JLF 2018 to have over 200 sessions across diverse categories

With over 200 sessions spanning a diverse range of topics, trends, ideas and genres, the full schedule for the upcoming Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) was announced today.
The 11th edition of the literature festival will witness Academy award-winning British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who will talk about his life and work in session titled 'The Real Thing'.
Another important session will be 'The Great Survivor' where Hamid Karzai, former President of Afghanistan, will discuss his life, legacy and leadership through the country's recent turbulent times.
He will also share his views on India's role in Afghanistan's past and present.
In sessions titled 'The Bridget Jones' Diaries', novelist Helen Fielding will talk about the comic, the tragic, film and fiction and Bridget Jones' bumpy ride to motherhood.

While combining crime with popular science, Kathy Reichs, an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist, academic and producer of the TV series Bones, will talk about her writing, popular science and communication, crime and punishment, gender and equity in sessions 'Conspiracy of Bones'.

Writer Akhil Sharma in a session called 'A Life of Adventure and Delight' will be in conversation with Chandrahas Choudhury on his writing and the intensity and emotional precision he brings to his craft.
In 'The Joy Luck Club', celebrated novelist Amy Tan will speak to Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi about her extraordinary life and her emergence as a writer of stature against many odds.

Known for leading a nomadic life between a Benedictine hermitage in California, Nara in Japan and international airports around the world, British-born Indian origin essayist Pico Iyer, in 'The Art of Stillness', will speak with writer and historian Patrick French about his life and work, movement and stillness, changelessness and change.
Visitors can look forward to sessions in poetry such as 'Jan Nisar and Kaifi' with Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi in conversation with Rakhshanda Jalil; 'Nude: The Poet Within' in which Vishal Bhardwaj will be in conversation with Sukrita Paul Kumar; and a Rajasthani bhasha session 'Rajasthali: Dharti Ri Koonkh' with Bulaki Sharma, Abhimanyu Singh Arha and Reena Menaria in conversation with Arvind Singh Aashiya.

"In its 11th edition, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival lives up to its promise of being the grand dame of diversity, magnitude and sheer range in programming there is something here for everyone, much to explore and to suit every literary palate," the organisers said.
The JLF will also celebrate the diversity of languages, their enigmatic roots and multifaceted trajectories.
In 'Lok Bhasha: The Oxford Dictionaries Hindi Word of the Year', the announcement of the first ever Oxford Dictionaries 'Hindi Word of the Year' will be made at the event followed by a panel discussion with Ashok Vajpeyi, Pankaj Dubey, Saurabh Dwivedi, Vinod Dua and Yatindra Misra in conversation with Anu Singh Choudhary on new trends in Hindi usage and writing.

In 'Hindi Medium: Language and Elitism', Annie Montaut, Avinash Das, Satya Vyas and Satyanand Nirupam will examine the value of Hindi, its position as a common language in a multilingual nation.
In a linguistic leap of faith, the session 'Shalom: Indian Jewish Fiction', writers Esther David and Sethu will speak of ethnicity, community, belonging and the legacy of shared stories.
In sessions like 'River of Life, River of Death: The Ganges and India's Future' and 'Conflicts of Interest: Betrayals of the Earth' eminent environmentalists like Sunita Narain, Jairam Ramesh and Jeffrey Gettleman will address the cause and consequences of climate catastrophe.