The Jaipur Literature Festival, or JLF, is an annual

literary festival A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings ...

which takes place in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n city of

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

each year in the month of January. It was founded in 2006. It is the world's largest free literary festival. The Diggi Palace Hotel serves as the main venue of the festival, with sessions held in the Hall of Audience and throughout the gardens of the Diggi Palace in the city centre. The festival directors are the writers

Namita Gokhale Namita Gokhale (born 1956) is an Indian writer, editor, festival director, and publisher. Her debut novel, ''Paro: Dreams of Passion'' was released in 1984, and she has since written fiction and nonfiction, and edited nonfiction collections. She ...

and

William Dalrymple William Dalrymple may refer to: * William Dalrymple (1678–1744), Scottish Member of Parliament * William Dalrymple (moderator) (1723–1814), Scottish minister and religious writer * William Dalrymple (British Army officer) (1736–1807), Scott ...

and is produced by Sanjoy Roy of Teamwork Arts. Surina Narula is the Founder Sponsor and Festival Advisor for the literature festival. The Festival is an Initiative of the

Jaipur Virasat Foundation Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as ...

(JVF) founded by Faith Singh, originally as a segment of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival in 2006, and developed into a free-standing festival of literature standing on its own feet in 2008. JVF's Community Director Vinod Joshi is its regional advisor. All events at the festival are free and not ticketed. In 2012, a number of events occurred related to the

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...

and the ''Satanic Verses'' controversy. A number of events created by the organisers of JLF, loosely named JLF International, have taken place in other cities around the world.

History, timeline

2006

The 2006 inaugural Jaipur Literature Festival featured 18 writers, including

Hari Kunzru Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of the novels '' The Impressionist'', '' Transmission'', ''My Revolutions'', ''Gods Without Men'', ''White Tears''David Robinson"Interview: Hari Kunzru, a ...

Shobhaa De Shobha De (''née'' Rajadhyaksha, formerly Kilachand; born 7 January 1948) is an Indian novelist and columnist. She is best known for her depiction of socialites and sex in her works of fiction, for which she has been referred to as the "Jackie ...

and

and 14 others. It drew a crowd of about 100 attendees, some of whom "appeared to be tourists who had simply got lost", according to the event's co-director William Dalrymple.

2007

In 2007 the festival grew in size and featured

Kiran Desai Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author. Her novel ''The Inheritance of Loss'' won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. In January 2015, The Economic Times listed her as one of 20 "most ...

Suketu Mehta Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of ''Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'', which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the Lettre Ulysses Prize, the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Pri ...

Shashi Deshpande Shashi Deshpande (born 1938) is an Indian novelist. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri Award in 1990 and 2009 respectively. Biography She was born in Dharwad, Karnataka, the second daughter of the Kannada dramati ...

, and

2008

In 2008 the festival continued to expand with about 2,500 attendees and the following authors/speakers:

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...

Donna Tartt Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist. Early life Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...

John Berendt John Berendt (born December 5, 1939) is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'', which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Biography Ber ...

Paul Zacharia Paul Zacharia, popularly known mononymously as Zacharia, is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his body of literary works composed of short stories, novellas, travelogues, screenplays, essays, columns and children's books, Zacha ...

Indra Sinha Indra Sinha (born 1950 in Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is a British writer of Indian and English descent. ''Animal's People'', his most recent novel, was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Write ...

Uday Prakash Uday Prakash (born 1 January 1952) is a Hindi poet, scholar, journalist, translator and short story writer from India. He has worked as administrator, editor, researcher, and TV director. He writes for major dailies and periodicals as a freelance ...

Christopher Hampton Sir Christopher James Hampton ( Horta, Azores, 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the novel of the same name and the film ...

Manil Suri Manil Suri (born July 1959) is an Indian-American mathematician and writer of a trilogy of novels all named for Hindu gods. His first novel, '' The Death of Vishnu'' (2001), which was long-listed for the 2001 Booker Prize, short-listed for th ...

