Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) – 12-15 January 2023

12 - 15 January 2023 at Kozhikode, Kerala

By
Priyanka Tanwar
-
247
Kerala
KLF 2023 will include people from different backgrounds (Unsplash)

Writers, journalists, activists, thinkers – the list of speakers for the second-largest festival of its kind in Asia, the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) 2023, includes a diverse set of people from different backgrounds under one roof aim to map literature through discussions on varied subjects.

The speakers include Malayalam novelist and short story writer Benyamin; Malayalam author and journalist KR Meera; economist Abhijit Banerjee; Sri Lankan writer and winner of 2022 Booker Prize Shehan Karunatilaka; and acclaimed Hindi author and winner of 2022 International Booker Prize Geetanjali Shree.

Then there is popular author Wendy Doniger; writer and co-author of Ikigai Francesc Miralles; advertising guru and chief creative officer worldwide and executive chairman Piyush Pandey; and oral historian, writer, and co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory Aanchal Malhotra.

Also on the list are Economic Advisory Council member Sanjeev Sanyal; business thought-leader and philanthropist S ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan; Tamil Nadu finance and human resources management minister Palanivel Thiagarajan; author and activist Arundhati Roy; actor, director, television presenter Prakash Raj; author and editor at the Museum of Art and Photography Anirudh Kanisetti; author and translator Jerry Pinto; award-winning historian Manu S Pillai; psychoanalyst and novelist Sudhir Kakar; writer, art historian, curator and co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) William Dalrymple; Malayalam author M T Vasudevan Nair; and Malayalam fiction writer M Mukundan, among others.

The sixth edition of the festival will take place on the beaches of Calicut (also known as Kozhikode) from 12 to 15 January 2023. Organized by the DC Kizhakemuri Foundation, the event is supported by the Government of Kerala and the Kerala Tourism Board. KLF is said to be the largest-growing literature festival in Asia.

The Litfest brings together writers, journalists, activists, and thinkers and empowers them to exercise the freedom of thought and expression. The edition brings together more than 400 speakers from more than 12 countries and 200+ sessions across five venues in four days. Kannada is the language in focus.

The previous editions of the festival have hosted Nobel laureates, Booker Prize winners, Oscar recipients, among other literary greats. The festival is coming back after a two-year-long hiatus due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Kozhikode is a bustling town off Kerala’s Malabar coast, standing tall in the glory of the Zamorins, the Portuguese, and its exquisite spices. Vasco de Gama was said to be the first to touch down on this shore in 1498.

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.

– Naresh Khanna

Subscribe Now

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here