Over the years, Chandigarh Literary Society's mega literary event Literati has grown exponentially. Ever since its debut in 2013, Literati has been one of the most sought-after events on the Indian literary landscape. In our past events, we have had the pleasure of hosting authors like Ruskin Bond, Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Sonam Wangchuk, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Divya Dutta, Ravinder Singh, Jerry Pinto, Kishwar Desai, Ashok Vajpeyi, Rajdeep Sardesai, Navtej Sarna, Tarek Fatah, Nandita Puri, Pushpesh Pant, Rahul Pandita, Shefalee Vasudeva, Surjit Patar, Rujuta Divekar, Krishna Devulapali, Kamla Kapur, Kiran Nagarkar, Mridula Koshy, Madhulika Liddle, Tavleen Singh, Sumita Misra, Leila Seth, Ram Verma, Hugh and Coleen Gantzer, Gulzar Sandhu, Khushwant Singh, Shiv Khera, Preeti Shenoy, Neelima Dalmia Adhar, Piyush Misra, Aseem Chhabra, Vineet Bajpai and so on.
Literati has also seen the active participation of International writers like Columpa Bobb, Lee Maracle, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Jim Davidson, Jerome Armstrong, and collaboration with the Canadian High Commission and Embassy Of Ireland. All our events have been extensively covered by both print and electronic media.
In November 2020, the virtual edition of Literati saw the presence of eminent authors and writers such as Rajdeep Sardesai, Gurcharan Das, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Anuja Chauhan, Naomi Datta, Jyotsna Mohan, Karnal Singh, Shwetambhari Shetty, Navtej Sarna, Koral Das Gupta, Anuja Chandramouli and many others.
In December 2021, we successfully concluded our first hybrid edition with sessions being held on-ground and virtually on YouTube and Facebook. A breath of fresh air after the multiple lockdowns after the COVID-19 waves, the hybrid edition was attended by prominent authors such as Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Kishwer Desai, Esther David, Divya Dutta, Dolly Guleria & Sunaini Guleria, Col. Sunil Prem and many more.
The Tenth Edition of Literati was held at the pristine Lake Club surroundings with much fanfare from 16-18 December 2022. The event began with ‘Hasya Kavi Sammelan’ which included noted poets like Surender Sharma and others. Author Gurcharan Das delivered the keynote address on the first day of the literary fest, followed by sessions by renowned personalities like historian Rana Safvi, poet Surjit Patar, Padma Shri, Altmash Nizami, Sudeep Sen, MP Raghav Chadha, Journalist Rasheed Kidwai, Executive Editor Hindustan Times Ramesh Vinayak, Actress Divya Dutta and many more, over a period of two days.
Nayantara Sahgal (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. She was awarded the 1986 Sahitya Akademi Award for her English novel 'Rich Like Us'.
Indian writer
Kiran Nagarkar was an Indian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. A noted drama and film critic, he was one of the most significant writers of post-colonial India.
Indian novelist
Anita Nair (born 26 January 1966) is an Indian novelist who writes her books in English. She is best known for her novels A Better Man, Mistress, and Lessons in Forgetting.
Indian novelist
Rukmini Bhaya Nair is a linguist, poet, writer and critic of India. She won the First Prize for her poem kali in the "All India Poetry Competition" in 1990 organized by The Poetry Society (India) in collaboration with British Council.
linguist, poet, writer and critic of India
Shekhar Gupta (born 26 August 1957) is an Indian journalist and author. He is the founder and the current editor-in-chief of ThePrint. He is also a columnist for the Business Standard and pens a weekly column which appears every Saturday.
Indian journalist and author
Rahul Pandita is a Kashmiri Pandit born in the Kashmir Valley. In 1990, at the age of 14, he had to leave the Valley along with his family as part of the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.
Indian author and journalist
Gul Panag (born 3 January 1979; Chandigarh, India) is an Indian actress, voice actress, model, and former beauty queen who competed in the Miss Universe pageant. Panag began her career in Bollywood with the 2003 film Dhoop.
Actress, voice actress, model, politician
Jerry Pinto (born 1966) is a Mumbai-based Indian-English poet, novelist, short story writer, translator, as well as journalist. Pinto's works include Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb (2006), which won the Best Book on Cinema Award at the 54th National Film Awards, Surviving Women (2000) and Asylum and Other Poems (2003).
Journalist, poet, novelist
Navtej Singh Sarna (born 1957) is an Indian author-columnist, diplomat and former Indian Ambassador to the United States. He previously served as the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, and the Ambassador to Israel.
Diplomat and Author
Madhu Purnima Kishwar is an Indian academic and a commentator. She is currently employed as a chair Professor in the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Kishwar along with fellow-academic Ruth Vanita co-founded the journal Manushi.
Professor, Activist, Author
Meghna Pant is an Indian author, journalist and speaker. She has won a variety of awards for her contribution to literature, gender issues and journalism. In 2012, she won the Muse India National Literary Awards Young Writer Award for her debut novel One-and-a-Half Wife.
Author, Journalist, Screenwriter
Upamanyu Chatterjee (born 1959) is an author and a retired Indian civil servant. His works include the novel English, August: An Indian story, The Last Burden, The Mammaries of the Welfare State and Weight Loss. In 2008, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to literature.
Author, Novelist
