Sahitya Akademi Festival of Letters (pattern)

The Sahitya Akademi is an organisation recognised as India's "National Academy of Letters", dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. The Sahitya Akademi organises national and regional workshops and seminars; provides research and travel grants to authors; publishes books and journals, including the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature; and presents the annual Sahitya Akademi Award of INR.

Language

Multilingual

Genres

general lit

Format

in-person

Next edition

TBA 2027 (annual New Delhi Akademi festival; confirm sahitya-akademi.gov.in)

Author participation

Programme via Sahitya Akademi; strong regional-language author tracks

Audience

It is the purpose of this Akademi to recognise men of achievement in letters, to encourage men of promise in letters, to educate public taste and to improve standards of literature and literary criticism."

Language notes

Listed working language: Multilingual

Genre notes

Primary focus: general lit

Programme

The Sahitya Akademi organises national and regional workshops and seminars; provides research and travel grants to authors; publishes books and journals, including the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature; and presents the annual Sahitya Akademi Award of INR.

Past guests

Aldous Huxley, Martin Wickremesinghe, Jean Guehenno, Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, Isaiah Berlin, Louis Untermeyer as well as Amrita Pritam, Ramdhari Sinha Dinkar, Rayaprolu Subba Rao, Premendra Mitra. In 1991, Khushwant Singh for ignoring eminent writers, awarding below-par writers, sub-standard literary works

Past editions

1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018

Festival site