Bhubaneswar, June 17: Speakers from across the country will debate on literature and democracy threadbare as part of the Kalinga Literary Festival on June 18 and 19 at a city hotel here. This year, Odisha will also be the national focus during the two-day fest.
Around 100 experts from the world of literature, cinema, media and politics will assemble during the meet.
"It will be a blend of Odia literary works and its interconnection with national and global literature," said the director of the festival, Rashmi Ranjan Parida.
The key sessions will be on topics such as dialogue, development and democratic spirit in literature, a literary journey of Kalinga, governance in Odia language, youth, women, media, sports, folk and regional literature.
Kamala Kanta Dash, convener of the festival said: "Participation of personalities from different fields of creative art and literature will ensure the presence of the state on the national and global literary map. We also aim to encourage the creative pursuits of young writers and their interaction with others."
Some of the key sessions of the literary event would include eminent panellists such as Anustup Nayak, Maheswar Sahu, Charudutta Panigrahi, Chittaranjan Jena and K.K. Parida along with a discussion between Piyush Mishra and Vineet Kumar.
Other key attendees would include Amiya Bhusan Tripathi, Arif Mohd. Khan, Arun Rath, Arundhati Subramaniam, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Mridula Garg, Pooja Bhatt, Purushottam Agrawal, Rahul Pandita, Seema Biswas, Sitakanta Mohapatra, T.K Chand and Yash Patnaik.
Several personalities from the state such as Pratibha Ray, Haraprasad Das, Ramakanta Rath, Bibhuti Pattnaik, Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, Dinanath Pathy, Baishnab Parida, Gourhari Das, Haldhar Nag, Jayanta Mohapatra will also be present.
The festival will be inaugurated by Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan while culture minister Mahesh Sharma, singer and MP Babul Supriyo, Odisha education minister Debi Prasad Mishra and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy will be among those attending the inaugural function.
Around 15 books will be launched during the festival. A number of Odia people residing in various parts of the country and abroad have been promoting the festival and Odia literature.
The festival was also held last year and had witnessed the participation of 60 prominent literary personalities of the state.
