I’ve always been curious about the Jaipur Lit Fest, the greatest literary show on earth as they call it. So I visited the fest with a friend this year. The venue was excessively crowded with the majority of guests being young people below the age of 25. Not surprising then that this literary fest stands out as a fashion destination, boot haven and selfie paradise. The star authors of the sessions I managed to watch included Michael Ondaatje, Amy Tan, Joshua Ferris, Jeet Thayyil, Amitava Kumar, Manu Joseph, Leila Slimani, and Janice Pariat among a few. Dissent, freedom of expression, the murder of Gauri Lankesh, Scandinavian noir, singletons, me-machines, the Ganges, and healthcare were the subjects of the sessions I managed to watch.
I loved ur take on the lit fest, I love to listen writers and their experiences, but throught the YouTube, which is my saviour. It is so good to hear the experiences which led to writing a particular story and thought processes involved and how over the years their writing still is relevant and alive among passionate readers.
Thanks so much! Watching the fest online makes perfect sense as the venues are far too crowded and you can never catch all the sessions anyway as they take place simultaneously. One visit is a good idea just to get a feel of the venue and see the writers in person. For a book lover, this is manna. Thank you for visiting!
I’ll probably stay away from those crowds for now, but very nice post, Neelima 🙂 Esp enjoyed “I’ve often read Michael Ondaatje’s books and wondered how he has retained poetry in prose — how do you write a book and sustain the poetry after repeated revisions?”
My response is, in those too-rare moments when it happens, luck & lots of attempts, with big dosages of the former, lol!
Since many years of trying to follow form only keeps me straddling between various folks’ druthers, I’ve stayed away from anything new for awhile & getting to the stage where I began, just write..let the format evolve as it will, and finally just enjoy the process again 🙂
Much luck and good wishes on ur own work, Neelima; glad I saw ur post!
Adan
Thank you Felipe! So happy you stopped by! Like you said, luck has a major role to play in getting the flow of your chapters right! Something should click…which is why I like the word ‘muse’. It’s so elusive most of the time, but so necessary for the story to shine. Wish you all the best with your writing too!