Miranda Seymour Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer. The lives she has described have included those of Robert Graves and Mary Shelley. Seymour, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has in r ...

2009

The 2009 festival had about 12,000 attendees and over 140 authors/speakers including

Vikram Seth Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crosswor ...

Pico Iyer Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer (born 11 February 1957), known as Pico Iyer, is a British-born essayist and novelist known chiefly for his travel writing. He is the author of numerous books on crossing cultures including ''Video Night in Kathmandu ...

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...

Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama (; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian specialising in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He fir ...

Tina Brown Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born 21 November 1953), is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of '' The Diana Chronicles'' (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, '' The Vanity Fair Diari ...

Hanif Kureshi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Early l ...

Pankaj Mishra Pankaj Mishra FRSL (born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014. Early life and education Mishra was born in Jhansi, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unioni ...

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...

Ahmed Rashid Ahmed Rashid (Urdu:; born 1948 in Pakistan) is a journalist and best-selling foreign policy author of several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Life and career Ahmed Rashid was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He attended Ma ...

Patrick French Patrick French (born 1966) is a British writer, historian and academician. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he studied English and American literature, and received a PhD in South Asian Studies. He was appointed as the inau ...

Mohsin Hamid Mohsin Hamid ( ur, محسن حامد; born 23 July 1971) is a British Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are ''Moth Smoke'' (2000), ''The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' (2007), ''How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'' (201 ...

, Mohammed Hanif,

Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...

Sunil Gangopadhyay Sunil Gangopadhyay or Sunil Ganguly (7 September 1934 – 23 October 2012) was an Indian poet, historian and novelist in the Bengali language based in the city of Kolkata. He is a former Sheriff of Calcutta. Gangopadhyay obtained his ma ...

Tarun Tejpal Tarun Tejpal (born 15 March 1963) is an Indian journalist, publisher, novelist and former editor-in-chief of ''Tehelka'' magazine. In November 2013, he stepped down as editor for six months after a female colleague accused him of sexual assault. ...

, Sashi Tharoor, U R Ananthmurthy,

Alka Saraogi Alka Saraogi ( hi, अलका सरावगी; born 17 November 1960) is an Indian novelist and short story writer in the Hindi language. She is a recipient of the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi for her novel ''Kalikatha: Via Bypass' ...

, Anuragh Mathur,

Ashok Vajpeyi Ashok Vajpeyi ( hi, अशोक वाजपेयी; born 1941) is an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic, apart from being a noted cultural and arts administrator, and a former civil servant. He was chairman, Lali ...

Ashis Nandy Ashis Nandy ( bn, আশিস নন্দী; born 13 May 1937) is an Indian political psychologist, social theorist, and critic. A trained clinical psychologist, Nandy has provided theoretical critiques of European colonialism, development ...

Basharat Peer Basharat Peer ( ks}, born 1977) is a Kashmiri journalist, script writer, and author. Peer spent his early youth in the Kashmir Valley before shifting to Aligarh and then, Delhi for higher education. In August 2006, he relocated from India to ...

, Charles Nicoll,

Christophe Jaffrelot Christophe Jaffrelot (born 12 February 1964) is a French political scientist and Indologist specialising in South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan. He is a professor of South Asian politics and history the ''Centre d'études et de recherches ...

Colin Thubron Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron, FRAS (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to ''The New York Review of Books'',Daniyal Mueenuddin,

Geetanjali Shree Geetanjali Shree ( hi, गीतांजलि श्री; born 12 June 1957), also known as Geetanjali Pandey, is an Indian Hindi-language novelist and short-story writer based in New Delhi, India. She is the author of several short stories ...

Mukul Kesavan Mukul Kesavan (born 9 April 1957) is an Indian historian, novelist and political and social essayist. He was schooled at St. Xaviers' School in Delhi and then went on to study history at St. Stephen's College, and at the University of Delhi. He la ...

