The Kolkata launch of Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor’s upcoming book, The Sage Who Reimagined Hinduism, will be held during the 17th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF), the organisers announced Monday during a curtain-raiser at Oxford Bookstore.
The three-day festival will be held from 9-11 January, 2026, at the Alipore Museum.
Festival director Anjum Katyal, Apeejay Oxford Bookstores CEO Swagat Sengupta and programming head Neeta Sreedharan outlined the line-up for AKLF 2026 at the curtain raiser event.
This year’s programming spans mythology, crime, romance, wellness, media, leadership, culinary culture and the supernatural, with an added emphasis on gender, history, wellness and translation.
Among the featured speakers and performers are Akshay Jaitley, Amit Lodha, Anand Neelakantan, Anita Agnihotri, Anita Nair, Aparna Sen, Arunava Sinha, Bachi Karkaria, Benyamin, Brinda Karat, Shashi Tharoor, Helmut Böttiger, Durjoy Datta, Jeet Thayil, Jerry Pinto, Luke Coutinho, Mallika Dua, Pamela Philipose, Pavan K. Varma, Priyambada Jayakumar, Ratnaboli Ray, Riri Trivedi, Ruchir Joshi, Satyarth Nayak, Shobhaa De, Sundar Sarukkai, Swastika Mukherjee, Usha Uthup and Vijender Chauhan.
The festival will also mark several centenaries, including those of Mahasweta Devi, filmmaker Raj Khosla and European writer Ingeborg Bachmann.
The 11th Apeejay Jit Paul Memorial Lecture will be delivered by politician, author and former diplomat Pavan K. Verma. The shortlist for the 11th Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize will also be unveiled during the festival.
(Left to right) Neeta Sreedharan, programming head, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival; Swagat Sengupta, CEO, Apeejay Oxford Bookstores; Anjum Katyal, director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival
Events will be spread across the Alipore Museum, Oxford Bookstore and The Park, Kolkata. Sessions will include Aparna Sen Unplugged, Crime and Punishment: Tales of the Dark Side, Tok Jhaal Mishti: What Sets Bengal’s Cuisine Apart, Surviving the Dark: Abuse and Women’s Experience, Motherlode: Mining the Myths, Duty Calls: Police and the Crime Thriller, Celebrating the City: Kolkata Stories, and On Living, Dying and Everything that Matters.
Programming for younger audiences will continue through the Oxford Junior Literary Festival (OJLF), hosting workshops, interactions and storytelling sessions at Oxford Bookstore. The Poetry Café at the Alipore Museum will provide a platform for both established and emerging poets.
“We remain dedicated to fostering an inclusive, vibrant and forward-looking platform that celebrates the transformative power of literature and the city that continues to inspire us,” Priti Paul, director, Apeejay Surrendra Group, said in a statement.
“The 17th edition of Kolkata’s pioneering lit fest, AKLF, promises to deliver as much excitement, relevance and enjoyment as it has every year so far. The 2026 has a major focus on gender, history, wellness and translation, all contemporary issues that are foremost in the public imagination. We are looking forward to welcoming some of our country’s leading minds and personalities, as well as significant writers from abroad,” festival director Anjum Katyal added.
