Teamwork Arts, producer of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival and the JLF International series across the world, hosted a preview at the British Council in New Delhi, offering audiences and media a first glimpse of JLF London at the British Library, set to take place from 5 – 7 June 2026 in London. This will be the festival’s 13th edition, bringing global narratives and South Asian literary heritage to the heart of London.
The evening celebrated the spirit of literary exchange, cultural dialogue, and ideas-driven engagement that has come to define the Jaipur Literature Festival and its international editions. The event opened with a British Council film, followed by a welcome address by Alison Barrett MBE, country director, British Council India, who spoke about the enduring cultural partnership between the British Council and JLF London in fostering meaningful conversations across borders.
The festival is supported by several partners, including AU Small Finance Bank as the official banking partner, Aga Khan Foundation as the session series partner, and British Council. Additional partners include University of York as a session partner, KIIT as university partner and Cobra Beer as Beer Partner,.The festival is supported by the British Library, London and The Teamwork Fine Arts Society.
The preview featured an early look at the themes, speakers, and conversations that will shape this year’s festival in London. JLF London at the British Library 2026 will feature a lineup of writers, historians, journalists, poets, and public intellectuals from across the world, including Lyse Doucet, Nikita Gill, Tash Aw, Lucy Foley, Alexander McCall Smith, Marina Warner, William Dalrymple, Anita Anand, Tahmima Anam, Jeet Thayil, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Sarah Churchwell, and Bruno Maçães, among others. Over the years, JLF London at the British Library is said to have emerged as one of the leading global platforms for literary and cultural dialogue, bringing together distinguished voices and audiences from across continents, including readers, students, academics, artists, diplomats, and members of the South Asian diaspora.
Transforming the British Library into a crossroads of ideas and cultures, the festival will explore urgent and thought-provoking themes spanning literature, politics, history, identity, migration, energy shift, artificial intelligence, food, cinema, and global geopolitics. Through debates, readings, performances, and conversations, JLF London will continue its tradition of bringing together some of the world’s most compelling voices. At a moment of rapid global change and increasingly polarized public discourse, the festival seeks to create spaces for conversation, reflection, and debate.
A featured session at the Delhi Curtain Raiser, The Partition: Remembering and Healing, brought together Navtej Sarna, Kishwar Desai, and Arunava Sinha in conversation, offering a reflection on the human and historical legacy of Partition. Navtej Sarna’s 2025 Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel, Crimson Spring, traced the social and political currents in Punjab leading up to Partition, before and after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Kishwar Desai, writer, playwright, and chairperson of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, which had established the first Partition Museum, brought her longstanding engagement with memory and preservation to the discussion. Translator Arunava Sinha’s body of work chronicled modern Bangla history through books, essays, and short stories, including narratives surrounding the Partition of East and West Bengal. Drawing on memories, archives, literature, and lived experiences from Punjab and Bengal, the session revisited lives divided by the Partition of India in 1947, while exploring its deep wounds and the healing power of remembrance and storytelling.
Speaking about the festival, Sanjoy K Roy, managing director, Teamwork Arts, said, “JLF London at the British Library 2026 is a celebration of ideas, stories, and connections that transcend borders. At the heart of the British Library, the festival brings together voices from across the world to inspire dialogue, deepen understanding, and celebrate the transformative power of literature and conversation.”
The event-built anticipation for the upcoming festival while underscoring the long-standing collaboration between JLF London and the British Library — a partnership that continues to champion cross-cultural dialogue and the transformative power of stories on a global stage. The collaboration also reflects the continued importance of cultural exchange between India and the UK through literature, ideas, and the arts.
For full program visit: https://jlflitfest.org/london
