Kerala Literature Festival

The fifth edition was held from 16 to 19 January 2020, at Kozhikode Beach, with the presence of artists, actors, celebrities, writers, thinkers, and activists, discussing literature, art, cinema, culture, dance, music, environment, science, and technology. Cultural nights include fireside chats by acts and performing artists from around the world. Speakers at the previous editions include Arundhati Roy, Richard Stallman, Noam Chomsky (Video), Yuval Noah Harari (Video), Sadhguru, Romila Thapar, Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Rakesh Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Chetan Bhagath, Karan Thapar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sobhaa De and Sagarika Ghose. In addition to literature, topics include environment and climate change. Spain was the guest nation, and Tamil literature was featured. The festival is open to the public and is non-exclusive and an open platform for discussions and idea exchanges.

The fourth edition of the festival was held from 10–13 January 2019, at Kozhikode Beach.[2]

The third edition of the festival was held from 8–11 February 2018, at Kozhikode Beach. KLF 2018 was inaugurated by Arundhati Roy, MT Vasudevan Nair and Prakash Raj. The event was supported by the Kerala State Government and the Kerala Tourism Department, and by the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation and the district administration. The Kochi Muziris Biennale was an integral part of the festival. Guest nation for the year was Ireland (represented by Gabriel Rosenstock, Paddy Bushe, Liam Carson, Alan Titley, Amanda Bell, and Conor Kostick). Romila Thapar, Ashish Nandy, Sagarika Ghose, Rajdeep Sardesai, Noam Chomsky, Rishi Kapoor, Shani Prabhakar, and Benyamin participated.

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The second edition of Kerala Literature Festival held from 2–5 February 2017, at Kozhikode Beach.[4][5]

Noted Malayalam short story writer and novelist Paul Zacharia inaugurated KLF 2017.[6] Highlight of KLF 2017 was the interaction between Sadguru jaggi vasudev, Sashi Kumar and Manju Warrier.[7] Cartoons of O. V. Vijayan were also exhibited in 2017 Kerala Literature Festival.[8] Over 300 writers from across the world took part in KLF 2017.The writers from abroad include South African writer Ari Sitas, and British-Pakistani writer Qaisra Shahraz, Slovene writer Evald Flisar, translator and editor of numerous publications Alexandra Büchler of Literature Across Frontiers, Portuguese translator Bruno Viera Amaral and poet and literary curator Nia Davies from Wales, United Kingdom.The sessions held in four venues titled Ezhuthola, Aksharam, Thulika, and Vellithira.[9][10]

The second edition of the festival introduced a programme for students, 'Student KLF', promoting knowledge, literature, art and culture. The event included open discussions with authors on contemporary topics.[11]

The Kerala Literary Festival was conceived as a platform mainly meant for Malayalam writers, social worker and artists to meet, discuss and debate on various topics.

The festival's 2016 Organizing Committee was headed by Mayor of Kozhikode V. K. C. Mammed Koya as chairman, Ravi Deecee as Chief Coordinator, and A K Abdul Hakeem as General Convenor.

At KLF 2016 writers and speakers included M T Vasudevan Nair, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Anand, Taslima Nasrin, Ashok Vajpeyi, Khadija Mumtaz, Indu Menon, M. Mukundan, Sarah Joseph, Githa Hariharan, Meena Kandasamy, Pratibha Ray, TD Ramakrishnan, T Padmanabhan, Subhash Chandran, Leena Manimekalai and Girish Kasaravalli, to name a few.[12]

In 2016 writer M. Mukundan said at the festival that writers' freedom was very limited in our society. "I was accused of misleading the younger generation through my novels. Is it because of my novels that Kerala is the biggest consumer of liquor now?[13]