Karachi Literature Festival is an annual international literary festival held in Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. It is the first festival of its kind in the country. It is one of the world's youngest and fastest growing literary festivals.

Founders

The Festival was founded by Ameena Saiyid

Ameena Saiyid

Ameena Saiyid OBE is the current Managing Director of Oxford University Press in Pakistan. She became the head of OUP Pakistan in 1988, thereby becoming the first woman to ever head a multinational company in Pakistan...

, OBE, and Dr. Asif Aslam Farrukhi.

Organisers

It is jointly organised by Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

, Pakistan and British Council

British Council

The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...

.

Second Festival

This festival was co-sponsored by the US Consulate in Karachi. The French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 Consulate in Karachi also sponsored two of the panelists.

Format

The festival consists of literary discussions, book launches, and creative writing workshops. There is also an opportunity to meet authors, book signings and visit a book fair.

Award

In 2011, the festival organisers announced the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) Prize for Best Non-Fiction Book in English. The book has to have been published in the preceding year. The award carries a monetary award of Rs. 100,000.

2011

• Jury: Zubeida Mustafa, Ghazi Salahuddin
  Ghazi Salahuddin
  Ghazi Salahuddin is a Pakistani journalist working for The News International and Geo TV. He was President of the Karachi Press Club in 2006.He was a presenter of the television quiz show Kasauti Master Mind during the 1990s.-References:...
  
   and Dr Jaffer Ahmad.
• Winner: ‘The Culture of Power and Governance of Pakistan (1947-2008)’ by Ilhan Niaz
  Ilhan Niaz
  Ilhan Niaz is an professor of history from Pakistan. He is the winner of the first Karachi Literature Festival Award for best non fiction in English in 2011.-Education:...
  
   Published by: Oxford University Press, Karachi 2010 ISBN13: 9780195477313, ISBN10: 0195477316

First Festival

The inaugural event was held on 20 March 2010. Amongst the writers who participated were: Aamer Hussein

Aamer Hussein

Aamer Hussein is a Pakistani short story writer and critic.-Early life and education:He grew up in Karachi, where he attended Lady Jennings School and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. He spent most summers with his mother's family in India. He studied in Ootacamund, South India, for two years before...

; Mohammad Hanif; Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani author best known for his novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist .- Biography :...

; Samina Quraeshi

Samina Quraeshi

Samina Quraeshi is an award-winning educator, designer, artist and author. She is the author of Legacy of the Indus, Lahore: the City Within, Legends of the Indus, and Sacred Spaces: A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus which was published by Peabody Museum Press in 2009 She was raised in Karachi,...

, Fahmida Riaz

Fahmida Riaz

Fahmida Riaz is a well known Urdu writer, poet, and feminist of Pakistan. She is author of Godaavari, Khatt-e Marmuz, and Khana e Aab O Gil, the first translation of the Masnavi of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi into Urdu.- Early life :...

 and Bapsi Sidhwa

Bapsi Sidhwa

Bapsi Sidhwa is an author of Pakistani origin who writes in English. She is perhaps best known for her collaborative work with filmmaker Deepa Mehta: Sidhwa wrote both the 1991 novel Ice Candy Man which is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film Earth as well as the 2006 novel Water: A Novel which is...

.

Second Festival

This year's festival participants included: Aamer Hussein

Aamer Hussein

Aamer Hussein is a Pakistani short story writer and critic.-Early life and education:He grew up in Karachi, where he attended Lady Jennings School and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. He spent most summers with his mother's family in India. He studied in Ootacamund, South India, for two years before...

; Mohammad Hanif; Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani author best known for his novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist .- Biography :...

; Sara Suleri

Sara Suleri

Sara Suleri Goodyear, born Sara Suleri, is an author and, since 1983, professor of English at Yale University, where her fields of study and teaching include Romantic and Victorian poetry as well as a recent interest in Edmund Burke. Her special concerns include postcolonial literatures and...

; Tahira Abdullah; Muneeza Shamsie

Muneeza Shamsie

Muneeza Shamsie is a Pakistani writer, critic, bibliographer and freelance journalist. She was born in Lahore, Pakistan into a literary-minded family, and was educated in England. She is daughter of the writer Jahanara Habibullah...

; Noorjehan Bilgrami; Bina Shah

Bina Shah

-Early life and Education:The eldest of three children, Shah was born in Karachi to a Sindhi family. She obtained a B.A. in Psychology from Wellesley College, USA and a M.Ed in Educational Technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA....

; Zahida Hina

Zahida Hina

Zahida Hina is a noted Urdu columnist, essayist, short story writer, novelist and dramatist from Pakistan.- Life :...

; Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie is a Pakistani novelist who writes in the English language. She was brought up in Karachi and attended Karachi Grammar School....

; Anita Ghulam Ali; Daniyal Mueenuddin

Daniyal Mueenuddin

Daniyal Mueenuddin is a Pakistani-American author of the critically acclaimed short-story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, published in the United States by W. W...

; Yasmeen Hameed

Yasmeen Hameed

Yasmeen Hameed is a Pakistani Urdu poet. Yasmeen Hameed has over 25 years of experience in the fields of literature, art and education. She is presently working as ‘Writer in Residence’ in the Social Sciences Department at Lahore University of Management Sciences...

; Maleeha Lodhi, Ayesha Siddiqa; Kishwar Naheed

Kishwar Naheed

Kishwar Naheed , Sitara-e-Imtiaz is an Urdu poet from Pakistan known for her pioneering feminist poetry.-Life and Family:...

; Asif Noorani

Asif Noorani

Asif Noorani is a Pakistani newspaper and television writer. He belongs to a Memon family migrated from Bombay, British India in 1950....

; Sheema Kirmani; Madeeha Gauhar; Intiaz Hussain; Zehra Nigah; H. M. Naqvi

H. M. Naqvi

H.M. Naqvi is a Karachi-based novelist who is the author of Home Boy, winner of the inaugural DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.-Life:...

; Ali Sethi; Amjad Islam Amjad

Amjad Islam Amjad

Amjad Islam Amjad, PP, SI is a famous Urdu poet, drama writer and lyricist from Pakistan.-Life and career:...

; Hassan Dars; Ali Akbar Natiq; Mudassar Bashir; Attiya Dawood and Jean-Luc Racine  The plenary session was by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...

.

With 2011 declared Year of Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a Pakistani intellectual, poet, and one of the most famous poets of the Urdu language. He was a member of the Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind and an avowed Marxist. In 1962, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union...

, the festival paid tribute to him. The poet's grandson, Ali Madeeh Hashmi, talked about him as did Zehra Nigah and Ali Sethi. The band Laal closed out the festivities.

External links

• Official website
• Official website
• 1st Karachi Literature Festival All Things Pakistan