The sixteenth edition of the renowned Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF) was unveiled at the Oxford Bookstore, Park Street in Kolkata.

The event was graced by eminent guests like Abhijit Banerjee, Winner of the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Dr. Anuradha Lohia, Scientist and Former Vice Chancellor, Presidency University, Cheyenne Olivier, Illustrator of the book ‘Chhaunk’, Anjum Katyal, Director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Swagat Sengupta, CEO, Apeejay Oxford Bookstores, and Neeta Sreedharan, Programming Head, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival. 

The highlight of the AKLF curtain raiser announcement was the exclusive launch of Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee’s Chhaunk: On Food, Economics, and Society published by Juggernaut. The author and illustrator, Cheyenne Olivier were in discussion with Dr. Anuradha Lohia.

The festival is scheduled to take place on the 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th of January 2025, featuring various sessions across multiple venues throughout these dates. Allen Park will serve as the central hub, Poetry Café will be hosted at Alliance Française du Bengale, while the Oxford Junior Literary Festival (OJLF), will be held at the Oxford Bookstore.

AKLF 2025 boasts an impressive lineup of speakers, with more than 120 writers gracing the festival. Notable names include Akhil Katyal, Akshat Gupta, Dr. Alka Pande, Anand Neelakantan, Anuja Chandramouli, Anita Agnihotri, Ankita Konwar, Aparna Vaidik, Arunava Sinha, Ashis Nandy, Ashis Ray, Chinmoy Guha, Devi Kar, Ira Mukhoty, Jael Silliman, Jayanta Sengupta, Kunal Basu, M K Raina, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Milind Soman, Monideepa Banerjie, Neelima Adhar Dalmia, Neha Dixit, Nusrat F Jafri, Pinaki De, Prayaag Akbar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ramachandra Guha, Rana Safvi, Ruchir Joshi, Sagarika Ghose, Salil Tripathi, Samar Jodha, Samrat Choudhury, Sandip Roy, Shabnam Minwalla, Shalini Modi, Shehnaz Treasury, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, Shobhaa De, Sudeep Chakravarti, Sugata Bose, Sumantra Ghoshal, Sunita Kohli, William Dalrymple, Ila Arun, Nitish Bhushan, Priyanka S Kaintura and Riddhi Bahl among others.

The much-anticipated shortlist announcement for the 10th edition of the esteemed Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize will take place in this edition. The festival will provide readers with a unique preview of the next literary treasures, including the first look at Ruchir Joshi’s eagerly awaited new book.

Priyanka Dutta