Get ready to bask in the glory of literature and poetry as the Goa Arts and Literature Festival returns
KALYANI JHA | NT BUZZ
The 13th edition of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF) is set to stimulate the literary corner of Goan minds from February 13 to 15.
Organised by the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula, in association with the Goa Writers Group, this literary festival founded in 2010, has grown to be among the most prominent events in Goa, engaging with writers and poets, both established and new, to set the grounds of a world of openness and new perspective.
“Since its founding, one interesting facet of GALF is its development into one of the most acclaimed events of its type in India’s crowded landscape while remaining roughly the same size across the years, perhaps even smaller. I think this is one of its primary accomplishments, and contrary to the way success is conventionally calculated,” says Vivek Menezes who co-curates GALF with Jnanpith awardee Damodar Mauzo.
Menezes adds that it has been satisfying to see how this homegrown festival has brought Goa and Goan writers into the limelight of the literary world.
“When we started GALF, there was an alarming lack of recognition of Goan literature in all its languages, let alone the extraordinary multi-lingual literary contributions from Goa and Goans to India and the world. However, over the years, almost every significant book from/about Goa and almost every Goan author from the state and across the global diaspora has been showcased prominently at GALF,” he says.
Taking pride in the consistency of not diluting standards of the festival, he adds, “Our line-ups are relatively tiny, but still second-to-none because each author is someone specifically chosen for excellence, and for the most interesting and relevant books and ideas for the Goan reader.”
The festival also sees the involvement Goan students on a voluntary basis. “Students are the core of GALF, the main motivating factor for everything we do, and their perspective is the sole yardstick by which I myself judge our event. Over the years, they have made the difference in every way,” says Menezes.
This year, the line-up for the festival features some of the brightest names in the literary world. These include Sahitya Akademi award winner Shanta Gokhale, Sumana Roy, William Dalrymple, Manu Pillai, Nilakantan RS, S. Anand, Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari, Shubnum Khan, Romulus Whitaker, Anjan Sundaram, and Aparajith Ramnath.
The festival will be inaugurated on February 13 at International Centre Goa, Dona Paula, with Gokhale and Roy delivering the keynote addresses.
This will be followed by the unveiling of the official GALF artwork created by artist Sonia Rodrigues Sabharwal, and a poetry reading by Ramesh Ghadi.
The evening will conclude with an exclusive book discussion of award-winning Scottish historian Dalrymple’s latest book ‘The Golden Road; How ancient India transformed the world’ with Padma Bhushan awardee Dr. Vidya Dehejia.
Over the following two days, the event will witness book releases, book reading and discussions, and interactions with literary minds from India and abroad
These will include the British translator of Korean fiction Deborah Smith, whose translation of ‘The Vegetarian’ by Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, noted herpetologist and Padma Shri awardee, Whitaker’s book, ‘Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll’, co- authored with his wife Janaki Lenin, and Nilkantan’s political commentary, ‘South vs North:India’s Great Divide’.
SN Kannanari’s ‘Chronicle of an Hour and a Half’ which won the 2024 Atta Galata Award and the Crossword Book Award for Best Fiction, Khan’s novel, ‘The Djinn waits a hundred years’ and historian Manu Pillai’s latest book, ‘Gods, Guns & Missionaries’ will be some other highlights at the festival. Anjan Sundaram’s memoirs, and historian Ramnath’s book, ‘Engineering a Nation: The Life and Career of M. Visvesvaraya’ will also be part of the festival.
President of ICG Yatin Kakodkar says, “We at the ICG are extremely happy and proud to host this eclectic, interesting event for yet another year.”
The event is free and open to the public.
