The Future of Indian Publishing: A Forward Approach at Jaipur Lit Festival

The Jaipur BookMark (JBM) is gearing up for its 11th edition from 1-5 February 2024.

(Photo: The Quint)

An integral part of the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Jaipur BookMark (JBM) is gearing up for its 11th edition from 1-5 February 2024.

Each year JBM brings together publishers, literary agents, editors, writers, translators, and booksellers from the South Asian publishing industry under one roof.

What will Indian publishing look like going forward? The Jaipur Literature Festival will try to seek answers to this.

“The JBM 2024 brings together a vibrant programme featuring some of the leading lights of the publishing industry. Mainstream publishers, iconic Indies from India and abroad and Indian language publishers rub shoulders to start new conversations and infuse old friendships with new vigour. We aim to have five days of book-love shaken well with book-business.”

Manisha Chaudhry, Director, Jaipur BookMark

Keep an Eye Out for This:

• This year, in a bid to advance its commitment to translation and showcasing the rich diversity of Indian publishing, JBM will release the Rights Catalogue, which features a list of books in Indian languages and English from various publishers.

• JBM will also be hosting conversations on AI and publishing, podcasts, and publishing and OTT, among other things. Meru Gokhale, Marcus du Sautoy, Charles Collier, and Safir Anand will be in conversation with Amit Varma. In another session, Varma will also share the stage with Hemali Sodhi and William Dalrymple.

• Atiya Zaidi and Neeraj Jain will be in conversation with Ananth Padmanabhan about how educational publishing remains the commercial backbone of the Indian book industry.

• Sessions will also be organised with publishers from all over the world, like Luise Braunschweig, Jan Karsten and Alvaro Enterria, and Gabriella Page-Fortand, to name a few.

• Stalwarts in publishing like Lena Luczak, Anna Katharina Fröhlich, Franziska Otto, Naveen Kishore, Shailesh Bharatwasi, Trisha de Niyogi, Annette Michael, Kannan Sundaram, Alvaro Enterria, Parminder Singh Shonkey, Milee Aishwarya, and Ravi Deecee will also be talking about publishing across borders.

Speakers & Sessions You Can't Miss:

• Veteran publishers Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon will be in conversation with Sivapriya R will speak about 40 years of feminist publishing in India.

• An ode to the unsung heroes that lexicographers are. In conversation with Udaya Narayana Singh, Meeta Lall, Diana Mickevičienė, and Oscar Pujol will answer questions like – What drives them to take on this gargantuan task which is never finished? – and more.

• For every aspiring writer out there, an inspiring session on what the creative process of published authors looks like with Sunandini Banerjee, Ahlawat Gunjan, SveinStørksen, and Priya Kapoor.

• And finally, what does it take for a bookseller to expand their circle of readers? Aakash Gupta, Ajay Jain, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, Vishal Pinjani, and Priya Kapoor will be in conversation with Rahul Dixit.