Islamabad:Oxford University Press (OUP) is once again gathering avidreaders, writers, academics, and literary figures from across Pakistan and the worldat the 3rd Islamabad Literature Festival to be held on 24, 25, and 26 April 2015 at the Hotel Margala, Islamabad. This was announced by Ameena Saiyid OBE,Managing Director, OUP, at a press conference held yesterday.
OUP’s previous Literature Festivals have been heralded as massive successes, attracting a great deal of attention among the literary and intellectual communities in the country. In Islamabad last year, literary enthusiaststhronged to the ILF to meet renowned authors and attend over 60 interactive sessions.
Ameena Saiyid highlighted that the 3rdIslamabad Literature Festival will feature, talks/interviews, panel discussions, Mushaira, English poetry recitation, book fair, book launches, readings, author signings, film screening, performing arts, Sufi music, artexhibitionsby Art Now, and much more.
Apart from Pakistani authors, poets, and academics, speakers from UK, USA, France,India and Australia will also be participating in the ILF. The keynote speakers at the opening and closing ceremonies will beAnatolLieven, Ataul Haq Qasmi, Zehra Nigah, and thePulitzer Prize winner, Paul Harding.
Joining the roster of prominent speakers at the third ILF will be Ahmed Fouad, Ali Akbar Natiq, Almas Bobby, ArfaSayeda Zehra, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Asif Noorani, Asif Raza Mir, Ataul Haq Qasmi, Athar Tahir, Bilal Tanweer, Aitzaz Ahsan, Fatema Hassan, Farooq Qaiser, Feryal Ali-Gauhar, Harris Khalique, HaseenaMoin, HinaJillani, I.A. Rehman, Ilona Yusuf, Ikram Sehgal, Intizar Husain, KishwarNaheed, Masood Ashar, Mohammed Hanif, MujahidBarelvi, Mushahid Hussain, Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Nasim Zehra, Raju Jamil,SarwatMohiuddin, Shahid Nadeem, ShandanaMinhas, Shehryar Fazli, Sorayya Khan, Syed Talat Hussain, SyedaAbida Hussain, ZahedaHina, Zehra Nigah, and Zobaida Jalal.
The event will also feature performance on KishwarNaheed’s poem ‘Yaey Hum GunahgaarAurtainHaen’ by Feriyal Aslam, dramatic readings of IsmatChughtai’sstories by Feryal Ali Gauhar, English Poetry Recitation, film screening of ‘Life’s Worth LivIng’, and Sufi Music by the Rafi Peer Ensemble.
Some of theexciting sessions at the ILF will include Baat se Baat: Asif Farrukhi and Muhammad Ahmed Shah in conversation with Ataul Haq Qasmi;Rights and Wrongs of Transgender Issues;He, She, or…:Feryal Ali Gauhar in conversation with Laxmi Narayan Tripathi;Winner of the KLF Best Fiction Prize: Framji Minwalla in conversation with ShandanaMinhas;Khushwant Singh.
Among the Immortals; A Women’s Jirga from Swat;Why We Write;Winning the Pulitzer Prize:ShandanaMinhas in conversation with Paul Harding; Author to Author: Shehryar Fazli in conversation with Mohammed Hanif;Politics: The Art of the Possible and Sometimes the Impossible;News, Views, and Sensationalism;Ahmad Faraz: The Poet as Witness to the Age;Pakistani Cinema: KalaurAaj; Gul Chandni: Readings and in Conversation with Zehra Nigah; Healing a Nation: Trauma and Mental Health in Pakistan; and Yemen: Difficult Choices for Pakistan.
The Karachi and the Islamabad Literature Festival is free and open to all and co-foundersAmeena Saiyid and Asif Farukhi have invited the people of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to attend the festival and join in the festivities.