Islamabad Literature Festival begins on 24th
ISLAMABAD: The Oxford University Press (OUP) is once again gathering avid readers, writers, academics, and literary figures from across Pakistan and the world at the 3rd Islamabad Literature Festival to be held on April 24, 25, and 26 at a local hotel.
Ameena Saiyid OBE, Managing Director, OUP expressed these views while addressing a press conference. The OUP’s previous Literature Festivals have been heralded as massive successes, attracting a great deal of attention among the literary and intellectual communities in the country. In Islamabad last year, literary enthusiasts thronged to the ILF to meet renowned authors and attend over 60 interactive sessions.
Ameena Saiyid highlighted that the 3rdIslamabad Literature Festival will feature, talks/interviews, panel discussions, Mushaira, English poetry recitation, book fair, book launches, readings, author signings, film screening, performing arts, Sufi music, art exhibitions by Art Now, and much more. Apart from Pakistani authors, poets, and academics, speakers from UK, USA, France, India and Australia will also be participating in the ILF. The keynote speakers at the opening and closing ceremonies will be Anatol Lieven, Ataul Haq Qasmi, Zehra Nigah, and the Pulitzer Prize winner, Paul Harding.
Joining the roster of prominent speakers at the third ILF will be Ahmed Fouad, Ali Akbar Natiq, Almas Bobby, ArfaSayeda Zehra, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Asif Noorani, Asif Raza Mir, Ataul Haq Qasmi, Athar Tahir, Bilal Tanweer, Aitzaz Ahsan, Fatema Hassan, Farooq Qaiser, Feryal Ali-Gauhar, Harris Khalique, HaseenaMoin, HinaJillani, I.A. Rehman, Ilona Yusuf, Ikram Sehgal, Intizar Husain, KishwarNaheed, Masood Ashar, Mohammed Hanif, MujahidBarelvi, Mushahid Hussain, Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Nasim Zehra, Raju Jamil,SarwatMohiuddin, Shahid Nadeem, ShandanaMinhas, Shehryar Fazli, Sorayya Khan, Syed Talat Hussain, SyedaAbida Hussain, ZahedaHina, Zehra Nigah, and Zobaida Jalal.
The event will also featurea performance on KishwarNaheed’s poem ‘Yaey Hum Gunahgaar AurtainHaen’ by Feriyal Aslam, dramatic readings of Ismat Chughtai’s stories by Feryal Ali Gauhar, English Poetry Recitation, film screening of ‘Life’s Worth LivIng’, and Sufi Music by the Rafi Peer Ensemble. Some of the exciting sessions at the ILF will include Baat se Baat: Asif Farrukhi and Muhammad Ahmed Shah in conversation with Ataul Haq Qasmi; Rights and Wrongs of Transgender Issues; He, She, or…:Feryal Ali Gauhar in conversation with Laxmi Narayan Tripathi; Winner of the KLF Best Fiction Prize: Framji Minwalla in conversation with Shandana Minhas; Khushwant Singh: Among the Immortals; A Women’s Jirga from Swat; Why We Write; Winning the Pulitzer Prize: Shandana Minhas in conversation with Paul Harding; Author to Author: Shehryar Fazli in conversation with Mohammed Hanif; Politics: The Art of the Possible and Sometimes the Impossible; News, Views, and Sensationalism; Ahmad Faraz: The Poet as Witness to the Age; Pakistani Cinema: Kalaur Aaj; Gul Chandni: Readings and in Conversation with Zehra Nigah; Healing a Nation: Trauma and Mental Health in Pakistan; and Yemen: Difficult Choices for Pakistan.
The Karachi and the Islamabad Literature Festival is free and open to all and co-founders Ameena Saiyid and Asif Farukhi have invited the people of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to attend the festival and join in the festivities.
Source: Daily Times