Kovalam Literary Festival gets a Delhi stop-over

The Kovalam Literary Festival of Kerala is now ready for a stop-over in the national capital. Come September 29, the pre-eminent literary event of God’s Own Country, which is in its fourth year, will make an appearance in Delhi for a day.
The Delhi leg, scheduled at the India International Centre (the first time outside Kerala), will be followed by the two-day Kovalam Literary Festival (KLF) on October 1 and 2.In Delhi, it will be a day-long affair flavoured by Pakistani and Israeli writers apart from current Indian literary stalwarts.
“The KLF has now moved to the national stage and is now firmly established as India's second biggest literary festival. Our brand equity has also improved considerably over the last four years and that is the reason why the support to the event is growing,’’ KLF founder-director Binoo John said.
Two of Israel’s best known literary figures, short story writer Savyon Liebrecht and playwright Motti Lerner, will be participating in the Delhi event. Another highlight of the festival will be the presence of Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif, the author of ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’, who will be reading out from his new novel, ‘Our Lady of Alice Bhatti’ for the Delhi book lovers. He will also be in conversation with Indian author Manu Joseph. Among the notable Indian writers is journalist-columnist and writer Jug Suraiya, who will read from his new non-fiction ‘JS and the Times of My Life’.
The event will begin with the reading by Anuradha Roy from her book 'The Folded Earth', followed by a presentation by the Israeli writers, Savyon and Lerner. Devapriya Roy, the author of ‘The Vague Women’s Handbook’ will lead another session. Arvind Mehrotra will read from his translation of Kabir’s poems, titled ‘Songs of Kabir’.
The literary fest also will see the launch of three books – a book on tigers of Dudwa National Park by Ashok Kumar, Anita Nair’s collection of poems ‘Malabar Minds’ and Suresh Menon’s biography ‘Bishan’. Menon will be in session with the subject of his book, Bishan Singh Bedi, the former Indian cricket captain and legendry spinner.