Musharraf Ali Farooqui Musharraf Ali Farooqi (born 26 July 1968) is a Pakistani-Canadian author, translator, and storyteller. Farooqi was among the five writers shortlisted for Asia's most prestigious literary prize in 2012. In addition to his fiction and translatio ...

, G. T. Narayana Rao,

Nikita Lalwani Nikita Lalwani FRSL is a novelist born in Kota, Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff, Wales. Her work has been translated into sixteen languages. She studied English at Bristol University. Her first book, ''Gifted'' (2007), was longlisted for th ...

, Pavan K Varma,

Rana Dasgupta Rana Dasgupta (born 5 November 1971 in Canterbury, England) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He grew up in Cambridge, England, and studied at Balliol College, Oxford, the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in Aix-en-Provence, and, as a Fu ...

, S R Faruqui,

Tash Aw Tash Aw, whose full name is Aw Ta-Shi (; born 4 October 1971) is a Malaysian writer living in London. Biography Born in 1971 in Taipei, Taiwan, to Malaysian parents, Tash Aw returned to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the age of two, and grew up t ...

, Udayan Vajpeyi,

Farah Khan Farah Khan Kunder (born 9 January 1965) is an Indian film director, film producer, actress, dancer and choreographer who works predominantly in Hindi films. Khan has choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 films, w ...

and Sonia Faleiro, with music provided by DJ

Cheb i Sabbah Cheb i Sabbah"Jewish DJ Captivates Arab Ears"
''

Nitin Sawney,

Salman Ahmad Salman Ahmad ( ur, , born 12 December 1963) is a Pakistani born-American musician, rock guitarist, physician, activist, occasional actor and professor at the City University of New York. He earned nationwide popularity in 1998 for his uni ...

( Junoon Unplugged),

Shye Ben Tzur Shye Ben Tzur (שי בן צור) is an Israeli musician who lives in India and Israel. He composes Qawwalis, instrumental and devotional music in Hebrew, Urdu and Hindi. Ben Tzur has been living and creating music in India and Israel for over a d ...

, Rajasthan Roots,

Paban Das Baul Paban Das Baul (born 1961) is a noted Baul singer and musician from India, who also plays a ''dubki'', a small tambourine and sometimes an ''ektara'' as an accompaniment. He is known for pioneering traditional Baul music on the international musi ...

and others in evening concerts over the five days. The special theme was the oral tradition, in India and elsewhere.

2010

The 2010 festival had about 30,000 attendeesAbout the Festival ’10
!--URL says 09' but goes to 10' page .. if changes, check http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/archives for correct URL--> and 172 authors/speakers, including

Geoff Dyer Geoff Dyer (born 5 June 1958) is an English author. He has written a number of novels and non-fiction books, some of which have won literary awards. Personal background Dyer was born and raised in Cheltenham, England, as the only child of a ...

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...

Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid (; born May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermo ...

Niall Ferguson Niall Campbell Ferguson FRSE (; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson

, Vikram Chandra and

Hemant Shesh Hemant Shesh (born 28 December 1952) is an Indian Hindi writer, poet and civil servant. Biography Hemant Shesh completed his post graduate education in Sociology from the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur in 1977. He then joined the Rajasthan ...

2011

The 2011 festival had 226 writers like

Prasoon Joshi Prasoon Joshi (born 16 September 1971) is an Indian poet, writer, lyricist, screenwriter, and communication specialist and marketer. He is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman APAC (Asia Pacific), a subsidiary of the global marketi ...

, Javed Akhtar, Gulzar /speakers, including Nobel-winners

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...

and

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...

2012

The 2012 festival was held from 20 to 24 January, with the talk-show host

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

and author

among the names announced in advance. Rushdie later cancelled, and indeed cancelled his complete tour of India, citing possible threats to his life as the primary reason. Rushdie investigated police reports that

hitmen Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

had been hired to

assassinate Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

him and implied that the police might have exaggerated the potential danger. Police said that

Ruchir Joshi Ruchir Joshi is an Indian writer, a filmmaker and a columnist for '' The Telegraph'', ''India Today'' as well as other publications. He is best known for his debut novel titled ''The Last Jet-Engine Laugh'' (2001). He is also the editor of India' ...

