Dhaka Lit Fest to feature Nobel winning authors Orhan Pamuk, Abdulrazak Gurnah

Dhaka Lit Fest (DLF), celebrating its 10th edition, has announced the first list of 25 speakers which includes Nobel Prize-winning authors Orhan Pamuk and Abdulrazak Gurnah.

The festival is scheduled to take place from 5 to 8 January, 2023 at the Bangla Academy.

Over 200 speakers are expected to attend the 2023 edition. The first list further includes Nuruddin Farah, Amitav Ghosh, Hanif Kureishi, Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Pankaj Mishra, Tilda Swinton, Jon Lee Anderson, Onjali Rauf, Sarah Churchwell, Gitanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell, Esther Freud, Matthieu Aikins, Alexandra Pringle, Andrey Kurkov, Asma Khan, Dame Sarah Gilbert, Anisul Hoque, Mashrur Arefin, Jaya Ahsan, Kamal Naser Chowdhury, Zafar Iqbal and Marina Tabassum.

Other than the two Nobel Prize-winning authors, the 10th edition will feature internationally acclaimed prize-winning speakers; winners of the Pulitzer, International Booker, Neustadt International, PEN/Pinter, Prix Médicis, Academy Award, Windham-Campbell Prize, Albert Medal, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, Aga Khan Award, etc. 

As well as a diverse mix of conversations and dialogues, there will be film screenings, art exhibitions, music, and cultural shows over the four-day period.

Sadaf Saaz, writer, producer and co-director of the DLF, said, “We will have four magical days sharing our love of reading and literature, discussing wide-ranging topics and ideas from different perspectives, as well as film screenings, live music and performances.” 

Ahsan Akbar, writer, and co-director of the programme, said, “For the past two years we have been working hard to gather some of the best minds from around the globe. With the diverse mix of speakers from home and abroad, we are excited to host an unforgettable festival of scintillating conversations. The long-awaited 10th edition of DLF will be very special!” 

K Anis Ahmed, writer, and co-director of the fest, said, “We are committed to our core values as ever, and with our 10th edition we will continue to celebrate pluralism of both identities and ideas and champion the freedom to express.”

Sadaf Saaz, Ahsan Akbar and K Anis Ahmed are the directors of the Dhaka Lit Fest (DLF), which began in 2011 with the commitment to promoting Dhaka, and Bangladeshi literature and culture to the world.

The festival is focused primarily on literature, but embraces culture and ideas more broadly, generating discussions on a wide array of topics: fiction and literary non-fiction to history, politics and society; poetry and translations; science and mathematics; philosophy and religion. 

About 400 participants representing over 50 countries have been part of DLF, including VS Naipaul, Adonis, Vikram Seth, Tariq Ali, Ahdaf Soueif, William Dalrymple, Nayantara Sahgal, Tilda Swinton, Shashi Tharoor, Shobha De, Nandita Das, Vijay Seshadri and Mohammed Hanif. 

Stalwarts of Bangla literature, Syed Shamsul Huq, Hasan Azizul Huq, Selina Hossain, Debesh Roy, Nirmalendu Goon, Joy Goswami, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and others, have also of course graced the stage.