Press Releases 2009

U.S. Embassy a Major Sponsor of the Jaipur Literature Festival

January 22, 2009

New Delhi --The U.S. Embassy is pleased to be supporting the 2009 Jaipur Literature Festival by supporting the participation of six American writers who represent the breadth and diversity of American writing.  The distinguished American contingent includes editor and journalist Tina Brown; travel writer Pico Iyer; poet Coleman Barks, whose translations of the Sufi poet Rumi into English have become bestsellers; memoirist and journalist Marie Brenner; African-American storyteller and performance poet Arthur Flowers; and leading Irish-American writer and activist Michael MacDonald.

Arthur Flowers and Michael MacDonald will be visiting other Indian cities after the Festival to conduct writing workshops and to meet with local writers and students of literature.  Both will participate in the Kolkata Book Fair.

The Jaipur Literature Festival will continue through Sunday, January 25 and is considered Asia's leading literature event.  The Festival is the initiative of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation (JVF), an NGO that works with Rajasthan's musicians and craftspeople to preserve skills and promote economic livelihoods. The Festival's Creative Directors are noted writers William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale.