The stage is set for the literati to make “hay” while the literary sun shines as that carnival of a literature festival, Hay-on-Wye, holds the first edition of its India chapter in Thiruvananthapuram from November 12 to 14. Hay-on-Way, described by the former US President Bill Clinton as the “Woodstock of the mind”, has hogged the literary world’s limelight for the last 23 years.
With its engaging debates and discussions, it has been a literary jamboree that has seen the presence of some of the best minds of our times: the lineup for this year’s festival in Wales, for example, included Bill Bryson, Tom Stoppard, Nadine Gordimer, Hilary Mantel Zadie Smith, Martin Amis, Philip Pullman and Roddy Doyle.
For the ongoing festival in Wales, which gets over on June 6, the invitation on Hay’s website reads: “Bread and circuses... Now is the time for all good folk to come to Hay for a party. For a real change, let’s talk of dreams, of stories and imagination. Let’s explore the writer’s realm of truths and language and of private, secret worlds. Let’s welcome big ideas from people who think differently to ourselves, and champion the need to open minds.”
It’s only a microcosm of the melange of minds. The events that unfold at the festival do all this and much more. A festival regular would know how Hay is a celebration of literature as much as of life itself.
In a recent interview, Hay festival’s founder-director Peter Florence said Hay is where you should be “if you’re interested in the world and people, in love and death, in what is the best thing to do and how to be happy”.
The literary, cultural and intellectual celebration is all set to create a beauty of its own amidst the tranquil backwaters as the written word’s Kerala connection gets sealed. Anchored by the Teamwork Productions and Hay Festival, in association with the British Council, the festival will put together a constellation of about 40 authors: the cross-section will comprise around 10-15 international authors, 10 leading Indian writers and 15 regional writers. As the world descends on India, it’s time for the bhasha writers to get their share of spotlight. And it’s to their relief that the Hay festival, like the Jaipur Literature Festival, seeks to give a platform to.
Since its inception in 1987, the Hay festival has crossed the Welsh shores and, today, hosts festivals in Spain, Kenya, Colombia, Sergovia and Beirut. In 2010, as it comes to Kerala, it also spreads its wings in Maldives and Mexico. According to Lyndy Cooke, executive director, Hay Festival Kerala 2010, Hay crosses as many borders as it crosses genres. “Publishing knows no borders,” she says, adding that “as soon as we saw Kerala our minds were made up”.
The festival, says Ms Cooke, promises to be a long weekend of conversation and debate, ideas and discussion, sprinkled liberally with entertainment for “all the family, all tastes and all comers”.
India’s latest import, the festival’s arrival here marks a vibrant phase in publishing and the world’s increasing interest in fresh voices from the subcontinent. Ms Cooke says: “There has always been interest in Indian and South Asian literature. Its renaissance is the result of some impressive new writing talent coming through.”
While we will have to wait till June to know about the festival’s lineup, the buzz around the Hay fever, all set to grip Kerala, is just beginning to be built, upping the adrenaline rush of the literature lovers.
Sanjoy K. Roy, MD, Teamwork Productions, who has been actively involved in the Jaipur Literature Festival, making it the literary spectacle that it is now, says: “We are very excited about Hay Festival Kerala. Hay was keen to come to India and British Council brought us together. We met, decided it would work and then moved forward from there.”
Their journey has only begun.
Platforms like this, says Mr Roy, add a lot to the industry and the south has a treasure of literary works to be discovered by the English-reading West. “We hope to create a platform internationally for this work,” he says. Mr Roy just knows what it takes to. After Jaipur, he had been scouting around to set up a second festival in the south for “various obvious reasons”. Jaipur had taught him that there was a demand, both local and international, to have another festival and as Jaipur was in the north he “looked south”. He says: “While Jaipur represents romance, valour, betrayal and royalty, we looked south for beaches, backwaters, massages and cuisine.”
There you have it. While the festival will be about “ideas, debate and dialogue” it will also be about people, food and fun — in short, life. So, come all ye faithfuls, to Kerala for a dose of literature — and life.