The magic of fiction is such that it has the power to transport the reader through the sheer artistry and power of storytelling. The 16th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) celebrates the power of imagination with a distinguished list of fiction-writers from across the globe. The festival is scheduled to run from 19 – 23 January, 2023 at Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur. The diverse repertoire of Indian and foreign languages will be celebrated at the Festival with some of the world’s best fiction-writers exploring the exciting themes, riveting plots and a range of compelling characters that feature in their writing.
The second list of speakers has some of the world’s most critically acclaimed fiction-writers, including the International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree, Amish, Amit Chaudhuri, Andrew Altschul, Anu Singh Choudhary, Anukrti Upadhyay, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Christopher Kloeble, and Deepti Kapoor, among others. The list continues with more thought-provoking speakers including Elaine Canning, Era Tak, Hannah Rothschild, Tripti Pandey, Jamil Jan Kochai, Janice Pariat and Katherine Rundell.
The festival will also feature best-selling historian and novelist Katie Hickman; author Kiran Manral; award-winning International author Manjiri Prabhu; writer Marlon James; author Moin Mir; festival co-director and Sahitya Akademi awardee Namita Gokhale; former India’s Ambassador to the United States and author, Navtej Sarna; bilingual author Sudha Murthy and writer and literary translator Tiffany Tsao.
The previously announced list of speakers include renowned authors like Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2022 Booker prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka and Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar awardee Tanuj Solanki, along with authors like Ashok Ferrey, Ashwin Sanghi, Avinuo Kire, Bernardine Evaristo, Chigozie Obioma, Howard Jacobson, NoViolet Bulawayo, poet Jerry Pinto, novelist and filmmaker Ruth Ozeki, and writer and journalist Vauhini Vara.
JLF has been the flagship festival for all the literature-lovers across India and abroad. This year, audiences will get to savor the festival’s signature sessions, music stage, the Festival Buzzar, food stalls and much more while celebrating the power of words at its much-awaited 16th edition.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