Jeet Thayil Jeet Thayil (born 1959) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including ''These Errors Are Correct'' (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, '' Narcopolis,'' ( ...

and

Amitava Kumar Amitava Kumar (born 17 March 1963) is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College. Early life Kumar was born in the city of Arrah in the Indian state of Bihar on 17 March 1963. He ...

fled Jaipur on the advice of officials at the Jaipur Literature Festival after reading excerpts from ''

The Satanic Verses ''The Satanic Verses'' is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism ...

'', which is banned in India. Kunzru later wrote, "Our intention was not to offend anyone's religious sensibilities, but to give a voice to a writer who had been silenced by a death threat". A proposed video link session between Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival ran into difficulty after the government pressured the festival to stop it. Rushdie expressed disappointment "on behalf of India", "an India in which religious extremists can prevent free expression of ideas at a literary festival, in which the politicians are too, let's say, in bed with those groups...for narrow electoral reasons, in which the police forces are unable to secure venues against demonstrators even when they know the demonstration is on its way". The Chairman of the Press Council of India and former judge of the Supreme Court

Markandey Katju Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former judge of Supreme Court of India who served as chairman for the Press Council of India. He is the son of politician Shiva Nath Katju and grandson of Kailash Nath Katju. He is the founder and patron ...

said that although he was "not in favour of religious

obscurantism In philosophy, the terms obscurantism and obscurationism describe the anti-intellectual practices of deliberately presenting information in an abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subject. There are two ...

", he found Rushdie a "poor" and "substandard writer" and the focus on him detracting from more fundamental issues of "colonial inferiority complex" among educated Indians and what a literary mission could be about. Scottish novelist

Allan Massie Allan Johnstone Massie (born 16 October 1938) is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Se ...

wrote, "The response to words should be words and words in the form of argument, not abuse".

Peter Florence Peter Kenrick Florence CBE (born 4 October 1964) is a British festival director, most notable for founding the Hay Festival with his father and mother, Norman Florence and Rhoda Lewis, funding the first festival with winnings from a poker game. ...

, Director,

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

s, said the whole affair showed the importance of book festivals. On 28 January, Rushdie responded to

Chetan Bhagat Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and YouTuber. He was included in Time (magazine), Time magazine's list of Time 100, World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Five of his novels have been adapted into films ...

via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

after the popular writer taunted him and his work.

2015

The 2015 festival was scheduled from 21 to 25 January. Earlier that year it had been reported that the tentative list of speakers this season would number 181, including

V. S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...

and

Amish Tripathi Amish Tripathi (born 18 October 1974) is an Indian author. He is known best for hiShiva Trilogyand Ram Chandra Series. Amish's books have sold over 6 million copies in the Indian subcontinent since 2010. Early life and education Amish Tripa ...

. The festival also expanded beyond the four walls of Diggi Palace, holding more than 300 events in 10 venues, including the Music Stage at Clarks Amer, the Jaipur BookMark at Narain Niwas, and two special sessions at

Amer Fort Amer Fort or Amber Fort is a fort located in Amer, Rajasthan, India. Amer is a town with an area of located from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Amber city and Amber fort were founded by ruler Alan Singh of Chanda dynasty of Meenas. Located ...

and

Hawa Mahal The Hawa Mahal is a palace in the city of Jaipur, India. Built from red and pink sandstone, it is on the edge of the City Palace, Jaipur, and extends to the ''Zenana'', or women's chambers. The structure was built in 1799 by the Maharaja Sawai ...

to focus on heritage and culture, supported by

Rajasthan Tourism Rajasthan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India, for both domestic and international tourists. Rajasthan attracts tourists for its historical forts, palaces, art and culture with its slogan "Padharo mhare desh", now its chang ...

. Notable sessions of the festival in 2015 included two packed sessions each for Nobel Laureate Sir V. S. Naipaul and former

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

, Dr

APJ Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied phy ...

