Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters to begin from 2 February
MBIFL’23 will be held in Thiruvananthapuram from 2 to 5 February.
Mumbai: The Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters was started in 2018. After the critically and popularly acclaimed staging of three editions, the pandemic disrupted this signature event in the cultural calendar of India. Now, 2023 will witness a rebirth with renewed vigour and vitality.
The latest version will be held in Thiruvananthapuram from 2 to 5 February. MBIFL’23 will provide a platform where discussions on the arts, gender, history, media, politics, religion, science, sports, technology, and other contemporary issues will lend a spicy tang to four days and nights.
"A galaxy of universally renowned writers and speakers will grace this iteration, including last year’s Nobel laureate Abdul Razak Gurna and Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunathilake, from neighbouring Sri Lanka," revealed festival curator Sabin Iqbal.
"The theme of ‘Ka’, as it is known locally after the first consonant in our mother tongue Malayalam, is ‘Shadows of history. Lights of the future,’" said festival director Mayura Shreyams Kumar.
"We chose this particular trope, conflating it with our voyage through a century of rendering yeomen service to society," added Mathrubhumi, director of digital business.
MBIFL chairman M. V. Shreyams Kumar explained the rationale behind the festival of letters: "Being at the forefront of all progressive movements in our state, we deemed it incumbent on us to celebrate the role of letters in contributing to the moral arc of a nation, by conceiving the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters."
Mathrubhumi's managing director went on to say: "In our centenary year, it is also a tribute to the vision of my late father, the writer M. P. Veerendra Kumar, who guided our corporate fortunes for more than four decades as the chairman and managing director of Mathrubhumi."
