“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light”, Plato quoted. Confusions, contradictions need to be debated, literary, artistic productions need to be discussed, criticized and revered. Kerala Literature Festival 2019 provides the platform to meet and discuss with prominent writers, artists, musicians, actors, statesman and thereby imbibing social change. KLF, this time will intellectually and artistically embellish Kozhikode beach from January 10th to January 13th. Contemporary Indian English writer, Jeet Thayil will make his first presence in a literary festival in Kerala on January 11th and 12th at KLF.
Born in Kerala, educated in Hong Kong, New York and Bombay Jeet Thayyil is a prolific Indian English writer. In 2012, he wrote the libretto for the opera, Babur in London, in collaboration with the composer Edward Rushton. He is also the editor of Divided Time: India and the End of Diaspora (2006), a book of essays; the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (2008); and 60 Indian Poets (2008). He is a performance poet and songwriter with four published collections of poetry: Gemini (1992); Apocalypso(1997); English (2004) and These Errors Are Correct (2008).
The first session on 11th January, moderated by E V Fathima, will be based on his novel "The book of chocolate saints". The novel is shortlisted for the J C B literary award, Man Booker prize. The Book of Chocolate Saints follows the character Xavier, an ambiguous soul with contrary instincts, absurdity and the novel progresses in his journey towards salvation. Set in both Delhi and Manhattan, "The Book of Chocolate Saints" is a fiction of contemporary multiculturalism. Moderator E V Fathima has won the Cross Word book award and translated Subash Chandran's "Manushyan Oru Aamugham" to "A Preface to Man".
The second session on 12th January, moderated by writer Sangeetha Srinivas will be based on Jeet Thayil's first novel Narcopolis. As the title denotes the novel is a tale of opium dens and heroic addiction set in Mumbai. The hallucinatory dream of a novel is a journey into the underworld with a cast of pimps, pushers, poets, gangsters and eunuchs. Moderator Sangeetha Srinivasan is a novelist, scriptwriter and daughter of Sarah Joseph. She translated Elena Ferrante's Days of Abandonment into Malayalam and authored novel Acid.
Register for #KLF2019: http://keralaliteraturefestival.com/registration.aspx