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Seventh Edition of Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob to commence on December 10, 2021
Kolkata, 8th December 2021: The seventh edition of India’s first Bengali literary festival, Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob (ABSU) curated by Oxford Bookstores, is all set to begin with a curated mix of virtual and physical sessions. The festival’s seventh edition is curated in association with the prestigious Prabha Khaitan Foundation. Scheduled between December 10-12, the three-day literature festival will be all virtual on the first two days, i.e. 10th and 11th December, and streamed LIVE on the Festival’s social media platforms, followed by physical sessions at Oxford Bookstore on the third day, 12th December, which can also be viewed LIVE virtually on various digital platforms of the Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob.In the last seven years, Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob has spread its wings and has become a household name among all lovers of Bengali literature and culture, both nationally and internationally. The virtual sessions streamed LIVE on Facebook and Youtube have opened a window to the Bengali reading and speaking community not just within the country but also across borders, enabling them to watch and enjoy our sessions in real-time and be a part of the festival digitally.
Speaking about the seventh edition of Sahitya Utsob, Swagat Sengupta, ABSU Director & CEO Oxford Bookstores said, “This is the second year that we have been successfully able to curate a festival of this stature in the online and physical format. The love and encouragement that Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob has received is inestimable, which has enabled us to carry on for the last 7 years. We hope that our patrons will love this specially curated edition and will provide encouragement for the future. The festival will feature special sessions paying tribute to the legendary author’s Sankha Ghosh, Buddhadeb Guha and Anish Deb. It will also have 16 specially curated sessions which range from graphic novels, audiobooks, journalism, cinema and of course Bangla literature. We are also keeping in mind the ease of access, active participation, the flexibility of viewing the sessions at convenience and interacting with the delegates at the same time observing COVID protocols and other safety norms.
Commenting on the seventh edition of Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob, Executive Trustee – PrabhaKhaitan Foundation, Anindita Chatterjee said, “This is the second year PrabhaKhaitan Foundation got associated with Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob. In our endeavour to promote regional language, we have the literary initiative ” Aakhar” which is present in more than 10 cities in India. Through this association, we wish to promote Bengali literature on various platforms. I sincerely hope that this association will help both organisations to reach their goals. I wish ABSU all success”.
Conceptualized in 2015 at Oxford Bookstore, India’s first Bengali literary festival will explore trends and changes in Bengali literature through various discussions and debates on a vast array of topics: literary fiction and non-fiction to history, society, translations, audiobooks, graphic novels, and poetry. Spread over3 days, the literary festival with 16 enriching discussion sessions will feature a line-up of speakers from across the world, consisting of writers, poets, playwrights, journalists, cultural icons, and recipients of major literary awards. This edition will also highlight new and upcoming voices of Bangla writing while continuing with its legacy of celebrating literary voices from across the world.
The seventh edition of Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob includes eminent personalities like Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Pabitra Sarkar, Rudraprasad Senguta, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Bani Basu, Subhaprasanna, Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Subodh Sarkar, Anindya Jana, Procheto Gupta, Himadri Kishore Dasgupta, Saikat Mukherjee, Prasun Banerjee, BinodGhosal, Gaurav Chakraborty, Subhankar Dey, Indrani Chakraborty, Yashodhara Roychoudhury, Dipannita Roy, Raja Bhattacharya, Debjyoti Bhattacharyya, Abhijnan Roychowdhury to name a few. This eclectic curation has been done under the stewardship of former radio jockey Roy Choudhury and as advised by Publisher-Editor Rupa Majumdar.
To contribute to the success of the seventh editionof Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob, Prabha Khaitan Foundation has come up for the second time as the Associate Partner, various other partners who have also stepped in different capacities to support the SahityaUtsob are ZEE 24 Ghanta as Media Partner, Supporting Partners-Shabdabaaji and Kobita Club; Amra Chobiwala as Digital Streaming Partner and Cha Bar as Refreshment Partner.
The seventh edition of ABSU will stream LIVE on the official Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob Facebook Page and Youtube channel on 10- 12 December 2021.
For more information, visit the Apeejay Bangla Sahitya Utsob Social Media Pages:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABSULitFest
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/absulitfest/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/absulitfest
Website: https://absuonline.com/en/home/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/absulitfest
About Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob (ABSU):
Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob (ABSU), India’s first Bangla Literary Festival (ie. Utsob in Bangla) created by the nearly 100-year-old Oxford Bookstores in 2015, honours the rich literary tradition of the Bangla language. The objective of ABSU, a prized initiative of Oxford Bookstores, is to make Bangla literature increasingly visible and accessible, build an audience for Bangla books and create a culture of readership and familiarization with Bangla language among the youth. An interactive platform bringing together voices of contemporary Bangla Literature from the national and international stage, ABSU showcases all aspects of Bangla literature and literary expression and their impact on various art forms. ABSU is committed to the journey of Bangla Literature which is both exciting and exhilarating and have brought eminent personalities to grace the Festival in the last three years. They include renowned authors like Shirshendu Mukherjee, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Samaresh Majumdar, Sankha Ghosh, Pracheta Gupta, Ranjan Bandhopadhyay, Sanjib Chattopadhaya, Saikat Mukhopadhyay, Anindo Chattopadhaya, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Srijato, Binod Ghoshal, Himadrikishor Dasgupta, Anish Deb, Krishnendu Mukherjee and Subodh Sarkar; film Directors like Suman Mukhopadhyay, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Arindam Sil; Bengali musicians Nachiketa, Surojit Chatterjee and Swagatalaksmi Dasgupta; Actors Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Barun Chandra. Utsob has also attracted prominent literary personalities from Bangladesh like Salina Hussain and Imdadul Haq Milon.
About Oxford Bookstores:
Established in 1921, Oxford Bookstore is the best equipped ‘base-camp’ for journeys of the mind offering its customers the widest range of outstanding titles and consistently courteous and informed service for close to a century. Today, with stores in major metros, India’s first of its kind tea boutique, Cha Bar, India’s only literary festival created by a bookstore, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Oxford Bookstore offers booklovers access to the very best in publishing enhanced by a variety of events which salute books, visual & performing arts and celebrate the word. Oxford Bookstore measures its success by the smiles on millions of happy customers that the brand has served over the last nearly 100 years. There are a few treats as sumptuous as a visit to Oxford Bookstore in India. Each time you walk into our iconic store in Kolkata where the brand started in 1921, its charm leaves you wanting for more. Our fleet of happy to help expert booksellers and informed hosts work day and night to bring to customers world class reading experience be it through our books or our fine teas and live by the brand’s motto – Much more than a bookstore – at every Bookstore.
