Mathrubhumi Festival of Letters is back with 2023 edition
Launched in 2018, the festival has seen three successful editions before being disrupted by the pandemic
The Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL), which was kick-started in the year 2018, is back with its latest 2023 edition. After the critically and popularly acclaimed three editions of the event, the festival was disrupted by the pandemic disrupted. Now, 2023 will witness a rebirth of the MBIFL with renewed vigour and vitality.
Thiruvananthapuram will host the latest version of the event between the 2nd and 5th of February. MBIFL ’23 will provide a platform where discussions on the arts, gender, history, media, politics, religion, science, sports, technology, and other contemporary issues will lend a spicy tang to four days and nights.
“A galaxy of universally renowned writers and speakers will grace this iteration, including last year’s Nobel laureate Abdul Razak Gurna and Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunathilake, from neighbouring Sri Lanka,” revealed Sabin Iqbal, Festival Curator.
Sabin Iqbal
“The theme of ‘Ka’, as it is known locally after the first consonant in our mother tongue Malayalam, is ‘Shadows of history. Lights of the future’,” said Mayura Shreyams Kumar, Festival Director. “We chose this particular trope, conflating it with our voyage through a century of rendering yeomen service to society”, the Director-Digital Business, Mathrubhumi added.
Mayura Shreyams Kumar
M V Shreyams Kumar, Chairman MBIFL, explained the rationale behind the festival of letters: “Being in the forefront of all progressive movements in our state, we deemed it incumbent on us to celebrate the role of letters in contributing to the moral arc of a nation, by conceiving the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters.”
MV Shreyams Kumar
The Managing Director, Mathrubhumi, went on to say: “In our centenary year, it is also a tribute to the vision of my late father, the writer M P Veerendra Kumar, who guided our corporate fortunes for more than four decades, as the Chairman and Managing Director of Mathrubhumi.”
