Over 100 prominent writers, artists, scholars, filmmakers and journalists from India and abroad will participate in the eighth edition of Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF), beginning on January 28.
Participants representing a wide range of creative fields will attend the three-day festival to be held at Hyderabad Public School.
HLF is organized by the Hyderabad Literary Trust in association with the Telangana government, and with the support of several academic institutions, literary and cultural organizations, and publishing houses.
State Tourism and Culture Secretary B Venkatesham announced on Tuesday that Spain will be the country in focus at HLF 2018. Leading writers, artistes, and cultural managers from Spain are expected to participate in the event.
Kannada will be the Indian language in focus. More than 10 leading Kannada authors and artistes will participate in the event, which will have sessions on literature, theatre, film, and performance poetry of Karnataka. There will be a panel discussion on the language crisis in Karnataka.
HLF 2018 will pay tributes to legendary artists who died last year. They include classical singer Girija Devi, actors Shashi Kapoor and Tom Alter, and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Authors and artists from Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Serbia, Spain, Britain and US will be among the participants.
Aruna Roy, Arundhati Nag, Chandan Gowda, Chandrashekhara Kambara, AEasterine Kire, Girish Kasaravalli, R Gopalakrishnan, Karuna Nundy, Perumal Murugan, Pratibha Nandakumar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Rammanohar Reddy, Ravinder Singh, Sagarika Ghose, Sanjna Kapoor and Seema Mustafa will be among the key speakers.
Started in 2010, HLF represents the cultural and artistic ethos of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, as well as the vibrant culture of modern Cyberabad.
The main objective of the festival is to promote the brand image of Hyderabad as a city of creative energies. The festival brings some of the finest creative minds in India and abroad to Hyderabad, Venkatesham said.
The festival comprises conversations with authors, readings, panel discussions, workshops, screenings, exhibitions, book launches, cultural programmes, art-on-street, events for college students and school children.