Literary fest of a new kind

Dharwad, the cultural capital of Karnataka, will witness a unique literary festival. The leading litterateurs of the city shall come together for the ‘Dharwad Sahitya Sambhrama’ at the Karnatak University for three days from January 25.

The meet will be different from the usual fares at the ‘Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’. This time around, it will be more interactive in nature. There will be no traditional speech by the sammelana president and no procession. It will be an intimate interaction among writers, readers, publishers, book sellers and other stakeholders.

The three-day event will see 17 sessions wherein the delegates will interact with the writers. Leading writers like Kum Veerabhadrappa, Pratibha Nandakumar and Girish Karnad will read their autobiographies while Shrinivas Vaidya, Mitra Venkatraj will tell stories at the ‘Katha Kathana’ session. There will be an interactive session with Jnanpith awardees, besides a ‘Poet with Poet’ session.

Chairman of the organising committee and noted writer Giraddi Govindraj said, the meet aims at involving the audience more in the proceedings and bring them closer to the writers.

The delegates, particularly the youngsters will have a chance to see and interact with over 60 leading writers including U R Ananthmurthy, Girish Karnad, Shrinivas Vaidya, Chandrashekhar Patil, Mitra Venkatraj, G S Amur, A R Laxmanrao, O L Nagabhushan Swamy, Pratibha Nandkumar, Vaidehi, Malati Pattanshetty, Veena Shanteshwar, Kum Veerabhadrappa, Nagabharana, Girish Kasarawalli, Nagatihalli Chandrashekhar, Siddalingaiah, C N Ramachandran, M S Ashadevi, Vasudhendra, Na D’Souza, Narahalli Balasubrahmanya, Boluvaru Mohemmed, T N Seetaram and Sumateendra Nadig among others. Of course there will be writers from Dharwad.

Writer U R Ananthmurthy and G S Amur will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session. Each session will have three speakers and a moderator.

The moderator will ask questions to the speakers and throw open the session for discussion.

The delegate’s fee is Rs 1500 and for the students it is Rs 1,000 each. Each delegate will be treated to melodious music and will be given a bag, free books worth Rs 300, discount coupons to buy books, pocket calendar apart from breakfast. Lunch and tea and snacks in the evening.

The department of Kannada and Culture, Kannada Development Authority, Chalanachitra Akademi, Nataka Akademi, Dr D R Bendre National Memorial Trust, Kulapurohit Alur Venkatrao Memorial Trust and Karnatak University have extended their cooperation to the unique event. Giraddi Govindraj, Chairman of the Organising Committee.