Bhubaneswar, June 10: The fourth Kalinga Literary Festival started here today with the theme "Literature for Peace and Harmony".

Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and poets Sitakant Mahapatra and Ramakanta Rath inaugurated the festival.

This year, the festival introduced two new awards apart from the Kalinga Literary Award.

Poet-essayist Haraprasad Das was conferred the Kalinga Literary Award for his lifetime contribution to literature, while Anand Neelakantan received the Kalinga International Literary Award for his contribution to popular Odia literature. Paramita Satpathy received the Kalinga Karubaki Award for her contribution to Odia poetry.

Speakers Bhalchandra Nemade, H.S. Shivprakash and Kedarnath Singh shared their thoughts at the theme session titled "Literature for Peace and Harmony". Haraprasad Das moderated the session, which saw the release of Gourahari Das's Jhooth Ka Ped.

Two other books - Rath Yatra by Subas Pani and Odisha Parba by Odisha Samaj - were also launched in the inaugural session of the festival.

There were two sessions to highlight the experiences of the writers. Sitakant Mahapatra spoke about his time at Harvard University, while Sabyasachi Mohapatra and Sudarshan Pattnaik also shared their experience.

Conversation with Anand Neelakantan by Sujit Mohapatra was another interesting session. Anand's The Rise of Sivagami was the first book in the Baahubali trilogy. He shared his journey as an author and narrated his association with television and film industry.

The conversation session with Subas Pani was a treat for rath yatraenthusiasts. Pani shared his experience of the festival for last three decades.

Writers Pratibha Ray and Maitreyi Pushpa spoke about the contemporary writings on the women of the present era. In the Odia literature session, Sitakant Mahapatra, Sum-anyu Satapathy, Gourhari Das, Debasish Pangirahi and Mrinal Chatterjee discussed the classical status of Odia language.