Gateway LitFest or GLF is an annual

literary festival A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings ...

held at NCPA (2) in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. This is the first of the kind event to celebrate the writings and writers in Indian languages. Gateway LitFest has been conceptualised as a national-level platform for the

regional language * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority La ...

writers to help them share ideas and to facilitate integration of various regional languages into the mainstream literature.

Origin and founders

Gateway LitFest was conceptualised in 2014. The first edition of the literary festival took place in 2015. Mohan Kakanadan, Sabarinath M, Joseph Alexander and KJ Bennychan are the promoters of the festival. The festival is jointly organised by Mumbai-based Malayalam publication `Kaakka’ and communication consultancy Passion 4 Communication Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai.

Advisory Panel

The advisory panel of the fest is headed by

Adoor Gopalakrishnan Adoor Gopalakrishnan (born 3 July 1941) is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer and is regarded as one of the most notable and renowned filmmakers in India. With the release of his first feature film '' Swayamvaram'' (1972), G ...

. Other members in the panel are

Pratibha Ray Pratibha Ray (born 21 January 1944) is an Indian academic and writer of Odia language, Odia-language novels and stories. For her contribution to the Indian literature, Ray received the Jnanpith Award in 2011. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan ...

Subodh Sarkar Subodh Sarkar (; born 1958 in Krishnanagar) is a Bengali poet, writer and editor, and a reader in English literature at City College, Kolkata. He is a recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award. Biography Subodh Sarkar, born in 195 ...

, Sitanshu Yashachandra,

Laxman Gaikwad Laxman Maruti Gaikwad (born 23 July 1952, Dhanegaon, Latur District, Maharashtra) is a famous Marathi novelist known for his best work ''The Branded'', a translation of his autobiographical novel ''Uchalaya'' (also known as ''Ucalaya''). This no ...

, K Satchidanandan, Sachin Ketkar, S Prasannarajan,

Bose Krishnamachari Bose Krishnamachari (born 1963) is an Indian painter and art curator based in Mumbai, India. Biography Krishnamachari was born in 1963 in the village of Mangattukara, near Angamaly, Kerala. He attended the Government Higher Secondary School ...

, Uma Da Cunha and C Gouridasan Nair.

History

2015

The first edition was held on 14 and 15 February 2015 at NCPA, Mumbai. The fest focused on seven languages –

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, Odia and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

. Around 50 authors from 15 languages attended the festival as speakers. The attendees included

, Ravi Subramanian, K Satchidanandan, Sitanshu Yashaschandra,

, Leena Manimakalai, Govind Nhalani, Benyamin, Hemant Divatte,

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

, Malika Sheikh, Sachin Ketkar, EV Ramakrishnan, Satish Solankurkar, Kureeppuzha Sreekumar, Kalpetta Narayan, VR Sudhish and Manasi.

2016

The second edition of Gateway Litfest was held at NCPA, Mumbai on 20 and 21 February 2016. Around 70 writers from 15 languages participated in the festival. (18) The theme was `the contemporary regional literature landscape.’ The speakers included

Sitakant Mahapatra Sitakant Mahapatra (born 17 September 1937) is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has held ''ex officio'' posts such as the ...

, Sitanshu Yashaschandra,

Anand Neelakantan Anand Neelakantan is an Indian novelist, columnist, screenwriter, and public speaker. One of India's best selling authors, He is known for writing mythological fiction and has authored 16 books in English and one in Malayalam. He has been writin ...

Ananth Narayan Mahadevan Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (born 28 August 1950) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and an actor. Career Anant along with Sanjay Pawar received the National Award (2010) for the Best Screenplay and Dialogues for the successful Marathi m ...

, Anitha Thampi, B.Jeyamohan, Balakrishnan, Binayak Bandyopadhyay, Binita Mallik, Desmond L Kharmawphlang, Gurbir Singh, Hema Naik,

Hemant Divate Hemant Divate is a Marathi poet, editor, translator and publisher based in Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial ...

, Ibomcha Yumlembam Singh, Jayant Pawar, Jerry Pinto, Koushiki Dasgupta, K S Raman, K V Maniraj,

Leena Manimekalai Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and several films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films. She has been recognised with participation, mentio ...

, Madhavi Narsalay,

Madhupal Madhupal Kannambathu is an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter who works in Malayalam cinema. Madhupal made his acting debut with '' Kashmeeram'' in 1994 and his directorial debut with '' Thalappavu'' (2008), which was about Arikkad Varghe ...

, Maya Rahi, M G Radhakrishnan, Mustansir Dalvi,

N S Madhavan N. S. Madhavan (born 9 September 1948) is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his novel, ''Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal'' (Litanies of the Dutch Battery) and a host of short stories such as ''Higuita'', ''Thiruthu'', ''Chulai ...

Paresh Mokashi Paresh Mokashi (born 6 February 1969) is an Indian Film director, filmmaker, producer, actor and Theatre director-producer; working predominantly in Marathi cinema and Marathi theatre. He started working as a Theatre (structure)#Basic elements ...

, Pranay Phukan, Purnachandra Hembram, Sachin Ketkar, Salkhu Majhi, Sampurna Chattarji, Sethumadhavan, Shaji Vikraman, Shefalika Verma,

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (14 December 1934 – 23 December 2024) was an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. H ...

