9th Kalinga Literary Festival concludes with diverse voices in literature

Bhubaneswar: One of leading literary platforms of India, Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) concluded with high note on 26th February in the Temple city of Bhubaneswar after hosting 70 sessions of arts, culture, cinema and politics.

The three-day festival covered several dimensions of the interconnections between Literature, freedom, Republican values, cultural diversity and social equity.
This year Central theme of the Kalinga Literary Festival was “India and the World”. Acclaimed writers from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, UK, Italy, South Africa, and Austria joined the festival as speakers which showcases the spectacular range of language diversity. Over 100 paint artists also participated in the 7th Kalinga Art Festival.

The three day long festival was inaugurated by Prof. Ganeshi Lal, Governor of Odisha on 24th February with video address by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi in presence of guests of honour- Sitakanta Mahapatra, Tulsi Diwasa, S.K. Nanda, Y.S.R. Murthy, and Italian Consulate.
Rashmi Ranjan Parida, the founder director of KLF said every year the festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue.

Kalinga Literary Festival is well known for its socially relevant themes and in a way compels all ‘creative’ people to think and articulate ‘the contemporary’. Like its past editions the KLF this year also has a hard-hitting theme for writers, poets and artists to ponder on.
On the inaugural day, Writer Geetanjali Shree, whose novel Ret Samadhi, translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell, won the International Booker Prize last year, felicitated at the Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) and awarded with prestigious ‘Kalinga International Literary Award (English and Hindi language)’. The award comes with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. Noted educationist and screenplay writer Dr Ramesh Prasad Panigrahi was also conferred with The ‘Kalinga Literary Award (Odia)’, which comes with a cash prize of Rs 50,000 during the festival.
The concluding day of the literary festival hosted more than 20 sessions on mythology, India’s Independence struggle, youth and society, cinema, public policy, contemporary arts and literature along with poetry reading sessions. Sanjeev Sanyal, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister participated on the final day of the festival along with other personalities such as Hariprasad Chourasia, mythology writer Ashwin Sanghi , Sri Lankan writer Daya Dissanayake, Japanese author Prof Onishi Masayuki and other notable movie stars of Odisha.