LAHORE, April 1: The Oxford University Press has announced holding of first two-day Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) from April 30, following the success of the Karachi Literature Festival during the past four years.

In a statement issued here on Monday, OUP managing director Ameena Saiyid said the ILF was promoting the book reading to enrich minds. “We want to take the festival to other parts of the country so that more people get an opportunity to celebrate the written word and be exposed to some of the finest Pakistani writers and their works.

Based on this idea, Ms Saiyid said the ILF would aim at providing the writers and people of North Pakistan a forum to interact, exchange ideas, and engage in dialogues, discussions, and readings,” she said.

Through such literature festivals, she said, the OUP intended to create an intellectual space in which the diversity and pluralism in Pakistans society was expressed by authors from traditions both within and beyond Pakistans borders.

She said the ILF would feature debates, discussions, interviews, talks, mushaira, dastangoi, a book fair, book launches, readings and signing. Some of the notable authors who are expected to participated in ILF are: Mohammed Hanif, Muneeza Shamsie, Kishwar Naheed, Iftikhar Arif, Amjad Islam Amjad, Tariq Rahman, Intizar Husain, Mustansar Hussain Tarar and Abdullah Hussain.