The 10th edition of JLF Colorado is set to be celebrated in Boulder from 13 – 15 September 2024, at the Boulder Public Library. This edition celebrates the beauty of the Rockies and prairies, as well as the vibrant energy, excitement, and intellect of Boulder. With the support of the Boulder Public Library, Boulder Library Foundation, City of Boulder, National Endowment for the Arts, Colorado Creative Industries, Boulder Arts Commission, Colorado Fine Arts Association, SCFD and Boulder Book Store, JLF Colorado will be a coming together of writers, thinkers, and perspectives. The 2024 edition promises to bring together an array of speakers who will engage audiences with their insights and experiences.
Renowned authors such as Pico Iyer, whose national bestseller The Half Known Life was celebrated by multiple key media houses in 2023, and Chigozie Obioma, author of Booker Prize-finalist novels The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities, will share their literary journeys. Ruchira Gupta, an Emmy-winning journalist, founder of Apne Aap and author of I Kick and I Fly, will also be in a session.
Ruby Lal, who has previously worked on the biography of the Mughal queen Nur Jahan, will be speaking about her latest book, Vagabond Princess, based on Gulbadan Begum. Award-winning writer and festival co-director Namita Gokhale will speak about her extensive experience as an author of more than twenty-three books and where her energy and vision come from.
In a session focused on the Mediterranean world, Brian A Catlos will highlight how interactions among African, Asian, and European populations and between Christians, Muslims, and Jews shaped modernity and today’s complex sociocultural structures.
Reiland Rabaka, founder of the Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, will be in a poetry session and a panel reflecting on elections in major countries, geopolitical trends and last minute swings and surprises. Pardis Mahdavi, professor and author specializing in gender and human rights, and Jeanine M Canty, a professor working on environmental justice, will discuss their impactful research and advocacy.
Nancy Silberkleit, Co-CEO of Archie Comics, will share her vision for using graphic novels as educational tools. Nishi Chawla, an Asian American poet and filmmaker, will also share her insights. Parul Kapur, a journalist, critic, and the award-winning author of Inside the Mirror, a novel about twin sister artists in 1950s Bombay, will also be at the festival. Notable poets and performers like Anne Waldman, author of over 60 volumes of poetry, and Andrew Schelling, poet and translator residing in the Colorado Rockies, will captivate audiences with insights on their adventures with verse.
Shastri Akella, whose debut novel The Sea Elephants won the 2024 BLR Fiction Prize, and Rohan Chhetri, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, will also present their works. Cat Jarman, a bioarchaeologist and author of The Bone Chests, will unlock the secrets of the Anglo-Saxons.
Marcus Moench, an expert on water and climate issues, will speak about how our planet is on the boil. Maeve Conran, a prominent radio journalist will be in a session entitled Across Genres.
An intense session that examines the tragic consequences of a world at war with itself, and the antidotes to destructive hatred through love, peace and harmony, will feature Palestinian-Canadian physician and peace activist, Izzeldin Abuelaish, author of the powerful and devastating memoir, I Shall Not Hate. He will be in conversation with former diplomat and acclaimed translator Navdeep Suri. David Heska Wanbli Weiden, author of Winter Counts and Margaret Coel, author of the Wind River crime series, will speak in a session called The Crossroads of Crime.
The other prominent names include visual storyteller, photographer, and author of Soul of the Nilgiris, Ramya Reddy; entrepreneur and chairman and co-founder of Teamwork Arts, Mohit Satyanand; community leader and advocate for social justice Pedro Silva; Douglas J Penick, author of The Age of Waiting and The Oceans of Cruelty; Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First; Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar, writer, and author of A Kids Book About Israel and Palestine; and Sanjoy K Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts.
JLF Colorado 2024 promises to bring its hallmark camaraderie, a caravan of ideas, and the flow of conversations, making it an unparalleled literary festival. Join us for a celebration of literature, arts, and culture.
