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Bengal

Fifth Kolkata Literature Festival inaugurated

Kolkata: The fifth edition of the Kolkata Literature Festival (KLF) was inaugurated by noted writer Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay at the Central Park Mela Complex in Salt Lake on Thursday, where the International Kolkata Book Fair has been shifted this year.
The three-day literary extravaganza would be held till 10 February, which is expected to see participation of more than 65 writers from different parts of the globe in 22 sessions of the KLF, discussing and debating topics like cross-cultural influences on literature and significance of classics to performance poetry.
It can be mentioned here that this is the only literature festival in the world, which is organised within an international book fair and this lends the festival its uniqueness. Its uniqueness also lies in the fact that writers get the opportunity to interact with a huge number of readers.
As many as 10 French authors would be participating in the various sessions in KLF as France is the focal theme of the book fair. There would be a crime writers' delegation from Scotland and famous American poet and poetry activist Bob Halman among others.
While the book fair itself boasts of the amazing French pavilion and the several French publishers that are visiting this year, the KLF has a fantastic line-up of French and Francophone writers.
There would be sessions on Hindi poetry as well. Sessions will also be held on women who live in shadows and how mythology is being retold in modern Indian literature.
The participants will include Graeme Macrae Burnet, one of the best selling writers of Scotland; Jenny Brown, Chair of the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival; Anand Neelakantan, author of Baahubali trilogy and former minister Margaret Alva, among others.
The first day of KLF focused on sessions like "Cross Cultural Influences of Contemporary Literature", while the second session was titled "Performing Poetry".
The Third session was on a theme called "Blogging your way to Bollywood: A Beginner's Guide to become a celebrity writer."
Renowned authors from India and abroad will come and talk about the influence of literature in their respective countries. The sessions will be concluded with a cultural function every day. Some of the writers who would be participating in different sessions include Volodine, Christian Garcin, Gerald Meudal, Jean Claude Perrier, Katia Legeret, Phillipe Forest, Sabine Wespieser, Sebastian Ortiz and Shumona Sinha.
Former Union Finance minister P Chidambaram will release his book Fearless in Opposition during the festival. Shashi Tharoor will also release his new book.

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