(Top row from left) Namita Gokhale, Paul Mcveigh, Sharmila Tagore, Shobha De, (second row) Tony Joseph, William Dalrymple, Manu S Pillai, Jeffrey Gettleman
Doha: Renowned authors Shobha De, William Dalrymple, Manu S Pillai, Jeffrey Gettleman and Tony Joseph will be in Qatar next month for the first edition of JLF Doha.
Being held for the first time in the region, the Doha edition of Jaipur Literature Festival will take place at Qatar National Library from December 12 to 14.
Synonymous with the greatest literary show on Earth, the JLF Doha will feature renowned literary figures.
One of the widely read columnist from India, Shobha De has written extensively on India's socio-cultural-political contours for over four decades. William Dalrymple has penned many books and has won the Wolfson Prize for History, Scottish Book of the Year Award and the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize.
Tony Joseph is known for the award-winning book Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From, while Manu S Pillai is the author of The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore.
Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Gettleman, who is The New York Times's South Asia bureau chief based in New Delhi, is also one of the speakers.
Some of the other names listed on its website who will be in the country for the festival include Asma Khan who's cookbook Asma's Indian Kitchen won in the UK category for food publishing in Indian cuisine at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards; popular Indian actress Sharmila Tagore who was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award in 2012; The Polari First Novel Prize winner and co-founder of London Short Story Festival Paul McVeigh; and co-director of JLF and Bhutan Literature Festival Namita Gokhale.
The other speakers at the JLF Doha include Georgetown University in Qatar Dean and author of An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy Ahmad Dallal, author of Aidan Snow thrillers Alex Shaw, one of the 75 Most Influential Women of Turkey and author of novels, short stories Buket Uzuner; associate professor at Qatar University Kaltam Jabor M Al-Kuwari and Founding Deal of College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad bin Khalifa University Amal al-Malki.
More speakers are expected to be announced in the coming few days.
Registration for the festival, that allows access to the festival, session venues, book shop, and art installation spaces, is already open and can be done through JLF Website.
The event will be an opportunity for the people of Qatar to attend a diverse line-up of literary events and for emerging and established writers, poets and artists in Qatar to share their achievements and perspectives with the world.
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