India’s premier literary institution working under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Sahitya Akademi is organizing its annual ‘Festival of Letters’ at Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi from 7th March 2025 to 12th March 2025.
Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, is the central institution for literary dialogue, publication and promotion in the country and the only institution that undertakes literary activities in 24 Indian languages, including English.
Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will inaugurate the festival. Eminent English Playwright Mahesh Dattani will be the Chief Guest of the Award Ceremony. Here, the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Awards in 23 languages will be presented. Eminent Writer and Scholar Sri Upamanyu Chatterjee will deliver this year’s Samvatsar Lecture.
Asia’s Largest Literature Festival
About 700 writers from different parts of the country, representing more than 50 languages, are participating in the festival that spans over 100 sessions.
The theme of the festival will be Indian Literary Traditions, and a National Seminar on the topic featuring eminent thinkers and writers, will be organized during the last three days of the festival.
The festival will feature Young Writers, Women Writers, Dalit Writers, Writers from North East, Tribal writers and poets, LGBTQ writers and poets along with many eminent writers, translators, publishers, poets and distinguished personalities from different walks of life and Festival of Letters continue its status as India’s Most Inclusive Literature Festival since 1985.
A daylong program for children, Spin A Tale, will be organized on the final day of the festival. Throughout the festival, there will be presentations, readings and discussions by eminent authors, poets, translators, publishers and critics on a wide range of subjects.
On three evenings, cultural performances by eminent artists like Rakesh Chaurasia (flute recital), Nalini Joshi (Hindustani Vocal) and Fouzia Dastango and Ritesh Yadav (Dastan-e-Mahabharata) will be organized.
The Festival of Letters is open and free for all the literary lovers and those who wish to taste the flavor of Indian’s longest running Literature Festival.
Sahitya Akademy
The Sahitya Akademi was formally inaugurated by the Government of India on 12 March 1954. The Government of India Resolution, which set forth the constitution of the Akademi, described it as a national organization to work actively for the development of Indian letters and to set high literary standards, to foster and co-ordinate literary activities in all the Indian languages and to promote through them all the cultural unity of the country. Though set up by the Government, the Akademi functions as an autonomous organization. It was registered as a society on 7 January 1956, under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Akademi gives 24 awards annually to literary works in the languages it has recognized and an equal number of awards to literary translations from and into the languages of India, both after a year-long process of scrutiny, discussion and selection. It also gives special awards called Bhasha Samman to significant contribution to the languages not formally recognized by the Akademi as also for contribution to classical and medieval literature.
It has also system of electing eminent writers as Fellows and Honorary Fellows and has also established fellowship in the names of Dr. Anand Coomaraswamy and Prem Chand. The Akademi has launched Centers for Translation in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Delhi, and an Archive of Indian Literature in Delhi.
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