Mumbai: Ninth edition of Tata Literature Live begins today

Ninth edition of Tata Literature Live begins on Thursday. (Representational)

“When we say ‘literature’, we mean it in the widest possible sense. In fact, saying we’re a ‘literature festival’ is a bit of a misnomer, because what we really are is a festival of ideas,” says Anil Dharker, the founder and director of Tata Literature Live!, the Mumbai LitFest.

Not surprisingly then, the festival, which begins on Thursday, will open with a talk by Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, about whether it is possible to understand past societies based on the objects they leave behind. “We have so many different things happening at the festival and there is something for every kind of interest, from poetry to science to politics. We try not to second-guess our audience, because they constantly surprise us. For example, last year, when we hosted British writer A C Grayling, we were surprised to find that a large number of readers in the city were already very familiar with his work,” says Dharker.

Over four days, the festival will play host to more than 100 writers, thinkers and performers from India and around the world, like Alan Hollinghurst, Lionel Shriver, Stephen Daldry, Jayanta Mahapatra, Kalpana Swaminathan and T M Krishna. As part of the festival’s plan of regular expansion, in addition to the National Centre for Performing Arts in Nariman Point and Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, a new venue has been added for this edition, Title Waves and St Pauls Institute of Communication Education in Bandra. A key conversation that the festival hopes to contribute to this year is about gender.