66th SAARC Literature Festival to unite South Asia through words and culture

Padma Shri awardee Ajeet Cour, eminent writer and President of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL), will host the 66th SAARC Literature Festival from November 9 to 12 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, Siri Fort Institutional Area, New Delhi.

The four-day festival, open to all visitors, will run daily from 10 am to 6 pm and bring together writers, poets, scholars, artists, and cultural thinkers from across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, and Afghanistan — all SAARC nations except Pakistan — to celebrate the region’s shared creative heritage.

The festival will open on Sunday, November 9, with Madhav Kaushik, president of Sahitya Akademi, as the chief guest, and a keynote address by Prof Ashis Nandy, internationally renowned scholar. Distinguished diplomats — Mahishini Colonne (Sri Lanka), Dr Shankar Prasad Sharma (Nepal), M Riaz Hamidullah (Bangladesh), and Aishath Azeema (Maldives) — will attend as Guests of Honour, alongside Dr KS Rao, secretary, Sahitya Akademi.

Speaking ahead of the event, Ajeet Cour said, “We, the writers and dreamers of the SAARC region, have always believed that culture heals where politics divides. The 66th SAARC Literature Festival is more than a gathering of words — it is a reaffirmation of our shared humanity and friendship across borders.”

The opening day will feature the SAARC Lifetime Achievement Awards for Prof Abhi Subedi (Nepal), Prof Ashis Nandy (India), and Dr Madhav Kaushik (India), along with SAARC Literature Awards for six writers from the region. Book launches, a film screening on Ajeet Cour by Sahitya Akademi, and poetry sessions chaired by noted authors such as Dr Anamika, Prof Hina Nandrajog, and Ambassador Suresh K Goel will follow.

Over the next three days, the festival will feature a vibrant mix of poetry readings, fiction presentations, academic papers, and literary conversations, with participation from acclaimed voices including Prof Udaya Narayan Singh, Sukrita Paul Kumar, Prof Fakrul Alam, Mridula Garg, Dr Molly Joseph, and Kanishka Gupta, among many others.

A special highlight will be a conversation between Kanishka Gupta, novelist and founder of Writer’s Side, and Sujata Prasad, author and educationist, on the changing landscape of publishing in South Asia.

The final day, November 12, will be dedicated to Hindi poetry, featuring celebrated poets Dr Anamika, Divik Ramesh, Prof Shehpar Rasool, Dr Rawail Singh, Arun Aditya, and Deo Prakash Choudhary, among others, marking a grand finale to the cross-cultural celebration.

At the heart of this festival stands writer Ajeet Cour, whose leadership has guided FOSWAL since its inception in 1986. A lifelong advocate of Track II Cultural Diplomacy, Cour has built bridges between artists and writers across South Asia through literature, folklore, and artistic exchange.

The organisation has spearheaded historic exchanges — from the first visit of Pakistani writers to India in 1987 to the inclusion of culture in the SAARC Charter at the 13th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu.