JLF at Soneva Fushi!
Tuesday 15th of February 2022
For the first time, the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival is coming to the Maldives. JLF Soneva Fushi, a partnership between Soneva and festival producers Teamwork Arts with an inspiring program of world-renowned authors, gala celebrations, fascinating workshops, music, art, culture, and live performance. The line-up includes 30 acclaimed writers and international thought leaders. Reconnect with the joys of art, music, and literature as the Jaipur Literature Festival comes to the Maldives for the first-ever JLF Soneva Fushi from May 13 to 22, 2022.
Speakers include award-winning British-Turkish novelist, Elif Shafak; Academy Award-nominated director, Mira Nair; best-selling author and politician, Shashi Tharoor; André Aciman, The New York Times bestselling author of Call Me By Your Name and Find Me; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Mahmood Mamdani, named amongst TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World; art critic and historian, B.N. Goswamy; acclaimed investigative journalist, Patrick Radden Keefe; Huma Abedin, former Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Department of State; Former Governor of West Bengal, Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a former diplomat, Gopalkrishna Gandhi; Pavan K. Varma, the writer, and diplomat; Sahitya Akademi Award-winning author and Festival Co-Director Namita Gokhale; best-selling historian, and Festival Co-Director William Dalrymple; and diplomat and author, Vikas Swarup, whose novel Q&A became the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire on the big screen. Click here to see the biographies of the speakers.
With the intention of engaging guests in literature, along with stimulating debates, dialogue, and free speech, the event will be thorough discourse across themes that include Film and Adaptations; Politics and the World Order; Science, Innovation and the Environment; Travel Writing; History; Fiction; Poetry; Music; Miniatures; and Food and Memory.
The day to day program is already out and can be seen here on their website, but a summary of it includes; each weekend being dedicated to flagship events, including keynote addresses, gala dinners on the sand, sunset poetry cruises, live musical performances, and film screenings at Cinema Paradiso; each weekday focusing on more close-knit sessions and author discussions, as well as a range of engaging workshops where guests can unleash their own creativity, including creative arts and writing, Bollywood dancing and glassblowing
“We are so proud to host the first edition of JLF Soneva Fushi, which is also the first-ever Maldives iteration of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival,” says Sonu Shivdasani, CEO, and Co-Founder of Soneva. “The festival’s remarkable program is an opportunity to finally reconnect with the pure joy of literature and the arts, and I cannot wait to welcome the lineup of outstanding international authors to our shores.”
Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “It’s been a dream project to take JLF to Soneva Fushi in the Maldives. Our all-new edition will focus on climate crises, history, geology, fiction, and film, alongside delectable cuisine and diverse music and poetry traditions, bringing together the best of world cultures in one place that includes the sun and the sea!”
Held each year in Rajasthan’s pink city of Jaipur, the Jaipur Literature Festival is known as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’. JLF’s international extensions, which has annual iterations across global cities that include London, Belfast, New York, Colorado, Houston, Adelaide, Toronto, and Doha, are a celebration of the hope, strength, and vitality that literature imparts, showcasing South Asia’s multilingual literary heritage infused with the unique flavor of their host regions.
Interested parties can book before the 28th of February to enjoy an early bird's discount on the villa, at the official Soneva Fushi website.