Karachi Literature Festival 2012 kicks off on 11th

The third two-day Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) begins on February 11, announced the British Council Pakistan, the Oxford University Press (OUP) Pakistan and Asif Farrukhi at a press conference on Thursday.
Briefing the journalists about KLF, OUP Pakistan Managing Director Ameena Saiyid said KLF is a reflection of Pakistan’s historical roots as expressed in a multiplicity of languages and in various forms of writing.
“Taking advantage of interest in writing from and about Pakistan, the festival also seeks to broaden the picture and counterbalance the negative depiction of society in Pakistan by celebrating the diversity and dynamism of this society,” she added.
Through dialogue and discussion, readings and rendering, the festival is intended to create an intellectual space in which the diversity and pluralism in Pakistan’s society is expressed by authors from traditions both within and beyond Pakistan’s borders, she said, adding that the festival would allow these writers to be freely accessible to people in an open and participatory manner.
Describing the features of KLF 2012, she said this year, award-winning British historian and writer William Dalrymple, who has written numerous books on the history of South Asia, Middle East and the Muslim world, would be the keynote speaker.
She said the festival would host many other authors writing in English, such as Hanif Kureishi, Vikram Seth, Shobhaa De, Anatol Lieven, Ayesha Jalal, Ahmed Rashid, Kamila Shamsie, Mohammed Hanif, Mohsin Hamid, HM Naqvi, Siddhartha Deb and Mirza Waheed.
In addition to this, she said, many Urdu poets and authors, including Intizar Hussain, Zehra Nigah, Iftikhar Arif, Fahmida Riaz, Kishwar Naheed, Fatema Hassan, Harris Khalique, Azra Abbas, Imdad Hussaini, Sahar Ansari, Khwaja Razi Haider, Inam Nadeem, Kashif Hussain Ghayar, Shahida Hassan, Ahmed Fouad, Aqeel Abbas Jafri and Ali Akbar Natiq, would also be in attendance.
She said the session would also feature sessions with German authors, like Jurgen Wasim Frembgen, Stefan Weidner and Navid Kermani, as well as French authors, like Michel Boivin, Anouar Benmalek and Claudine Le Tourneur d’Ison.
This year, film screenings are being introduced to the diverse line-up of events at the festival, she said, adding that also being featured this year are puppet shows for children by the Rafi Peer Theatre, a satire session with Saad Haroon, Banana News Network and Beygairat Brigade’s Ali Aftab Saeed, and performances by Nritaal Group and Junoon’s Salman Ahmad.
“To mark the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Dickens, a group of young performers will showcase an example of immersive theatre based on Dickens’ ‘The Uncommercial Traveller’, followed by workshops conducted by Owen Calvert-Lyons from London’s Arcola Theatre and Peter Higgins from the British theatre company Punchdrunk,” she said.
She said, “Based on age-old literary and cultural histories as well as creative opportunities of the moment, the KLF draws upon this dynamism by bringing together writers and poets, scholars and academics from a diversity of cultures, languages, academic disciplines and intellectual traditions to create an opportunity for cultural dialogue and exchange through celebration of writing and books,” said British Council Pakistan Programmes Director Martin Fryer.
To meet the increasing demand from across Pakistan as well as from beyond its borders for access to the festival, many of this year’s sessions would be telecast live on the internet, he added.
“All sessions will be recorded and made available on the festival’s channel on YouTube as in previous years,” he said.
He also said, “We recognise that such opportunities as presented by the festival are few and far between and, hence, we feel that this festival has a vital function,” said Asif Farrukhi.
“We think of it as a window through which the world can see and connect with the realities of Pakistan and from which Pakistan can encounter what is happening in the world,” he added.
British Council South Asia Arts Director Shreela Ghosh from Bangladesh said KLF is playing an important role in presenting the richness of contemporary fiction and non-fiction writing from Pakistan as well as about the country and the region.