Trivandrum: The capital city, Trivandrum, will soon host one of the largest and most polyphonic cultural events in God’s own country. Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters, will bring together over 150 international and Indian writers with sessions devoted to divergent topics, trends, ideas and genres ranging from fiction, poetry, nonfiction, politics, environment, travel and cinema prominently. Some of the writers coming for Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters Include Oksana Zabuzho , Shashi Tharoor, William Dalrymple, Bigao Chuol, Deepak Unnikrishnan, Felicia Yap, Kurkov, Mohammed Hanif, Andrei Kurkov, Balachandran Chullikad, Raghu Rai etc. The event will meld diverse literary artistic, and cultural forms. It will also celebrate Indian, Malayalam, and world literature from more than 15 countries.
The festival will include musical and visual performances, narrations, various literary exercises, plays for children, augmented reality sessions, exploration of traditional Kerala cuisine along with interactive sessions for youth. It will afford a rich insight in to the current trends in writing and the challenges facing verbal expression in a shape – shifting a digital world, being moulded by social media.
Festival Committee Chairman M P Veerendra Kumar said “Mathrubhumi wishes to transform the Mathrubhumi festival of Letters in to a strong and powerful cultural platform in the world where serious discussions happen around literature. What envision this enterprise as a cultural rendezvous that will spark off new thoughts and writings”.
One of the patrons of the festival, Dr Shashi Tharoor expects the festival would excite the imagination of people coming from outside the state. Likewise, it would also inspire the Malayali community who possess an enviable reading culture.
The festival directors of MBIFL include writer-editor C P Surendran, Senior Journalist Sebin Iqbal and Mathrubhumi Executive Editor P I Rajeev.
The logo of the festival is designed based on the first consonant – ‘Ka’- in Malayalam. The depiction has the letter standing tall against a vibrant, multi- hued background. Every word creates a universe of meanings linked to individual or collective memory, each alphabet sparks an explosion of imagination. ‘Ka’ in Malayalam does it precisely. The enticing and exciting world ‘Ka’ unravels is a cognitive journey.
MBIFL intends to reflect the ineffable nature of the human condition offering incandescent possibilities of imagination and creativity.
