Karachi Literature Festival takes off on 9th

The Ninth Karachi Literature Festival, perhaps the most important event on the calendar of the city’s social and educational activities, takes off on Friday, February 9, at the Beach Luxury Hotel.

This was announced by Ameena Saiyid, managing director, Oxford University Press (Pakistan), at a press briefing at a hotel on Thursday. Around 205 Pakistani authors and 30 from overseas are to participate in the three-day event. There are going to be speakers from 10 countries in all. Among these will be Francis Robinson from the United Kingdom and Noor ul Huda Shah. They will be the keynote speakers on the opening day.

The closing ceremony on February 11 will be addressed by noted television personality Anwar Maqsood, Amit Chaudhuri and Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Twenty-six book launches are scheduled and over 70 sessions will be held. Among the countries represented will be the UK, the US, Germany, France and The Maldives. Among the many literary luminaries from Pakistan will be Haris Khalique, Attiya Dawood and Javed Jabbar.

Ameena Saiyid cited four prizes that are to be awarded as they are every year. These are: the KLF-Pepsi Non-Fiction Prize; the KLF-Getz Pharma Fiction Prize; the KLF-German Peace Prize (awarded by the Consulate-General of Germany; KLF-Infaq Foundation Urdu Literature Prize; and the Italy Reads Pakistan Award (presented by the Consulate-General of Italy). The juries for these prizes comprise noted critics, writers and scholars.

Books shortlisted for the KLF-Pepsi Non-Fiction Prize: Lahore in the time of the Raj, by Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran; Urban traditions and historic environments in Sindh, by Anila Naeem; and Imagining Pakistan, by Rasul Bakhsh Rais;

The Rs250,000 prize goes to the best non-fiction work written originally in English during 2016-17. Books shortlisted for the Getz-Pharma Fiction Prize are: The Party Worker, By Omar Shahid Hamid; Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid; and Snuffing out the Moon, by Osama Siddique.

The prize worth Rs300,000 is for a work by a Pakistani or a Pakistani relocated overseas. Books shortlisted for the German Peace Prize: Prison Narratives, by Akhtar Baloch; Indus Waters Treaty: Political and legal dimensions, by Ijaz Hussain; and Imagining Pakistan, by Rasul Bakhsh Rais.

The winning work carries a prize of 3,000 euros. It should be written by a Pakistani or a foreigner of Pakistani origin.

Books shortlisted for the KLF-Infaq Foundation Urdu Literature prize are: Deed wa Deed, by Altaf Fatima; Qila-e-Faramoshi, by Fehmida Riaz; and Atey hain ghaib se, By Anwar Sha’oor. The prize is worth Rs200,000.

The resounding success of the event could be gauged from the fact that there were just 5,000 visitors at the first festival in 2010, while in 2017 there were 200,000 of them. The festival carries no entry fee; it is absolutely free for all.