Booker winners Geetanjali Shree, Marlon James among others to attend 16th edition of JLF

International Booker-winning author Geetanjali Shree, Booker winner Marlon James, writers Amish and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, among others will participate in the 16th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), the organisers announced on Wednesday.

Starting from January 19, the literary extravaganza will host a plethora of fiction and non-fiction writers of national and international renown.

Announcing the second list of participants, the organisers said that Amit Chaudhuri, Andrew Altschul, Anu Singh Choudhary, Anukrity Upadhyay, Christopher Kloeble and Deepti Kapoor will attend the festival this year.

"The list continues with more thought-provoking speakers including Elaine Canning, Era Tak, Hannah Rothschild, Tripti Pandey, Jamil Jan Kochai, Janice Pariat and Katherine Rundell," they said.

The festival will also feature best-selling historian and novelist Katie Hickman, author Kiran Manral, award-winning international author Manjiri Prabhu, writer Marlon James, author Moin Mir, former diplomat and author Navtej Sarna, bilingual author Sudha Murthy, and writer-translator Tiffany Tsao.

Touted as "the world's largest free literary event”, the festival is expected to see participation by over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians and popular culture icons, with a special focus on world literature.

The previously announced list of speakers include renowned authors like Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2022 Booker prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka and Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar awardee Tanuj Solanki, along with authors like Ashok Ferrey, Ashwin Sanghi, Avinuo Kire, Bernardine Evaristo, Chigozie Obioma, Howard Jacobson, NoViolet Bulawayo, poet Jerry Pinto, novelist-filmmaker Ruth Ozeki, and writer-journalist Vauhini Vara.