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ALL THE AWESOMENESS FROM #JBMAT ZEE JLF

Jaipur Book Mark at ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, 2016 is a one of its kind endeavour in not just the nature of the event but also the plethora of topics relating to modern day reading, writing and publishing issues in the world. In what is easily the largest congregation of the biggest names in publishing and writing industries across the world, JBM at ZEE JLF saw profound debate on the issues as local as the taste and challenges of the Indian Reader and also as global as the scope and future of publishing.

John Makinson, the Chairman of Penguin Random House gave the opening address to an enthusiastic and diverse crowd about the economics and future of publishing industry and the impact that digital publishing has had on print publishing stating that despite the challenges, books in their tangible form are here to stay. Various sessions conducted by the Norwegian publishers and literary festival directors in a hope to strengthen the ties and bridge more gaps. Here, when South Asia met the world, India was particularly commended on its ways of holding up inter-personal relationships with the readers.

One of the major agendas of the meet was ‘translation’ and a one-of-its kind, translation rights booklet was released in the light of the same. The discussions held on the topic comprehensively threw light on how to promote translation among the readers and evolve good translators.

There was, obviously, room for informal drinks as well at the networking drinks. Attendees, who were publishers and authors from all over the world didn’t only applaud JBM for its effort as an initiative but also as a platform that brings so many people from the industry together.

There are two mediums of expression, the first one are the agents who guide the author to the publisher and the second are the book sellers who take the expression to the audience. Setting a stage for publishers, authors, agents, translators and graphic designers at the Narain Niwas Palace, JBM provides the required guidance and medium. The sessions conducted throughout the course of two days have exemplified the same well.

One of the major highlights of the second day was the session — ‘Romance of Publishing’ with Best-selling author turned publisher — Ravinder Singh. He was witnessed talking about his experiences as an author and how it changed completely as a publisher.

Rendezvous with Ravinder Singh
Speakers’ list had names of Jerry Pinto, Chandana Roy, Rashmi Bansal, Vaishali Mathur, and the festival director Namita Gokhale, as well. The love-story writer known for his charm-Durjoy Dutta, was also seen attending the event!

Durjoy Dutta Gets Candid on #JBMatJLF
The show-stopper event of the day was the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize for brilliance in book design. Book cover designing is an art form of its own. The graphic designer conveys the contents of the author through his/her creativity and imagination. The title was bagged by Bena Sareen for the book cover design of ‘J’.

Everything, from the decor to food and from the content of the talks to the eminent attendees has filled me with utmost joy and left me in awe of all that happened at Jaipur Book Mark at ZEE JLF! So, in case you’ve missed out this year, do mark your dates for the next!