JLF releases first list of speakers for 10th edition

Jaipur Literature Festival today revealed the list of first 10 speakers set to appear at the 10th edition of the event next year.
Touted as the world's largest free literary event, the fstival is expected see participation by over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians and popular culture icons, with a special focus on world literatures.
"To celebrate its 10 years, organisers have decided to announce 10 speakers set to appear at the festival every week over the period of 10 weeks every Tuesday at 6 pm starting today," organisers said.
The first list is a diverse lineup of speakers from across the globe including Pulitzer winning Alice Walker.

Walker made history as the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the National Book Award in 1983 for her novel "The Color Purple". Her other well known works include "Meridian" and "The Third Life of Grange Copeland".
US-based author, poet, activist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni will return to JLF after a gap of six years.

Among her best-known works, which are usually set in India or America include "Palace of Illusions", "Arranged Marriage", which won an American Book Award and "Mistress of Spices", which was shortlisted for the "Orange Prize".
Several of her works have also been adapted into films and plays, and translated into 29 languages.

Eka Kurniawan, the first Indonesian to be nominated for a Man Booker International Prize and the winner of 2016 Emerging Voices Award, will also be participating in the festival.
Kurniawan, a TV scriptwriter by profession, penned his debut novel "Beauty is a Wound" in 2002, which has been translated into more than 24 languages. His third and latest novel, "Love and Vengeance", is due to be released next year.
Kannada writer SL Bhyrappa will be coming with a rich trove of literature from down South. The Padma Shri awardee, who is widely read across India as well as in the United States, is often regarded one of modern India's foremost novelists.

Lebanese-American essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, on his second visit to JLF, will bring with him his expertise from the world of trade and finance. The former trader and risk analyst focuses his research and writing on probability, uncertainty and randomness.
Mark Haddon, the British novelist who writes for both children and adults, will debut at JLF. The writer is best-known for "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", which won the Whitbread Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and a Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His latest work, "The Pier Falls: And Other Stories", is his first collection of short stories.

Eminent English playwright and screenwriter David Hare, who has been the recipient of two Laurence Olivier Awards and two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Hours" and "The Reader", will also be returning to the festival.
Man Booker prize-winning novelist Alan Hollinghurst, author of "The Line of Beauty", "The Swimming Pool Library" and his most recent novel, "The Stranger's Child" and Australian author Richard Flanagan, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" are also among the speakers at the 10th JLF.
NoViolet Bulawayo, who became the first black African woman and the first Zimbabwean to be shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize for her debut novel "We Need New Names" (2013), will also debut at the festival.

The five-day-long festival will be held from January 19 - 23, 2017 at the Diggi Palace hotel in Jaipur.