The Goan Arts & Literary Festival

One of the Premier Culture Events of the Subcontinent

Five years after being founded to ā€œcelebrate the margins, generic ā€ the fiercely independent, non-profit and no-logos Goa Arts + Literary Festival (GALF) has unexpectedly emerged as one of the premier cultural showcases of the subcontinent. The fifth anniversary edition in Panjim next week (December 4-7, goaartlitfest.com) promises to be the best ever, with strong literary and artistic delegations from Singapore, Nepal, Australia and Pakistan, as well as GALFā€™s usual mix of some of the best established and emerging literary and artistic talent from across India and beyond.

GALF 2014 has scheduled sessions every day on the pressures and challenges for both independent and corporate media in the Internet age, featuring an extraordinary lineup of senior journalists and editors: Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose, Sreenivasan Jain, Naresh Fernandes, Samar Halarnkar and Priya Ramani, Govindraj Ethiraj, Sachin Kalbag, Prashant Jha and Cyril Almeida of Pakistanā€™s Dawn newspaper.

Goa Streets is proud to be among GALFā€™s media partners!

GALF will host the ā€œhometown releaseā€ of Rajdeep Sardesaiā€™s nationwide bestseller, ā€˜2014: The Election that Changed Indiaā€™, as well as the exclusive first-ever launches for some of the most anticipated books of the year: Dr. Rajmohan Gandhiā€™s ā€˜Prince of Gujaratā€™, Mamang Daiā€™s historical novel ā€˜The Black Hill, Hindol Senguptaā€™s ā€˜Recasting Indiaā€™, Aditya Adhikariā€™s ā€˜The Bullet and the Ballot Boxā€™ and new books in English translation from the eminent Konkani writers Mahabaleshwar Sail and Damodar Mauzo.

Other notable ā€œfirstsā€ at GALF 2014 include ā€˜Odalisqueā€™, the first-ever exhibition of paintings outside the United States by Daisy Rockwell, the unique painter, translator (from Hindi) and writer. The grand-daughter of legendary American artist Norman Rockwell, she will also release her new novel ā€˜Tasteā€™ on December 7. Also making his much-anticipated India debut is Chee Malabar, the veteran American rapper of Indian origin, who will release his new album ā€˜Feral Childā€™.

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The Goa Arts + Literary Festival is free, and registration is not required to walk into the daily sessions at the International Centre Goa at Dona Paula. Those interested in eating all meals along with the delegates can register for a nominal fee at goaartlitfest.com, where the festival programme will be available from Dec 1. However, the organizers are urging visitors who are interested in specific sessions to arrive at the venue early ā€“ GALF 2014 is likely to be the best-attended so far, and the most popular sessions are likely to become filled to capacity.

These include conversations and panel discussions featuring several of the most acclaimed authors and books of 2014: the multi-talented rockstar of Carnatic music, TN Krishna whose ā€˜A Southern Musicā€™ has been described by Amartya Sen as ā€œone of the best books Iā€™ve ever readā€, and debut novelist Mahesh Rao, whose wonderful ā€œA Smoke is Risingā€ won the Tata Literature Live award, and the poets Ranjit Hoskote, Keki Daruwalla, Arundhathi Subramaniam and Sridala Swami who are four of the five finalists for the first-ever Khushwant Singh Prize for Poetry.

Prince of Gujarat copy

Food, music, poetry, art, literature and journalism,Ā  Goa Arts + Literary Festival has become a highlight of Goaā€™s and Indiaā€™s cultural landscape. Book the dates now.