SOA Literary Festival To Bring Together 250 Eminent Personalities

Bhubaneswar: A galaxy of litterateurs, film and theatre personalities, and artistes from all over India will be part of the second Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University Literary Festival, which kicks off here on November 24.

The three-day literature festival will see around 250 eminent personalities coming together on a single platform to discuss contemporary trends in Indian art, culture and literature.

The event with the tagline ‘Celebration of Words and Ideas’ will also focus on rich literary and cultural legacy of Odisha.

The SOA Centre for Preservation, Propagation and Restoration of Ancient Culture and Heritage of India (PPRACHIN) is organising the event.

PPRACHIN’s head Dr Gayatribala Panda said its main thrust is to make different publications, conduct research, take up digitalisation, organize workshops, seminars and conferences to provide an understanding and appreciation of the philosophy, aesthetics and beauty inherent in Indian art, literature and culture.

“This platform has greatly enthused the art and culture circles in the state providing the opportunity to budding writers to interact with giants in the field of literature, cinema and art,” SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda said.

The festival will be inaugurated by eminent Odia novelist Dr Pratibha Ray, in the presence of social theorist and critic Prof. Ashis Nandy, actress Divya Dutta, Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) president and secretary Madhav Kaushik and K Sreenivasarao, respectively.

Surjit Patar, eminent Punjabi litterateur and Kumud Sharma, vice-president of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, will grace the valedictory session on November 26.

Eleven Odia litterateurs, critics and dramatists will be conferred with the SOA Sahitya Samman during the festival. They are — Ramakanta Rath, Dr Sitakanta Mohapatra, Bibhuti Patnaik, Dr Jagannath Prasad Das, Achyutananda Pati, Satakadi Hota, Dr Debi Prasanna Patnaik, Prof. Santanu Kumar Acharya, Srinivas Udgata, Prof. Dasarathi Das and Anant Mahapatra.

The festival will see 60 sessions spread over three days. A special session on Day 1 will be dedicated to eminent poet Jayanta Mahapatra, who passed away recently.

The inaugural SOA Literary Festival, held in February 2020, attracted around 100 artistes, stage personalities, writers and poets.