by Ishan Roy
MARK YOUR DATES FOR JAIPUR BOOK MARK @ JLF’16!
Described as the ‘greatest literary show on earth’, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival(JLF) needs absolutely no introduction. Celebrating talent from all across the world, the festival features the best and biggest of the literature and publishing industry. JLF absolutely needs no introduction; what started about a decade ago stands tall as a legacy today.
‘Jaipur Book Mark’ is what makes JLF more unique!
In its third year, Jaipur Book Mark(JBM) is held parallel to ZEE JLF.
Conceptualised as a B2B platform, JBM provides a platform for publishers, literary agents, authors, translation agencies and writers to meet, talk business deals, listen to speakers from across the world. This year, the speakers’ list has broadened its horizons beyond all seas and will feature over 65 publishing professionals.
JBM’16 is set to focus on translation, however, JBM’s unique contribution to the Indian literary society will be raising resources to fund translations of works from Indian languages!
India offers a rich landscape of writing and JBM is well placed to showcase and to help facilitate the sale and exchange of rights both between Indian languages and internationally. The two day event will feature a catalogue of a select list of works on offer for translation, samples of translations for publishers and agents to get a feel of the work, discussions on rights sales and contracts for print, digital and film.
Writers like Salmam Rushdie and Rohinton Mistry were the face of South Asian literature to the world just twenty years ago, who wrote in the West for predominantly Western readers and the Western Acclaim. However today, India’s publishing industry alone is worth about 2 Billion Dollars!
Publishing houses from all over the world today, are investing in the local talent to tap the Indian market, where a swelling middle class, rising literacy and income levels and an enormous youth population is seen driving double-digit sales growth for decades. South Asia ranks a close third, after the US and UK, in English and regional language publishing. It is home to about 30 languages, 23 of which are Indian, each with an independent print and publishing culture of its own.
It is astonishing and refreshing at the same time, to see that currently, no other publishing platform in India offers the possibility of both getting to know India’s varied literatures and making contact with publishers and authors from India’s many languages but JBM!
With #JBMatJLF South Asia meets the World!
Stay Tuned to Erubescent Ecstasy(EE), for we will bring to you all of the insiders’ news and rendezvous of this magnificent event in the coming days!
The world’s largest free festival of its kind, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival has hosted some of the best regarded and loved names ranging from Nobel Laureates and Man Booker Prize winners to star debuts including Amish Tripathi, Eleanor Catton, Hanif Kureishi, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Ian McEwan, JM Coetzee, Mohammed Hanif, Oprah Winfrey, Orhan Pamuk, Pico Iyer, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Wole Soyinka, as well as renowned Indian language writers such as Girish Karnad, Mahasweta Devi, MT Vasudevan Nair, Uday Prakash and UR Ananthamurthy.
Writers and Festival Directors William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale invite authors from across the globe to take part in the five-day programme set against a backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi Palace in the state capital Jaipur. Neeta Gupta and Aditi Maheshwari Goyal act as the advisory body to the Jaipur Book Mark.
