News Desk, News Nation 360 : The renowned Oxford Bookstore, which has been around for a century and is situated on Park Street in Kolkata, hosted the announcement of the highly anticipated fifteenth edition of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF). Dignitaries such as Maina Bhagat, Director of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Anjum Katyal, Director of the same festival, Swagat Sengupta, CEO of Apeejay Oxford Bookstores, and Neeta Sreedharan, Programming Head of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, graced the occasion. The names on the shortlist for the esteemed Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize will be revealed in this edition. With a preview of the literary treasures that readers can expect, the festival will give attendees a first look at the upcoming works of renowned authors such as Upamanyu Chatterjee, P. Chidambaram, Meghna Pant, Somnath Batabyal, Santanu Bhattacharya, and Pt Kumar Bose. With writers attending from Australia, France, the UK, and Singapore, this year's edition also seeks to
include a diverse range of voices. The global perspective will enrich and deepen the literary discussions by encouraging a cross-cultural conversation on a range of topics. With 126 legends gracing the stage, the AKLF 2024 presents an outstanding speaker lineup. Divrina Dhingra, Durjoy Datta, Bickram Ghosh, Carina Rozenfeld, Chandan Gowda, Debkumar Mitra, Indrajit Hazra, Jerry Pinto, Kunal Basu, Louise Fowler-Smith, Maria Goretti, Meghna Pant, Monideepa Banerjie, P. Chidambaram, Abhijit Gupta, Pandit Kumar Bose, Pierre Bordage, Riddhi Sen, Ruchir Joshi, Ruchira Gupta, Sam Miller, Shaun Kenworthy, Somnath Batabyal, Sonal Ved, Srijato Bandopadhyay, Sudeshna Roy, Swapna Liddle, Swastika Mukherjee, Tara Gandhi, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Urvashi Butalia, Ushoshi Sengupta, Veer Rajwant Singh, Vivaan Shah are among the notable names included in this list. Celebrities like Dia Mirza, Lennie Goodings, and Priti Paul will also participate virtually in the festival. The festival is slated to occur on February 9, 10, and
11th, 2024, and will include a variety of sessions at several locations on these dates. The majority of the events will take place in Allen Park, which will act as the hub, with Alliance Française du Bengale hosting the Poetry Café. To further enhance this literary feast, there will be more notable sessions at the Oxford Bookstore, such as the OJLF, and a special session at the Tollygunge Club with Jerry Pinto and Anuja Chauhan. Speaking about the 15th edition of AKLF, Priti Paul, Director of Apeejay Surrendra Group stated that When they first started, they wanted AKLF to be a free, open-to-all international literary festival, a gift to this city of books, art, and culture. It served as another means of reiterating their dedication to the community of readers, writers, and books. They take great pride in the fact that AKLF has grown to be a significant event on the city's yearly cultural calendar.
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