Jaipur Literature Festival travels to London

This May, Alchemy, Southbank Centre’s festival of South Asian culture, will be the first international home for the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF).
 
Returning for its fifth year and running from 15th to 26th May,  Alchemy will celebrate and explore the arts and cultural context of the countries of the Indian subcontinent and their relationship with the UK. The Jaipur Literature Festival will have a special residency at the festival on Sunday 18th May.
 
The Indian literary festival will bring “a creative group of writers and thinkers, poets and balladeers” to the Southbank Centre, “showcasing South Asia’s unique multilingual literary heritage, and juxtaposing oral and performative arts, books and ideas, dialogue and debate, Bollywood and politics".
 
William Dalrymple, author and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “We can’t wait to show London a little taster of the energy, colour and literary brilliance (of the festival). At Southbank Centre, some of our greatest contemporary writers and thinkers will bridge cultural, geographical and historical divides, taking our audiences on a journey right across the globe.”
 
For Jaipur Literature Festival at Southbank Centre, Literature Festival co-directors, Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple will bring together a day of talks, music and readings. Names of speakers are to be confirmed soon and day tickets will be available. The day will include a range of talks, including: The Great Indian Metropolis; Bollywood via London and Who Will Rule the World. In addition to the day of talks in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, there will be free activities and workshops for families and children on The Clore Ballroom.
 
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, Southbank Centre, said: “Jaipur Literature Festival is one of the largest, greatest and most innovative literature festivals in the world and to welcome it to the Southbank Centre as part of Alchemy is a real privilege. Adding this element to our festival this year makes it our most ambitious, exciting and collaborative Alchemy programme to date.”
 
Started in 2006 with only 18 authors, the Jaipur Literature Festival has grown to become the largest free literary festival in the world, with close to 250,000 visitors annually.  Previous participants have included  Amartya Sen, Salman Rushdie, Oprah Winfrey, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Orhan Pamuk, Jonathan Franzen and JM Coetzee.