Home Culture Second Lahore Literary Festival Kicks Off Feb. 21

Second Lahore Literary Festival Kicks Off Feb. 21

by Newsweek Pakistan
Courtesy of LLF

Courtesy of LLF

LLF 2014 will feature some 100 speakers over three days.

The second annual Lahore Literary Festival takes place Feb. 21, 22 and 23. The three-day festival will feature over 100 Pakistani and foreign speakers across some 60 sessions.

“LLF 2014 will feature over 100 delegates from eight countries over three days,” said Razi Ahmed, LLF’s founding director, on Friday. “We have scheduled book launches, readings, panel discussions, performances and exhibitions as part of this year’s festival to celebrate the best of Lahore’s varied and storied cultural traditions.”

Some of this year’s LLF guests include Kamila Shamsie, author of A God in Every Stone; Zia Mohyeddin; artist Shahzia Sikander; journalist Jugnu Mohsin. LLF 2014 will feature panel discussions including on Lahore’s lost daughter, Amrita Sher Gil; scholar Pierre Alain Baud on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Pakistan’s young new writers on creating fiction.

“We bring together new ideas and themes to the program each year,” said Ahmed. “This year’s program reflects our abiding commitment to present a well-thought and stimulating literary festival packed with intellectually-stimulating events in both Urdu and English.”

“The program for LLF 2014 will be unveiled soon,” said Nusrat Jamil, president of the LLF 2014 Advisory Committee. “This year’s program builds on our success with the debut LLF and features the finest of Pakistan’s talent and a lot more international representation.”

The program has been put together by LLF 2014’s Advisory Committee comprising Ahmed Rashid, bestselling author and award-winning journalist; Amna Naqvi, founder of Gandhara-art, a curatorial and art publishing organization; Aysha Raja, founder of The Last Word bookstores and cofounder of The Life’s Too Short Literary Review; Khaled Ahmed, author, and consulting editor, Newsweek Pakistan; Mohsin Hamid, critically-acclaimed novelist; Muneeza Shamsie, critic and former regional chairperson of the Commonwealth Writers Prize; Salima Hashmi, internationally-acclaimed artist and educator; and Zareena Saeed, educator.

Last year’s debut event drew over 30,000 visitors and featured, among others, Tariq Ali, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ayesha Jalal, Mohammed Hanif, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Amin Jaffer, Lyse Doucet, Linda Bird Francke, Victoria Schofield, Jeet Thayil, William Dalrymple, Zehra Nigah.

LLF is a free public event, and seating at all sessions will be on a first-come, first-served basis. LLF is an independent, not-for-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

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