Jaipur Literature Festival 2024 announces impressive second tranche of speakers

The annual and iconic Jaipur Literature Festival announced its second list of speakers for the much-awaited 17^th edition, set to take place from February 1 – 5, 2024 at Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur. As the just-released list shows, the Festival will once again be a grand marathon of ideas between writers, thinkers, idealists, realists, visionaries, intellectuals, avant-garde practitioners and the iconoclasts, all of whom will engage in informed discussion, united by an abiding love for literature.

The second list of 25 speakers has a diverse and erudite mix that include Akhil Katyal, poet, translator, scholar and author of Like Blood on the Bitten Tongue: Delhi Poems and How Many Countries Does the Indus Cross; Amia Srinivasan, academic and author of The Right to Sex; Andrew Quintman, scholar in the Buddhist traditions of Tibet and the Himalaya, and author of The Life of Milarepa; Arundhathi Subramaniam, leading Indian poet and Sahitya Akademi Award recipient; Bonnie Garmus, copywriter, creative director and debut novelist of Lessons in Chemistry; Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, celebrated author of best-selling books such as The Palace of Illusions, The Forest of Enchantment, The Last Queen and Independence; Damon Galgut, Booker Prize winning novelist and playwright; Diana Evans, Orange Award winning novelist, journalist and critic; Gulzar Saab, legendary poet, lyricist and scriptwriter who has written over 100 books.

The list continues with Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Trust and in the Distance; Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, journalist and author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer; Katie Kitamura, journalist and art critic, award-winning author of the PEN longlisted Intimacies; Kelly Dorji, Bhutanese actor, model and artist and the author of The Hidden Rainbow; Luke Syson, British museum curator and art historian and Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge; Justice Madan B. Lokur, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India and Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji; Malcolm Turnbull AC, the 29th prime minister of Australia, former politician and businessman; Maria Goretti, television presenter, actor and writer of the cookbook From My Kitchen to Yours; Merve Emre, academic and writer of The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway.

The Festival will also feature Navdeep Suri, former Indian Ambassador to UAE, High Commissioner to Australia, Ambassador to Egypt and Consul General in Johannesburg; Roger Cohen, Pulitzer Prize and  George Polk award recipient and journalist; Sarnath Banerjee, graphic novelist, artist and filmmaker; Shumona Sinha, award-winning author of Down with the Poor!  Vincent Brown, academic and author of The Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery and Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War; Vivek Shanbhag, author, editor and playwright who has published 13 works of fiction; Yascha Mounk, German-born American political scientist and author of the recent books, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time and The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.

Each year, the Festival unites an eclectic array of the world’s most renowned writers, intellectuals, humanitarians, politicians, business magnates, athletes, and entertainers on a single platform, advocating for the freedom of expression and meaningful discourse. Since its inception in 2007, the Festival has hosted nearly 5,000 speakers and performers, while drawing over a million book-enthusiasts from around the globe. Today, the Jaipur Literature Festival has blossomed into a global literary spectacle, serving as a hub for captivating conversations, debates, and dialogues.