Ashwin Sanghi, Shobhaa De, Meghna Gulzar, Subodh Gupta to speak at 2019 JLF

Bestselling writers Ashwin Sanghi and Shobhaa De, filmmaker Meghna Gulzar and artist Subodh Gupta will be among the 250 speakers scheduled to participate in the 2019 edition of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.

Scheduled to be held between January 24 and January 28 next year at the Diggi Palace in Jaipur, the annual literary event will feature a diverse mix of speakers including writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers.

The second list announced Monday is a vastly diverse mix featuring Union minister KJ Alphons, Egyptian writer and cultural commentator Ahdaf Soueif, social activist Aruna Roy , former Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla and historian Ruby Lal, among others.

India's dizzying linguistic wealth will be on the programming radar with Sanskrit scholar James Mallinson, and Hindi litterateurs like Ashok Chakradhar and Manoranjan Byapari.

JLF, in past editions, has successfully offered its stage to Pulitzer prize winning speakers and this year is no different with Steve Coll, a two-time recipient of the coveted award, making it to the festival.

Cinema, the body of work and the writers it has produced figure strongly in the second list with veteran film chronicler Jerry Pinto, film-maker Meghna Gulzar and the versatile lyricist and radio storyteller Neelesh Misra.

Jaipur BookMark (JBM) that runs parallel to the literary festival, in its sixth edition will continue to serve as a platform to bring together publishers, literary agents, translation agencies and writers.

JBM, this year, has also announced a new initiative - iWrite #MyStories calling out to writers to share their unpublished manuscripts.

"This is an effort to engage with emerging writers who are looking for platforms to showcase their work," organisers said.

Each participant will receive feedback on their submitted works from experts, and if it makes to the top 10 shortlist, it would be seen by international publishers, literary agents, translators and other industry experts in a pitching session and perhaps get close to even signing a book deal, they added.

Other speakers featuring in the second list include Amitabha Bagchi, Amitava Kumar, Anita Nair, Asne Seierstad, Devdutt Pattanaik, James Crabtree, Kanishk Tharoor, Kim Wagner, Makarand Paranjape, Naina Lal Kidwai, Rana Dasgupta, Roy Strong, Ruth Padel, Sandeep Unnithan, and Shubhangi Swarup.