Lucknow Literary Festival: A Celebration of Unique Literary Culture

The city of adab and tehzeeb Lucknow is ready yet again with the fifth edition of Lucknow Literary Festival. The festival which is organised by LUCKNOW Society (A Non-governmental Organisation), began with the efforts of Shamim A. Aarzoo, who is the founder of the organisation. With the aim of promoting and conserving the unique and age-old literary and cultural history of Lucknow, the festival has been a channel of taking the legacy of Lucknow back to the younger generation. The Lucknow Literary Festival is the only lit fest in India organised solely by the youth and is among the top 6 lit fests of the country as per the Outlook Traveller list 2015.

From 2013, the fest has seen the presence of nobel laureates, Padma Shri recipients, writers from both English, Hindi and regional literature, and literature enthusiasts from all walks of life. The festival is full of engagements in form of discussions, debates, workshops, lectures, book launch, book readings and many cultural programmes. In the past five years the Lucknow Literature Festival has been attended by likes of Pt. Birju Maharaj, Padma Shri Bekal Utsahi, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Vinod Mehta, Ravinder Singh, Neelesh Misra, S Y Qureshi, Dilip C. Mandal, Teesta Seetalvad and Sudhir Mishra amongst many others.

The 2017 edition, which is scheduled for November 10th-12th, is centered around “We, Literature & Politics” / “Sahitya, Rajneeti aur Hum”. It’ll also be dedicated to the social challenge of Acid Attacks and the survival spirit of victims like Laxmi Agarwal. Agrawal is an Acid Attack Survivor and Founder Chhanv Foundation, an NGO that works for the cause of acid attack survivors.

This year’s edition will also witness film celebrities like Shatrughan Sinha (Veteran Actor), Divya Dutta (Film Actor), Political mavericks like Asaduddin Owaisi (Indian Politician) , Literary well-knowns like Neelesh Mishra (Writer, Script Writer, Lyricist) and Media personalities like Abhisar Sharma (Journalist), Ravi Kishan (bhojpuri actor), Nandita Pandey (Tarot card reader) amongst many others.

The three day long literary festival would have various book discussions by prominent personalities like Divya Dutta who will talk about her book “Me & Maa”, Kanhaiya Kumar will be discussing his book “Bihar to Tihaar”, Shatrughan Sinha with his biography’s author Bharathi Pradhan will reveal some life-stories and snippets from his book “Anything But Khamosh”, and Varun Gandhi will share thoughts on his book “Stillness”. The event would also see literary discussions on a variety of topics like regional literature, social media and sports.

Ravi Kishan will have a session on the contribution of Bhojpuri in Literature & Cinema. Sandeep Nath in a session on “Cinema, Sahitya, Samaaj aur Sandeep Nath”. Sahitya Awardee, Mridula Garg will have a solo session on her literary contribution. A session on cultural hypocrisy named “Meer ka Lucknow”. Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic “Firebrand netaon ki lokpriyata ewam loktantra/ Democracy and popularity of firebrand leaders”. Abhisar Sharma in a session on “Kya satta se sawal puchna mushkil ho gaya hai”. Famous character on social media Guddu and Shaan (Garbage Bin) will showcase an exhibition and will be involved in a session as well. Ashutosh in a session on “Patrakarita Se Rajneet Ka Safar’ Kitna Mushkil Kitna Aasan”

The Logical Indian is the Goodness Partner for the Lucknow Literary Festival 2017.
All the literature and culture enthusiasts can witness the experience first hand at Sheroes Hangout, Gomtinagar, near Hotel Taj in Lucknow. The event is free for all to attend. For more updates, you can stay in touch with Lucknow Literary Festival on their Facebook page and website.