, who drew a 5,000-strong crowd to the Front Lawns of Diggi Palace.

2016

The Jaipur Lit Fest 2016 began at the Diggi Palace as scheduled, with

Gair dance Gair dance is one of the popular, famous folk dances from Rajasthan in India which is mostly performed by the Bhil community but found in all over Rajasthan. It is also known as Gair Ghalna, Gair Ghumna, Gair khelna and Gair Nachna. This dan ...

from

Barmer, Rajasthan Barmer is a city and Municipal council (India), municipal council in the Barmer district in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Barmer district. It is a Group 'C' city for living standards, and the headquarter ...

accompanied by a crowd that had been waiting since early morning. The Chief Minister,

Vasundhara Raje Vasundhara Raje Scindia (born 8 March 1953) is an Indian politician, who has held two terms as the chief minister of Rajasthan. She was previously a minister in the Union Cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was India's first Minister of Micro, ...

, inaugurated the festival by lighting the ceremonial lamp, and reminisced about her childhood memories of reading books. In this year, the Jaipur Literature Festival entered into the ''

Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...

''.

2017

Notable speakers at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2017 included writers

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

and

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nassim Nicholas Taleb (; alternatively ''Nessim ''or'' Nissim''; born 12 September 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist whose work concerns problems of randomness, ...

2018

The 2018 Jaipur Literature Festival was organised from 25 to 29 January at the

Diggi Palace Diggi Palace is an Indian royal palace located in Jaipur, Rajasthan. It was converted into a heritage hotel, but a part is still occupied by the royal family, which also runs the hotel. The annual Jaipur Literature Festival has been held here si ...

. The biggest yet, the event saw participation from more than 380 people from across the world, who represented over 20 international and 15 Indian languages. The participants included authors, novelists, essayists, actors, politicians, musicians, lyricists, film directors, historians, scientists, broadcasters, businesspersons, poets, translators, marketers, journalists, publishers, playwrights, critics, academics, civil servants, dancers, therapists and activists. Among the prominent speakers at the 2018 edition were

Helen Fielding Helen Fielding (born 19 February 1958) is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, and a sequence of novels and films beginning with the life of a thirty something singleton in Lo ...

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

Anurag Kashyap Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to film, the Government of France a ...

Chitra Mudgal Chitra Mudgal (born 10 December 1943) is an Indian Writer and one of the leading literary figures of modern Hindi literature. She is the first Indian woman to receive the coveted Vyas Samman for her novel ''Avaan''. In 2019 she was awarded ...

, Kota Neelima,

Nayantara Sahgal Nayantara Sahgal (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. She was awarded the 1986 S ...

Rajdeep Sardesai Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian news anchor, reporter, journalist and author. He is a consulting editor and an anchor of India Today Television. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 ...

Roly Keating Roland Francis Kester Keating (born 5 August 1961) is Chief Executive of the British Library. He took up his post in September 2012. Early life and education Keating was born on 5 August 1961 to Donald Norman Keating and Betty Katharine Keating ...

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

, Sagarika Ghose,

Sharmila Tagore Sharmila Tagore (also known as Begum Ayesha Sultana; born 8 December 1944) is a retired Indian actress, primarily known for her work in Hindi and Bengali cinema, Tagore is the recipient of two National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award, and the Fi ...

Sheila Dikshit Sheila Dikshit () (née Kapoor; 31 March 1938 – 20 July 2019) was an Indian politician. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state, she served for a period of 15 yea ...

Shobha De Shobha De ('' née'' Rajadhyaksha, formerly Kilachand; born 7 January 1948) is an Indian novelist and columnist. She is best known for her depiction of socialites and sex in her works of fiction, for which she has been referred to as the "Jackie ...

Soha Ali Khan Soha Ali Khan Pataudi Khemu (born 4 October 1978) is an Indian actress who has worked in Hindi, Bengali and English films. She is the daughter of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and former Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and th ...

