The much-anticipated thirteenth Lahore Literary Festival on enlightenment opens at the Alhamra Art Centre on Friday with writers and scholars from twelve countries.
This year’s three-day literary fair will begin with a keynote lecture by Muslim Enlightened Thought in South Asia author Ayesha Jalal and Tufts University history professor Mary Richardson. After her speech, Eduardo Manzano Moreno, a Spanish historian specializing in Al-Andalus, and Diana Darke, a Middle East cultural writer, will discuss historical approaches and resources. Moderator Mishal Husain is a BBC journalist.
Razi Ahmed, the LLF’s CEO, told Dawn that this year’s festival, inspired by Jalal’s book, comprises professors from 12 nations besides Pakistan and focuses on enlightenment.
He stated the session after the keynote presentation would examine literature and history and how illumination may replace intolerance.
Punjabi and Urdu poets like Iftikhar Arif and Fatima Hasan will fly from Islamabad and Karachi to teach writing. Additionally, an Urdu mushaira would preserve the rich cultural history of Urdu literature to make it a wholesome experience for all.
The Pakistani architecture show will focus on urban solutions for Lahore, Ahmed said. He said there will be four simultaneous courses from Friday to Sunday, plus a British Council-supported reading circle.
Razi said that the LLF has inspired young people to study and learn about our literary tradition, global voices, and other cultures and people to become more enlightened and accepting. He noted that it helped UNESCO name Lahore ‘the City of Literature’.
He said that each literary festival in Lahore had its own relevance and that having them back-to-back did not diminish their importance.
Another session will feature BBC journalist Mishal Husain, art historians F.S. Aijazuddin and Susan Stronge, and French author Lyane Guillaume, who wrote Jahanara about Shahjahan’s daughter.
International writers are sharing their experiences in Berlin, Athens, and Lahore. Berlin-based David Wagner, author of Lives and Four Apples, Greece-based fiction writer and podcast host Sofka Zinovieff, and Pakistani English-language novelists Mohsin Hamid and Osama Siddique are among them. Omar Shahid Hamid and other Pakistani writers including Awais Khan will attend the festival.
Experts will explore feminist climate justice and sustainable living under the climate catastrophe in special environmental forums. A conversation on artists and activists’ roles in the climate catastrophe will feature Ravi river advocates Nadia Jamil, Samiya Mumtaz, and Abuzar Madhu.
Palestinian professor of media practices at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies Azza El-Hassan will discuss how colonial violence changes visual objects and how societies and cultures view their own pictures. El-Hassan makes documentaries. Hira Wasti Ahmed, creator and editor of Muslim Left New Print Magazine Acacia, will also attend this workshop.
This year’s LLF schedule includes Punjabi literature sessions with Nain Sukh, Zubair Ahmed, Zahid Hasan, Sughra Sadaf, and Rai Muhammad Nasir and Urdu literature sessions with Iftikhar Arif, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Fatima Hasan, Nomanul Haq, Rafaqat Hayat, and Sheeba Alam.
The festival will include Noorul Huda Shah, Yasmeen Hammed, Neelum Ahmad Bashir, and Sofia Baidar discussing Urdu women writers.
A seminar on identification will feature Asghar Nadeem Syed and Sughra Sadaf.
An elite group of poets, including Iftikhar Arif, Yasmeen Hameed, and Abbas Tabish, will attend the Urdu mushaira.
In another session on women writers, Feryal Gohar will discuss with international authors.
International Western authors including Fatimah Asghar and Jessica Bruder will explore AI’s merits and cons. Two sessions with Sri Lankan authors will discuss literature. Portuguese author and journalist Teresa Nicolau will appear in two LLF sessions on separate days.
