Dhaka Lit Fest: "It feels like coming home"

Shining BD Desk || Shining BD

Published: 1/7/2023 4:02:53 AM

Niklaus Graber, a Swiss architect and curator, said he's been coming to Dhaka for 10 years now and he is well familiar with the Dhaka Lit Fest. "I am here to speak at the session 'Water World' with Runa Khan and Kashef Mahboob," he said, "and I find it amazing to have the chance to meet architects from around the world here."

This year marks the 10th edition of the festival and a host of people have arrived in Dhaka to join the event, engage in discussions, share ideas and get to know about people and culture of this part of the world. 

Which other sessions would Niklaus Graber be interested to attend? He replied, "I haven't pinpointed any sessions, I'll just screen through and see whatever I find interesting."

David Knox, Programmes Director of the British Council, said he finds the event marvellous as it brings people together, writers from the South Asia as well as from around the globe. And which sessions did he find interesting? He talked about the session 'Everything Change' featuring Owen Shiera, 'Out of Print' featuring publisher Alexandra Pringle and 'Secret Histories' featuring Esther Freud and Sarvat Hasin. 


Browsing at Dhaka Lit FestNourin Ahmed Monisha

He said British Council has good connections with this event so he has been closely following the Fest and has taken interest in sessions attended by British authors and speakers.

Sarah Churchwell a professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK, said it's her first time visiting Bangladesh and people have been so nice and warm to her. She finds the event amazing with such a huge number of speakers, guests and events. She loves the fact that it's a bilingual event. She mentioned there have been great sessions going around and the audience is so well informed as well as critical. She felt it's the audience who's pushing the events forward. When asked would she like to visit Bangladesh again, she replied with a big smile on her face that she would love that.


Dhaka Lit Fest draws in visitors from both home and aboradNourin Ahmed Monisha

Katerina Don, a Ukrainian writer and content developer based in Dhaka, said she finds it fantastic. The event gives a wonderful opportunity to watch people talk and engage in discussion at this space. This has been her fourth time attending the festival and she loves it.

Sandro Kopp, a German-New Zealand visual artist based in Scotland, said it's his third time coming to the event and to him it strangely feels like coming back home. He finds it intrinsically and deeply interesting to see people of different age, culture, background and country coming together to share ideas and hang around. When asked what he finds most interesting about this fest, he said that being in the audience is the most interesting thing for him here as he just loves to be among the audience. Mentioning he's loves for the event, he said he would be back for more in future.

Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka said he has been enjoying amazing sessions around the fest and likes the fact that there are great book shops around. He attended the Hay Festival, an initial version of the Lit Fest we know today about 10 years ago. 

Being back after a decade he finds that the festival have grown big with much more festivities. He also remarked on the sheer enthusiasm of people all around.

-ProthomAlo

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