Books Brewing - One Day Lit Fest at Chandigarh

Chandigarh witnessed first of its kind literature festival organised by Cafe Books n Brew at sector 16 outlet in Chandigarh. Manpreet Singh Badal mesmerised the audience with his session “My Journey with the books”, in this session he was found talking about the importance literature has in his life. He also read out some excerpts from some of his favourite books. 

Next session was lead by Ms. Neel Kamal Puri & Prof Rana Nayyar, who discussed “Patiala Quartet” her first book and also touched upon the importance and usefulness of books and how they help in grooming youngsters. 

Mr. Khushwant Singh, Akash Banerjee and Sanjana Roy Choudhary ; authors and Head of Publication in their session “fiction vs reality” talked about their works in their respective fields, where Akash Banerjee talked about his experience and how he came about writing his book , Khuswant Singh captured the audience with his dynamic personality; the author of “Turbaned Tornado”, a biography of World’s Oldest marathon runner had a one on one with the audience and was very humble in answering questions about his upcoming book of fiction that presents a mix of history and fiction. 

Fest also witnessed, two best seller authors from the different part of the country, Rahul Saini and Sudeep Nagarkar, authors of “The Orange Hangover” & “Thats the way we meet” launched this week by Random House. The session “New Age Media” had Tahira Khurana and a senior editor from the city talking about blogging , social media and their impact on the society. Session was concluded by Nirpuma Dutt and Arvinder Kaur, with their session, two languages – two worlds. Both are the eminent personalities in the literary circle of Chandigarh. The audience saw both reciting excerpts from their respective books which were received with a very enthusiastic applause.
“Books n Brew Cafe is committed to hold many such fests and events and will do its best to support and promote reading culture in the city and will provide its platform for this cause”, said the owner- Aarti Manuja. 

For more photos of the event, visit the Gallery.

One-Day Lit Fest in Chandigarh

Here's an opportunity for all the book lovers and those who have an appetite for literary tastes. One-day literature festival is going to be held at Cafe Books n Brew in Sector-16 at Chandigarh on 24 June, 2012 as per the following schedule:
10:50 : Inauguration by Shri Manpreet Singh Badal
My Journey With Books: Manpreet Singh Badal
11:30 : 1st Session - Writers Plenty - Neelkamal Puri, Author "The Patiala Quartet" with Dr.Rana Nayar, Professor of English, Translator and Theatre Worker
12:05 : 2nd Session - Fiction vs Reality Sanjana Roy Chaudhary, Head of Publishing at Amaryllis, in conversation with Khushwant Singh, Author "Turbaned Tornado" and Akash Bannerjee, Senior Special Correspondent, Headlines Today.
12:40 : 3rd Session - The Orange Hangover: is there a time limit to discover oneself Rahul Saini Author of bestselling "Those small Lil Things in life and love"
 1:15 : 4th Session - Local Brew Books n Brew introducing young authors Nikhil Mukhija and Hardik Dhamija in conversation with panelist Harsh Aggarwal, Director, Fountain Pen Guild.
2:50 : 5th Session - New Age Media Tahira Khurana, Author and Media Personality, to speak on Emerging trends in Journalism. Relevance and importance of Blogging.
 3:25 : 6th Session - Imagination runs wild Durjoy Datta Author of bestselling "of course i love you..till i find someone better"
4:00 : 7th Session - That's the way we met... kya life hogi set? Psychologist Adity Sood in conversation with Sudeep Nagarkar Author of bestselling "Few things left unsaid"
4:35 : 8th Session - Two languages, two worlds Nirupama Dutt, Poet and Editor, in conversation with Arvinder Kaur, Asst. Professor, Poet and Translator(Amrita and Imroz:In The Times Of Love and Longing.)
Guest Anchor: Aradhika Sharma, Author "The Agony Aunt & Sunita Williams"

See you there!

For a detailed report of the event visit: www.events.literaryjewels.com

Commonwealth Foundation's Literary Prize 2012

This  year's Commonwealth Foundation's Literary Prizes were won by Shehan Karunatilaka and Emma Martin. While Sri Lankan author, Karunatilaka received the Commonwealth Book Prize 2012 for his debut novel 'Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew'; Emma Martin from New Zealand won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2012 for 'Two Girls in a Boat'. The awards of ten thousand and five  thousand were presented to Karunatilaka and Martin respectively at the Hay Festival. These awards aim at showcasing new literary talent in the Commonwealth. The prizes were given away by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian author who won the Orange Prize in the year 2007.

Shakespeare's First Theatre Dug Up

One of Shakespeare's early playhouses has been discovered by the archeologists from Museum of London Archaeology(MOLA) in London. It is the place where Shakespeare's famous plays 'Henry V' and 'Romeo and Juliet' were first staged. It is a brilliant piece of news for both the historians and the fans of Shakespeare because they now have an insight into the place where the early productions of Shakespeare were performed. There are talks doing rounds that it might have been in use till Civil War in 1640s. The playhouse gets its name 'Curtain Theatre' from a nearby street Curtain Close. Before the completion of Globe in Southwark, this was the place where Shakespeare's plays were performed between 1597 and 1599.

Orange Prize for Fiction , 2012

The Orange Prize for fiction for the year 2012 has been bagged by a debutant novel, 'The Song of Achilles', penned by American writer, Madeline Miller. The book has the backdrop of Homeric era and narrates a tale of friendship and love.
Here's a glance at the shortlist for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction:

AUTHOR             NOVEL                   PUBLISHER         COUNTRY        SEQUENCE

Esi Edugyan	Half Blood Blues	Serpent’s Tail	Canadian	2nd Novel
Anne Enright	The Forgotten Waltz	Jonathan Cape	Irish	5th Novel
Georgina Harding	Painter of Silence	Bloomsbury	British	3rd Novel
Madeline Miller	The Song of Achilles	Bloomsbury	American	1st Novel
Cynthia Ozick	Foreign Bodies	Atlantic Books	American	7th Novel
Ann Patchett	State of Wonder	Bloomsbury	American	6th Novel