languages will be part of this year festival.
Speaking on the occasion M P Veerendera Kumar, Chairman & Managing Director of Mathrubhumi Group said “The second edition of Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters ‘19, will have writers and speakers from all five continents, apart from leading Indian writers and a who’s who of Malayalam literature. We envision this commingling of minds as a celebration of our inherited syncretic culture to take forward the legacy of literature, words and its potency”.
Writer and senior journalist Sebin Iqbal and Mathrubhumi Executive Editor P I Rajeev are the festival directors. The first edition of the festival in 2018, provided a platform for more than 150 artistic minds from different parts of the world and India to meet and interact.
