New Delhi: For the second year running, literature festival Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest will be conducted in a virtual format, and the organisers have recently announced the dates for the 12th edition.
The four-day Tata LitFest will be held from November 18 to November 21.
The speaker line-up includes leading personalities from the world of poetry, philosophy, science, business and the arts.
India’s eminent English poet Adil Jehangir Jussawalla will be the Poet Laureate of the 12th Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2021.
“His poems are profound, perceptive, and memorable and the impact of his writing has influenced generations of poets after him, up to this day,” festival director Amy Fernandes said in the statement.
In the past, Javed Akhtar, K. Satchidanandan, Jayanta Mahapatra, Gulzar, Keki Daruwalla, Vikram Seth, and Joy Goswami have been the poet laureates at Tata LitFest.
The festival was conceived in 2010 by Anil Dharker, the founder director who passed away in March this year.
According to the organisers, the 2021 edition will salute his memory and that of Shashi Baliga, its executive director, who died of Covid-19 in May 2021.
“We invite everyone to be a part of this brilliant line-up of events and hope to take forward the remarkable legacy left behind by Anil Dharker and Shashi Baliga,” said Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian, Tata Sons.
The Tata Group is the title sponsor of the Mumbai LitFest.
Speakers At Tata LitFest
The speakers at the event will include Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Anne Enright, Steven Pinker, Nick Hornby, Shashi Tharoor, Indra Nooyi, David Baldacci, Ashis Nandy, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Vidya Dehejia, Martin Kemp, Rebecca Solnit, Ruskin Bond, Amish, Neena Gupta, Ashwin Sanghi, Matthew Weiner, Marlon James, Shobhaa De, Rutger Bregman, Amy Blakemore, Matt Haig, Heather Morris, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Dolly Thakore, Jonathan Drori, Hilary Leichter, Daniel Lieberman, Farah Bashir, Sanjena Sathian.
All sessions of the virtual event will be free, according to the festival website.
Tata LitFest 2021 Highlights
Lifetime Achievement Award to a distinguished literary personality
The Great Debate
Daily performances including for children
Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest Literary Award for First Book
Book of the Year award in fiction and non-fiction categories
Business Book of the Year
Publisher of the Year
Little Festival for children
Campus Festival – series of talks by participating writers for college students
Introduction to Indian Languages — new element, which will see a session each on Marathi prose and poetry, along with a performance in Marathi.