The 15th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), one of Pakistan’s most anticipated cultural events, kicks off this week on Friday, February 16 at the Beach Luxury Hotel.
This year’s literary festival promises to be a lively celebration of literature, art, and intellectual discourse.
This year’s KLF will be held under the topic ‘Sustainability: Words Changing Mindsets,’ with over 200 local and international speakers representing eight nations.
The festival will see them participate in 75 different seminars spanning a varied variety of issues, including literature, economy, environment, education, and current affairs, while at least 25 books will be launched alongside engaging activities such as acting.
OUP Pakistan Managing Director Arshad Saeed Husain emphasized the festival’s function as a worldwide bridge linking hearts and minds, encouraging attendees to “participate in conversations that inspire change and challenge perspectives.”
“The goal is not simply to discuss these vital challenges, but also to think on potential solutions. “I hope that is what intellectuals, scholars, and thought leaders will do over the next three days,” he stated.
Husain added that the event demonstrates the power of the written word and its critical role in molding our communities.
The KLF’s first day will be available to the public and will include keynote lectures by notable luminaries such as Pakistani architect and activist Arif Hasan, as well as a British-Palestinian lawyer.The gifted Nighat Choudhry will perform Faiz’s poetry after a reading by writer Selma Dabbagh.
Over the weekend, the festival will feature distinguished speakers such as Jordanian academic Joseph Massad, political scientist Dr Martin Axmann, award-winning journalist Hasnain Kazim, acclaimed novelist and writer Mohsin Hamid, French journalist and novelist Kenize Mourad, fiction writer Claire Chambers, poets Michael Cirelli and Ronya Othman, poets Zehra Nigah and Kishwar Naheed, short story writer Noorul Huda Shah, and novelist Bina Shah, among others.
There will be sessions on Urdu poetry, sustainability, political reforms, and a grand Mushaira led by Pakistani poet Iftikhar Arif.
