Women’s voices to reverberate at DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2013

The surge of national solidarity on women’s issues finds echoes and resonances at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2013. Poems, stories, readings, and panels discuss the multifaceted experience of being a woman, and the search for gender equity and justice.

Acclaimed women writers attending the festival include the legendary Diana Eck, the leading Arab novelist AhdafSoueif, AminattaForna, Anamika, DamayantiBeshra, JaishreeMisra, Deborah Moggach, ElifBatuman, FahmidaRiaz, AmeenaSaiyid, Gagan Gill, GayatriChakravortySpivak, IlinaSen, Ira Pande, Kota Neelima, KunzangChoden, Kishwar Desai, Kshama Sharma, Lakshmi Holmstrom, LalehKhadivi, Madeline Miller, NasreenMunniKabir, NayanjotLahiri, NirupamaDutt, RohiniNilekani, Selma Dabbagh, SharmeenObaidChinoi, Sharmila Tagore, Shobhaa De, SmitaTewariJassal, Sudha Gopalakrishnan, SyedaHameed, Tania James, Tishani Doshi, Vayu Naidu, Vibha Rani andYiyun Li

The keynote address “O to live again!” will be delivered by the iconic voice of human rights and women’s consciousness Mahasweta Devi. This will set the tone for various sessions where women and men will interrogate gender issues and raise the crucial subject of equity and inclusion in languages including in English, Hindi, Rajasthani, Tamil and Malayalam.

Festival Co-director NamitaGokhale says, “India is a nation of strong women who are socially vulnerable. This years’ program at Jaipur addresses a range of women’s issues and literary voices from across the world. I am especially looking forward to ‘Imagine’, a session invoking human strength and solidarity across boundaries.”

Some of the highlights of this theme include:

Celebrated Tamil feminist writer Ambaispeak’s of her writing and of SPARROW, [Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women], a trust set up in 1988 in Mumbai to build a national archives for women with print, oral history and pictorial material.

In the session, The Yogini, David White discusses the cult of the Yogini with Diana Eck among others. ShabanaAzmi will be in conversation with Prasoon Joshi in a session titled ‘Sex and Sensibility’, on the important question of representations of women in bollywood.

K R Indira talk’s about a women’s Kamasutra and the feminine right to appreciate their own sensuality without intimidation.

In Festival advisor UrvashiButalia observes, “JLF 2013’s attention to women’s voices is an important gesture of solidarity with Indians fighting for a fairer, inclusive India”.

A Life Apart, the English translation of PrabhaKhaitan’s famed autobiography, Anya se Ananya, we scrutinizes the interior lives of women and the power of testimonial literature to break the ground and open new spaces in women’s narratives.

“Women in the Path” will look at the mismatch between the essence and the theological theory of Buddhist philosophy on the issue of women and ultimate liberation. “AdhuraAadmi, AdhunaNaari” will look at the link between the sexes in the articulation of a human Voice.

StreeHokarSawaalKartiHo? – examines the increasingly vocal questions that women ask and the silences that they receive inreply.

The festival will create an inclusive experience for its visitors with enhanced seating capacity, pre-opening music sessions and a series of book launches.Online press registration closes on 15th January. Do visit the website – jaipurliteraturefestival.org for latest updates

About The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival

The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival is considered to be Asia’s leading literature event, celebrating national and international writers, and encompassing a range of activities including film, music and theatre. The festival has already hosted some of the best-known national and international writers including OrhanPamuk, J.M. Coetzee, John Berendt, Kiran Desai, Christopher Hampton, Ian McEwan, Vikram Seth, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Pico Iyer, Simon Schama, Thomas Keneally, HanifKureishi, Vikram Chandra, Anoushka Shankar, Michael Frayn, Stephen Frears, Alexander McCall Smith, Donna Tartt, Tina Brown, ShashiTharoor, Mohammed Hanif, Paul Zacharia, among many others. The Directors of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festivals are William Dalrymple and NamitaGokhale and the festival is produced by Sanjoy K. Roy and Sheuli Sethi of Teamwork Productions. DSC Limited is the principal sponsor of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival.

About Teamwork Productions

Teamwork is a highly versatile entertainment company with roots in the performing arts, social action and the corporate world. Our expertise lies in the area of entertainment and includes television, film – documentary and feature, and the creation and development of festivals of contemporary performing arts, visual arts, and literature across the world.

We currently produce 17 performing and visual arts festivals in 21 cities across 11countries, including Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA.

Teamwork produces Asia’s biggest literary gathering – the annual DSC Jaipur Literature Festival – as well as the Hay Festival in Kerala.

‘Celebrating India in Israel’, ‘Indian Summer in Canada’, ‘Eye on India in Chicago’, ‘Kahaani Festival’ and ‘Strings of the World’ are five new annual performing and visual arts festivals that have been launched in 2011-2012.

Website: www.teamworkfilms.com

For further details contact:

Imtiaz Alam

Mob.+91 98102 27818

E-Mail: imtiaalam@gmail.com, imtiaz.alam@ketchumsampark.com
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