The Kalinga Literary Festival (Hindi:कलिंग साहित्य उत्सव), also known as KLF, is an International literary festival which takes place annually in the Indian city Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Rashmi Ranjan Parida is the founder director of the festival.[1][2] The festival confers KLF Book Awards and three literary awards, which are Kalinga Literary Award, Kalinga International Literary Award, Kalinga Karubaki Award, annually to the noted Indian writers.[3]
Timeline
The festival was started in 2014 with the aim of promoting Odia language, literature, and culture.[4] The festival has been founded by journalist-writer Rashmi Ranjan Parida. Other team members include Prachee Naik and Sitansu Mahapatra.[5][6]
Second Kalinga Literary Festival was held in 2015 with the theme of 'Literature as Reflection'.[7] The key sessions focused on topics including Romanticism and contemporary literature, Feminism in contemporary Literature, Parallel Cinema and contemporary Literature, Dalit & Tribal Literature, Media, Medium, Message & Literature, Bhasa Sahitya Vs English Literature and the inter-related issues.[8][9]
The third KLF edition was held for two days on 18 and 19 June 2016. It featured over 100 speakers. Some of the notable speakers were Piyush Mishra, Arif Mohammad Khan, Rahul Pandita, Haraprasad Das, Subrat Kumar Prusty. The festival had a session on youth, language and emotions in features speakers including Satyanand Nirupam, Vineet Kumar, Kedar Mishra, Sangam Lahiri, Arundhathi Subramaniam and Sujit Mohapatra[2]
During COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, KLF launched KLF Bhava Samvad webinar series which completed 300 sessions in September 2021.[18][19][20][21] The festival confers three awards, Kalinga International Literary Award, Kalinga Literary Award, and Kalinga Karubaki Award, annually to the noted Indian writer.[3]
KLF Kathmandu
Kalinga Literary Festival started Kathmandu edition from 2022 with the aim of promoting Nepali language, literature, and culture.[22][23]
^"Arundhathi subramaniam, nabaneeta sen, soubhagya mishra honoured with first mystic kalinga literary awards". Indo-Asian News Service. New Delhi. 22 December 2017.