Log on to LitFestX, an online literary festival

The mid-year edition of LitFestX, the online literature festival begins on July 15

Last October, India's literati and bibliophiles were taken by surprise when the literary festival travelled from the hyped venues to their homes on the computer screens and smartphones.

The first season of LitFestX, the digital literary festival, had a hundred authors interacting with viewers through different social media. With this success, the organisers have now gone ahead with a mid-year edition as well, starting July 15.

Though this time there will be fewer authors compared to the annual edition, the second chapter of the festival promises to be more accessible and audience-friendly. “We will have 50 authors and the duration of the interactions will be reduced to 20 minutes, as we got feedback the last time that 30 minutes was too long for the Internet audience,” explains Kumar Bagrodia, CEO LeapVault, the organisers of the festival.

What's new?
The USP of the event has been that unlike other live streaming of talks in festivals, here the interaction is done only for the online audience. This year, however, there will be some changes in the format. The interaction will appear live on the website of the festival, unlike last time when it was available on different platforms like Google hangouts.

“It had gotten a bit confusing. Moreover, directing all traffic to the website also prevents trolling to an extent as this process, though anonymous, requires a certain amount of accountability,” explains Bagrodia.

The possibility of exciting trolls though is higher this time. “As the festival evolves, we will talk about more controversial issues like refugees, the Indo-Pak peace process and Kashmir,” he says. The list of authors, too, is interesting with Indian writers living abroad like Tabish Khair and Anjali Joseph also taking part.

“We have more writers from abroad this time. This is not because we are focused more on writers abroad but rather to make maximum use of Internet which allows people far away to interact without travelling,” he says.

Like last year, LitFestX, will remain a purely literary event this year too. “We will only have authors talking about books as we want to remain true to our target. If we need to add a music event to it then why not a have a separate music festival,” he
signs off.

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