Much-awaited Jaipur Literature Festival 2026 from Jan 15-19

The Jaipur Literature Festival 2026, presented by Vedanta, is set to welcome audiences to its most ambitious edition yet. The world’s largest literary gathering will host more than 300 sessions and over 500 speakers from India and around the globe from January 15 to 19.

Spread across the Festival’s iconic venues – Front Lawn, Charbagh, Surya Mahal, Durbar Hall, and Baithak, this year’s programme spans literature, history, politics, science, technology, climate action, global affairs, poetry, and performance, creating a dynamic and immersive experience for all attendees.

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This year’s literary highlights are rooted in powerful new fiction and bold, incisive narratives. Booker Prize – winning author Kiran Desai will discuss her acclaimed and Booker-shortlisted novel “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny”, a tender and sweeping exploration of class, race, modern love, identity, and the quiet radicalism that threads everyday lives.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi will discuss his books –- “The Undying Light” and “India and Her Futures” — offering a deeply personal and razor-sharp reflection of India’s journey from Partition to the present and the uncertain paths ahead.

International Booker Prize 2025 winner Banu Mushtaq will discuss “Heart Lamp”, her searing collection on the inner worlds and quiet rebellions of Muslim women in southern India.

Sahitya Akademi Awardee K.R. Meera will explore her genre-bending oeuvre, which interrogates power, desire, and the contours of the female experience.

Global icon Stephen Fry, in conversation with Anish Gawande, brings his trademark wit and erudition to A Bit of Fry, reflecting on a creative life spanning stage, screen, literature, and comedy.

Chess legend Viswanathan Anand shares the inspirations and insights behind Lightning Kid, revisiting the early brilliance that shaped his journey to becoming India’s first Grandmaster.

The programme features anticipated international voices. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Percival Everett, in conversation with Chiki Sarkar, will discuss James, his bold, piercing reimagination of Huckleberry Finn.

Spiritual guide and bestselling author Gaur Gopal Das explores fulfilment, ambition, and mindful living in You Can Have It All.

Leading nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar reintroduces ancient Indian wisdom through her new book Mitāhāra, while celebrated comedian Vir Das reflects on identity, mischief, and resilience through his memoir The Outsider. Booker Prize–winning author Richard Flanagan brings his profound reflections on how the past commingles with history to shape existence and memory through Question 7.

Jimmy Wales, Co-Founder of Wikipedia, speaks on The Seven Rules of Trust, exploring how trust, transparency, and open collaboration shape the future of digital knowledge ecosystems.

Audiences will also attend sessions that celebrate visual and poetic storytelling. Yoshitoki Ōima, Ujan Dutta and Abeer Kapoor will examine the global resonance of manga and graphic novels. The delicate yet dexterous craft of poetry will be in the spotlight through a landmark conversation between Alice Oswald and Jeet Thayil, and a powerful reading centered on landscape, memory, and resistance featuring Oswald, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, and Tamim Al-Barghouti.

In a gripping session on her climate-crisis novel A Guardian and a Thief, Megha Majumdar will explore survival and moral complexity in a near-future Calcutta, while Ian Hislop will bring incisive humor and political satire through Private Eye.

Global luminaries including Nobel laureates, historians, and innovators such as Esther Duflo, Anne Applebaum, Stephen Greenblatt, Tim Berners-Lee, and Fredrik Logevall will participate alongside prominent Indian literary figures including Sudha Murty, Amish, Shobhaa De, Prasoon Joshi, Navtej Sarna, Anuradha Roy, Jeet Thayil, Ashwin Sanghi, Gurcharan Das, and Anand Neelakantan.

The Festival’s programme will be further enriched by a range of conversations and performances that expand upon its core themes. Safeena Hussain, the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, will share insights on education, equity, and social change drawn from her deep experience in the development sector.

Ali Eslami, an artist, also serving as a research scientist at Google DeepMind, contributing to the advancement of Gemini’s search, agentic, and reasoning capabilities will bring cutting-edge perspectives to sessions exploring digital creativity and the intersections of art and emerging technologies.

Namita Gokhale, Co-Founder & Festival Co-Director, Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The Jaipur Literature Festival 2026 has the same spontaneity and spunk that has marked its every edition since 2008. The world is our oyster as we examine history and the future, politics and the present, and the spectrum of human life told through prose and poetry, fiction and documentary narratives.

William Dalrymple, Co-Founder & Festival Co-Director, Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The Jaipur Literature Festival has, from its inception, stood at the confluence of literary brilliance, great scholarship, and the most exciting currents of human thought from around the globe; and we have always presented these ingredients with passion, and wit and flare.

“Each year we try to throw open a wider window onto the world, but the 2026 edition may well be our most ambitious yet. We are bringing together some of the finest minds on the planet – Nobel laureates, pioneering scientists and ground breaking historians, philosophers and novelists, poets and performers, in a spirit of genuine intellectual encounter.”

Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts & Producer, Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “The 2026 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival reflects our continuing commitment to creating platforms where ideas can spark, evolve, and travel across borders. With speakers representing more than 25 countries, the festival is a testament to the power of cultural exchange and the enduring value of public discourse.”