9th Pune International Literary Festival underway until Dec 23

Atlanta, GA, December 21, 2021: Pune city’s first and the only free festival of English Literature; the Pune International Literary Festival (PILF) will take place from December 21^stto23^rd. This is the 9^th edition of the festival and it would be held online for the second consecutive year, due to COVID19 pandemic. Dr. Manjiri Prabhu, the city-based acclaimed novelist is the festival founder and Director.

The festival is being organized with support from Vishwakarma Publications as the Title sponsors, along with many other partners. Access to the festival sessions is free.

“The basic objective of the festival is to celebrate the ‘Word’ in all forms, to facilitate a direct connect between authors and the readers and to create an inspirational platform for all creative people – at all levels of their careers, thereby promoting the culture of knowledge-based reading and learned appreciation of various arts and craft. Our partnership with Crossword Bookstores is now in its 9^th year and the Salzburg Global Seminar has continued into its 6^th year. Our other partners are Goethe Institute, US Consulate Mumbaiwith notable participation from publishers like HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Om Books International, Juggernaut, Speaking Tiger, Westland, Readomania, Amaryllis,Oxford Bookstores, Sage Publishing and others.

Included are an impressive line-up of international authors and speakers from India, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Italy, UK, USA and around the worldlike: Cecelia Ahern, Alexandra Pringle, Carl A. Harte, Dr Mark Aldridge,Helen Smith,Liz Nugent, Mariah Fredericks, James Ziskin, Sam Blake, Stefano Pelle, Sujata Massey, Vicki Satlow, Elizabeth Kracht, Janet Rudolph and others.

The Indian speakers include Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Mira Nair, Nayantara Sahgal, Shobhaa De, Remo Fernandes, Guru Thakur, Bharat Dabholkar, Ashwin Sanghi,  Dr Manjiri Prabhu, Raj Nayak, Veena Rao,  Ambika Aiyadurai, Anahita Dhondy, Anirban Bhattacharyya, Antoine Lewis, Suhail Mathur, Anjali Bhushan, Arpan Roy , Anupama Jain, Bharat Agarwal , Chidanand Rajghatta , Devaki Jain, Dipankar Mukherjee , Geetanjali Joshi, Gita Viswanath, Harini Nagendra  Harshali Singh, Jaideep Hardikar, Kavita Kane, Kavitha Iyer, Kishwar Desai, Koral Dasgupta, L. Aruna Dhir, Madhulika Liddle, Milee Ashwarya, Rakhee Bakshee, Yasser Usman, Usha Laxman, Vardhaman Jain (Dr), Mrunal Pawar, Manju Jaidka and many more.

This year the Social Theme is‘ Power Of The Golden Years’ (Senior Citizens)which is empowering the senior citizens, and some sessions are dedicated to it. One the key session is‘Life Mantras – What Matters Most..’ Dr. Manjiri Prabhu in conversation with Shobhaa De.

Other highlights are:

• Wisdom Bytes – Opinion pieces from respected experienced global voices like Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Anu Aga, Anita Moorjani, Narayan Murthy, Ganesh Natrajan will help us understand ‘What the World Needs Today’ and guide us in the right direction.
• Two-minute pieces from ‘Featured Authors’ talking about their latest books.
• ‘Why Buy My Book’ opportunity for debut authors to pitch their books to readers

The festival will have over 150 Speakers, 70+ sessions taking place in 3 different online studios.

Sessions include:

• Yours Truly: A separate Session each with Cecelia Ahern, Mira Nair, Remo Fernandes and Guru Thakur
• Mysteries – The Enigma and the Intrigue – James Ziskin, Manjiri Prabhu, Liz Nugent and Janet Rudolph
• Putting a Face to India’s Farm Crisis – Kavitha Iyer, Jaideep Hardikar, Dnyaneshwar Bodake and Rakhee Bakshee
• Conversations on a cosy winter Evening – with Nayantara Sahgal and Devaki Jain
• The DOGtrine of Peace. Radhika Suryavanshi (Senior Campaigns Coordinator PETA India) In conversation wit Dr. Manjiri Prabhu

• Women – the Soft Power–with Swapnil Pandey, Capt. Manisha M. Puri and Kena Shree
• Reimagining the Maharajahs: Princely India and its Tales– Dr. Alka Pande in conversation with Manu Pillai
• The Fine Line between Fantasy and Horror with Neil D’Silva, Alisha Kirpalani and Mayur Didolkar
• My Journey with Agatha Christie- Helen Smith in conversation with Dr. Mark Aldridge (Agatha Christie Historian and Author)
• SOUMITRA CHATTERJEE: A FILMMAKER REMEMBERS – Somak Ghoshal in conversation with Suman Ghosh
• The Art of Writing for Children – Ashok Banker, Stefano Pelle and Vibha Batra
• Phenomenal Women in International Politics – Supriya Vani and Carl Harte (Jacinda Ardern: Leading With Empathy)Chidanand Rajghatta ( Kamala Harris: Phenomenal Woman’) and Kena Shree
• Mytho–Fantasy or Mytho- Reinterpretation?– Kavita Kane, Shatrujeet Nath, Koral Dasgupta and Mona Verma
• Brave Hearts of the Country– Mrs. Geetanjali Joshi in conversation with  Kulpreet Yadav and  Lt. Gen. Satish Dua
• Shakti – The 51 Pithas-Master Class on Art & Culture with Dr.Alka Pande

Literary Agents – Bridge or Barrier? Vicky Satlow( Vicki Satlow Literary Agency) Elizabeth Kracht ( Kimberley Cameron & Associates Literary Agency)  Suhail Mathur (The Book Bakers) Moderated by Dipankar  Mukherjee

• The sessions ‘Why Buy My Book?’ are for new authors to talk about their book
• There are interesting and informative Marathi sessions such as पुराण कथांचे  इतिहासातील स्थान, बदलता स्त्रीवाद, गाऊ संतांच्या कविता