LAHORE: The ninth edition of the annual Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) is all set to kick off on Thursday virtually for the first time owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s festival will last four days as opposed to the usual three-day event.

The first day, Feb 18, will begin with a session, ‘Kai Chand Tha Sare Aasman’, at 2pm dedicated to the works of Shamsur Rehman Faruqi, a Delhi-based Urdu critic and playwright.

Shamim Hanfi , a Delhi-based educationist, writer and peace activist Syeda Hameed and writer and associate professor of Urdu at the Punjab University, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, will feature as panelists with moderator Harris Khalique. Book launches, titled ‘New Pakistani English Fiction’, will be held at 3:05pm with Human Rights Watch Country Director Saroop Ijaz in conversation with the author of The Verdict, Osman Haneef, while The News on Sunday staff member Wajiha Hyder will be in conversation with Saba Karim Khan, the author of Skyfall.

Another book launch at 4pm, titled ‘No-Win War: The Paradox of US-Pakistan Relations in Afghanistan’s Shadow’, will be held with Associated Press correspondent Kathy Gannon in conversation with journalist and columnist Zahid Hussain. At 4:35pm, in a book launch session, Claire Chambers, a professor of global literature at the University of York, will talk to Raza Rumi about her book, Desi Delicacies, along with writer and historian Rana Safvi, Sultana Al’ Quaiti and author and journalist Sanam Maher.

At 5:30, a book, The Lost Homestead A Lost World: Pre - Partition Memories of Sargodha, will be launched with Newsweek Pakistan Culture Editor Nelofar Bakhtyar in conversation with Marina Wheeler, a barrister and a Queen’s Counsel who specialises in public and human rights law.

Following the book launches, a discussion will be held on ‘Interpreting Maladies’ at 6:30 pm, which will be introduced by Georgina Godwin. In this session, Razia Iqbal will be in conversation with 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, the writer of The Lowland and Unaccustomed Earth. The last session of the day, the keynote address, titled ‘Mythology of Horses in Pakistan’, will be held at 8pm.

Author of over 40 books, Wendy Doniger, will trace the historical imagery and symbolism of horses in the land that constitutes today’s Pakistan.

Doniger is credited with being the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the History of Religions, from the University of Chicago. The next three days of the event will see distinguished guests, including Adeela Suleman, Nazish Ataullah, F.S. Aijazuddin, Shahid Hamid, Mehr Afshan Farooqi, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Kamila Shamsie, Ahmed Rashid, Diana Darke, Vali Nasr and Khaled Ahmed to name a few.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2021