Digital edition of Islamabad Literature Festival kicks off

Islamabad : The Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) organised by Oxford University Press Pakistan (OUPP) is back with its 8th edition. As in 2021, this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ILF is a digital edition, sponsored by the Bank of Punjab.

The theme of this year’s Festival is "Reimagining the Future." We live in a new reality, and we need to think of a world post-Covid-19 pandemic, and the digital edition of ILF is taking these deliberations forward. A vibrant programme of talks, interviews, debates/discussions, mushairas, poetry recitals, book launches, and readings and current affairs have been lined up for the Festival.

With ideas and subjects as diverse as the future of education in Pakistan, the rapidly evolving geopolitical trends, the potential impact of the recent changes in Afghanistan, and the way forward for the nation’s struggling economy.

Arshad Saeed Husain, Managing Director of Oxford University Press Pakistan shared the programme highlights of the 8th ILF and enumerated its objectives. Speaking at the inaugural session here on Friday at a local hotel, Arshad Saeed Husain said, “We at ILF take it as a given that these times are unique and that the tomorrow we are heading into will require distinctively different understandings and approaches to yesterday. We need to understand that the future will be quite different from the past. And we will require all our imagination and all our creativity for Reimagining the Future.” The aims of this digital edition of ILF remain the same as the previous ILF’s: to develop interaction between writers, intellectuals, and artists within Pakistan and across borders, cultures, and languages, and to nurture and promote books and inculcate the habit of reading. Despite the pandemic, this digital edition of KLF will continue to put Pakistan on the map as a country rich in culture, creativity, and exchange of ideas and opinions. ILF brings together and celebrates Pakistani and international authors.

The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, former Ambassador at the UN, the US and UK, and Mr. Hameed Shahid TI, an Urdu fiction writer and critic. The Digital Islamabad Literature Festival will be a three-day event starting on Friday 29th October and will conclude on Sunday 31 October 2021.

It will feature more than 130 speakers including Michael Kugelman, Elizabeth Jane Burnett, Julien Columeau, Anita Weiss, Ahmed Rashid, Nasim Zehra, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Kishwar Naheed, Wasim Sajjad, Raza Rabbani, Muneeza Shamsie, Sherry Rahman, Hina Rabbani Khar, Harris Khalique, and Zahid Hussain to name a few in 38 sessions representing 10 different countries including Pakistan, UK, USA, Bangladesh, Iran, France, Germany, Dubai, and India. After the inauguration ceremony, there was a session on Parvarish-e-Loh-o-Qalam: Urdu Shairi Ka Maujooda Manzarnama in which maestro Iftikhar Arif, led a panel of renowned poets and authors in a discussion on the contemporary state of Urdu poetry, moderated by Najeeba Arif. This was followed by a session: A Personal Chronicle of Pakistan: Preserving History and Heritage in which analyst, writer, and researcher, Ikram Sehgal and former BBC journalist, Owen Bennett-Jones discussed with TV presenter Moeed Pirzada, Ikram Sehgal’s 12 volumes series that is a gift for the coming generations of Pakistanis who want to learn about Pakistan over the past 40 years from a distinct Pakistani perspective.

There were further sessions on Literature: Connecting Across Frontiers featuring Frances Pritchett and Arfa Sayeda Zehra and Afghanistan At the Crossroads moderated by Huma Baqai. While the roots of ILF are nourished by the rich traditions of our heritage, ILF will look forward to the future and explore new writings, new trends, and new technologies, and provide a platform for younger authors and scholars. Interested persons can join online for the 8th Islamabad Literature Festival for a memorable experience.