LAHORE: After holding its successful edition at the Alhamra Art Centre last month, the Lahore Literary Festival continues with the hybrid (online) festival with a series of conversations on Friday (today) and Saturday.

The highlight of the online conversations are the 2021 Man Booker Prize winner South African novelist Damon Galgut, Mughal art historian Ebba Koch, Byzantine scholar Judith Herrin, activist and writer Rafia Zakaria and other prominent names from the world of literature and art. Half of the sessions will be released on Friday (today) at 1pm while the remaining half the next day, same time, on the facebook page of the LLF and its YouTube channel.

Speaking to Dawn, LLF chief operating officer Razi Ahmed said, “Given the uncertainty around global events and the spike of the coronavirus cases in January we had to, in the interest of public health, defer the dates of the festival by a whole month. On the side of caution in case a physical event weren’t to happen and to allay concerns of delegates in Covid high-risk countries, we had adopted a hybrid approach.”

He added that curating the weekend festival gave the LLF more flexibility to work around authors’ schedules and also effectively enhance our audiences to the millennials online.

Mr Razi said for future editions, the LLF would aim at a blended approach between in-person, live and recorded sessions.

“Like our in-person talks at the LLF, this weekend’s offering will become part of the LLF archives to further enrich public discourses and offer insights into literary innovations by some of the leading names of our times,” he added.

On Friday, in a session titled The Promise, named after the Booker Prize winner novelist, Kamila Shamsie would have a conversation with Galgut. Varda Dar would be in conversation with London-based artist Tine Cin. Sikandar Bizenjo would engage Nilofer Afridi Qazi, the author of Culinary Tales of Balochistan, exploring the Baloch heritage through food. Ameena Saiyid would hold a talk with Jaipur Literature Festival co-director Namita Gokhale, the author of the Blind Matriarch. Vienna-based Mughal art historian, Ebba Koch would speak about Emperor Jahangir’s India: Symbolism of the Hiran Minar.

The talks with the rest of the authors would be made online on Saturday (tomorrow). They include British novelist Imran Mahmood about his debut novel, You Don’t Know Me, shortlisted for the Glass Bell Award in 2018. Nayab Jan would talk to feminist, journalist and lawyer Rafia Zakaria, the author of Against White Feminism. Ira Makhoty, who has written the Begums of the Mughal Empire and Daughters of the Sun among others, would give her replies to Aneela Shah. Rachel Yoder would discuss her debut novel, Nightbitch, with Eman Omar.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2022