Vinod Dua Vinod Dua (11 March 1954 – 4 December 2021) was an Indian journalist who worked in Doordarshan and NDTV India. In 1996, he became the first electronic media journalist to be bestowed with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award. ...

Vir Sanghvi Vir Sanghvi (born 5 July 1956) is an Indian print and television journalist, author, columnist and talk show host. He has been a member of many professional, academic and government bodies including the National Integration Council. Currently, h ...

and

Vishal Bhardwaj Vishal Bhardwaj (born 4 August 1965) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, music composer and playback singer. He is known for his work in Hindi cinema, and is the recipient of seven National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award. Bha ...

. Apart from lectures, book discussions, debates, book readings and book launches, the 2018 Jaipur Literature Festival also featured a music stage, headlined by

Kailash Kher Kailash Kher (born 7 July 1973) is an Indian music composer and singer. He sings songs with a music style influenced by Indian folk music and Sufi music. He was inspired by the classical musicians' Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Pandit Hridaynath Ma ...

, and a theatrical dance performance at

2019

The Jaipur literature festival 2019 was organised in royal

Diggi palace Diggi Palace is an Indian royal palace located in Jaipur, Rajasthan. It was converted into a heritage hotel, but a part is still occupied by the royal family, which also runs the hotel. The annual Jaipur Literature Festival has been held here si ...

Jaipur from 24 to 28 January 2019. Around 300 speakers were expected to visit Jaipur literature festival 2018–2019, including prominent writers such as Shobha de (known for her bold writing style), Anuradha Roy (Indian novelist, journalist), Chitra Banerjee (best known for her novel The palace of illusions). Some of the speakers including Manisha Koirala (Indian actress), Mithali raj (Indian women cricket team captain) would be the attraction of the festival who would talk about the journey and the challenges of their life. Here are few more names of Jaipur literature festival 2018–2019 are: # Jon Lee Anderson (American biographer, author investigative reporter) # Juergen Boos (CEO of the Frankfurt Book Fair) # Marc Quinn(British visual artist) # Markus Zusak (international bestselling author of ''The Book Thief'') # Molly Crabapple # N. S. Madhavan (Malayalam fiction-writer and columnist) # Narendra Kohli (dramatist and comedian) # NoViolet Bulawayo # Perumal Murugan (Tamil author and literary speaker) # Priyamvada Natarajan (astronomer and professor at Yale) # Andre Aciman (author, memoirist, professor, known for the novel ''Call Me By Your Name'')

2020

The Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 took place at the royal

from 23 to 27 January 2020. Around 300 speakers attended the Festival.

2021

The Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 took place Virtual edition from 19 to 28 February 2021. Around 200 speakers are scheduled to attend the Festival.

2022

The 2022 edition of the festival will take place between January 28 to February 1. The Festival will host over 250

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

s, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons representing 21 Indian and international languages as well as major awards such as the Nobel, the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

, the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

and the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

. * For the first time, Diggi Palace will not be its primary venue. * For the first time, the festival will not be completely free. * Notable speakers include

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner, Abdurazak Gurnah,

winner,

Damon Galgut Damon Galgut (born 12 November 1963) is a South African novelist and playwright. He was awarded the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel '' The Promise'', having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2003 and 2010. Early life and education Ga ...

, Indian writers Vikram Sampath,

, Saket Suman and Gurmehar Kaur.

JLF International

Over the years, related events have also taken place at various times in:

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

;

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

;

Adelaide, Australia Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...

; the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

(annually 2014–2019); and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The November 2018 event in Adelaide was the first of an annual recurrence, known as

JLF Adelaide OzAsia Festival, or simply OzAsia, is an Asia-focused arts festival in South Australia, presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre for two weeks in late October to early November each year. It features theatre, dance, music, film and visual a ...

and presented as part of the

OzAsia Festival OzAsia Festival, or simply OzAsia, is an Asia-focused arts festival in South Australia, presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre for two weeks in late October to early November each year. It features theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts ...