Kolkata International Book Fair is not just an event for the residents of Bengal, it is an emotion. In all probability, there isn't a person living here who hasn't been to this fair ground. You may be wondering aren't there any bookshops here that people may visit? Why is it that a fair, that too on books, has gained such prominence? To this, the answer is, in spite of the numerous stores strewn across the city, the diversity and range available in this fair is found nowhere. 

People flow in from all parts of the world to experience the Kolkata International Book Fair, as it is a celebration of Literature. Literature of  not just one, but a plethora of languages is honoured here. This brings me to the point of the Kolkata Literature Festival, hosted by the book fair.

Starting on 2nd of February, this Literature Festival is a three day spree for all litterateurs. Authors from 10 countries namely France, Spain, India, Bangladesh,Scotland, Wales, Australia, Egypt, USA and Cost Rica, will be interviewed, engage in debate and give the audience an insight into the writer's world. The two most eminent, youth-inspiring authors of India, Chetan Bhagat and Durjoy Dutta will be there to talk about how they popularised their work and turned into bestselling authors. Foreign authors like Lin Anderson, Doug Johnstone, Natalie Holborrow, Khaled Al Khamissi and many more will be speaking about their writing and their readers.

Some interesting subjects will be discussed, like the common love for crime in both Scotland and Kolkata, what is considered as good literature, coming to terms with one's sexuality, increasing trend in films being adapted from books, importance of translation and the rise in parallel literature amongst others. 

This year's festival is also going to witness a fascinating and thought-provoking project called VCV, which will require an author exchange between Wales and Kolkata. These authors will be writing short stories about their experiences in the new environment and new culture, which will be published in both the mentioned cities.

As we all know music and dance are an integral part of culture also, and they have their contributions towards literature too. So, veterans like Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Dohar and Dona Ganguly will be performing for the audience on the first, second and third day of the festival respectively. Plus Debojyoti Misra, a renowned Music Director, will accompany Subodh Sarkar and Neel Hall to put some poetry in motion.

All in all, the Kolkata Literary Festival which will be inaugurated by the French Ambassador and Costa Rica representative, as this year is thematically based on Costa Rica, promises to pack in a punch. 

To view the entire schedule, click on the following link.

http://www.kolkatabookfair.net/klf-2017-schedule/

A bonus for the readers, bloggers or book enthusiasts, is that they can contribute their blog posts to the official site of Kolkata International Book Fair 2017!! You can also post in social media handles using #KLF17 and stay in touch with the updates following this hashtag.