, S Prasannarajan,

Subhash Chandran Subhash Chandran (born 1972) is a Malayalam novelist, short story writer and journalist from Kerala, India. His work includes the 2010 novel '' Manushyanu Oru Aamukham'' and the stories "Vadhakramam", "Sanmargam", "Parudeesa Nashtam" and "Gupt ...

, Sunil Sukthankar, T K Muralidharan,

Udaya Tara Nayar Udaya Tara Nayar is a film journalist in India. Early life Udaya Tara Nayar was born in Trivandrum on 15 August 1947 as the fifth child of Shri S Ayyappan Pillai, Commissioner of Trivandrum Corporation, and Jebalabai. She had her initial schoo ...

, and Zaman Azurdah.

2017

Third edition, held at NCPA in Mumbai on 25–26 February 2017, was based on the theme: `the contemporary face of Indian Literature.’ The main speakers included

Anjali Menon Anjali Menon is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Anjali has won international, national and state awards for her work and is best known for her feature films ''Manjadikuru,'' '' Kerala Cafe' ...

, Anju Makhija, Chandana Dutt,

Damodar Mauzo Damodar Mauzo (born 1 August 1944) is an Indian short story writer, novelist, critic, and screenwriter in Konkani language, Konkani. He was awarded the 57th Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honour, in 2022, Sahitya Akademi Award in 19 ...

, Desmond Kharmawaflang, Desraj Kali, Haladhar Nag,

, KR Meera,

Kumar Ketkar Kumar Ketkar is an Indian writer, politician and former journalist. He was the Chief Editor of Dainik Divya Marathi. He had started his journalistic career with ''The Economic Times''. He has also been the editor in chief of Marathi newspaper ...

, M Mukundan, Malika Amar Sheikh, Mangesh Kale, Mihir Chitre, Mini Krishnan,

Parichay Das Parichay Das (born ''Ravindra Nath Srivastava''), is an Indian writer, essayist, poet and editor of contemporary Bhojpuri poetry. He is Professor and Head, Department of Hindi, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara Deemed University. He writes in Bhojpuri an ...

s, Ramesh Suryawanshi, S Prasannarajan, Sachin Ketkar, Salil Wagh, Salma Rukkaiah, Sanjeev Khandekar,

Sharankumar Limbale Sharankumar Limbale (born June 1, 1956) is a Marathi language author, poet and literary critic. He has penned more than 40 books. His best known work is his autobiography ''Akkarmashi'' published in 1984. ''Akkarmashi'' has been translated to sev ...

, Shafi Shauq, Thilothama Majumdar and Vasanta Balan.

2018

The main theme of the fourth edition, held on 22, 23 & 24 February 2018 at NCPA in

was Celebration of Women Power in Indian literature and over 50 women writers were speakers. Around 50

women writers Women have made significant contributions to literature since the earliest written texts. Women have been at the forefront of textual communication since early civilizations. History Among the first known female writers is Enheduanna; she is al ...

from 17 languages participated in the festival. The names of writers and speakers who attended the festival include

Aparna Sen Aparna Sen (; ) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has received several accolades as an actress and filmmaker, including nine National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards East ...

Shobhaa De Shobha De (''née'' Rajadhyaksha, formerly Kilachand; born 7 January 1948) is an Indian novelist and columnist. She is best known for her depiction of socialites and sex in her works of fiction, for which she has been referred to as the "Jackie ...

, Anju Makhija, Devika J,

Indu Menon Indu Menon is an acclaimed Indian novelist and short story writer. She was awarded the Central Sahitya Award for Young Writers in 2014, and was recognized by India Today as one of India's Upcoming Writers in 2015. In 2005, India Today also sel ...

, Kanaka Ha, Karthika VK, Nirupama Dutt, Prof. Challapalli Swaroopa Rani, Tarannum Riyaz,

Bina Paul Bina Paul (born January 28, 1961), also known by her married name Bina Paul Venugopal, is an Indian film editor who works mainly in Malayalam-language films. A graduate of the University of Delhi, she completed a course on film editing from the ...

, Baby Haldar,

Neena Kulkarni Neena Kulkarni (née Joshi) is an Indian actress who is known for her work on Marathi and Hindi films, television and stage productions. She has received several awards including a National Film Award, Maharashtra State Film Awards and three F ...

, Nalini Jameela, Nitu Bhattacharya, Patricia Mukhim, Pradnya Daya Pawar, Jacinta Kerketta, Aswathy Sasikumar, Manushi, Nighat Sahiba, Rekha Sachdev Pohani, Mercy Margaret, Anuradha S, Indira Das, Kamal Vora, Malini Nair, Meena Menon, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, Prasanna Ramaswamy, Rana Ayyub, Rokeya Roy, Sanskritirani Desai, Sushama Deshpande, Udayan Thakkar, Chandrahas Choudhury, Sanjukta Wagh, Sunil Mehta, Purva Naresh, Kaartikeya Bajpai,

Dileep Jhaveri Dileep Manubhai Jhaveri (born 3 April 1943) is an Indian Gujarati-language poet, playwright, translator, editor and physician from Mumbai, India. He is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award (2024). Biography Dileep Jhaveri was born on 3 ...

, Dhruv Sharma and Professor Neeti Singh.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.gatewaylitfest.com/
Organizers Website
Literary festivals in India 2015 establishments in Maharashtra