ISLAMABAD, April 13 (DNA): The 5th Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) will start from today (Friday) and continue till April 16, 2017 at the Margala Hotel Islamabad.

According to Managing Director of Oxford University Press (OUP), Ameena Saiyid OBE, the festival will feature a line-up of around 150 leading Pakistani and international authors, academics, journalists, and artists.

“The ILF is about the promotion of books, authors, and reading and expression. The event has grown tremendously since its inception in 2013. Attendance rose from 15,000 in 2013 to more than 60,000 in 2016,” said Ameena Saiyid, Founder/Director of Karachi and Islamabad Literature Festivals.

“The ILF provides a forum for local and international writers and readers to interact, exchange ideas, and engage in dialogue, debates, and readings”, she added. Ameena disclosed that A. G. Noorani and Arfa Syeda Zehra would be the keynote speakers at the ILF inauguration while the closing ceremony would be addressed by Iftikhar Arif, Omar Shahid Hamid, and Nafisa Shah.

The number of session would be about 50. Speakers from around eight countries, including USA, Canada, India, Bangladesh, Italy, France, and Germany, would participate in the ILF.

ILF will feature talks/interviews, panel discussions, mushaira, English mushaira, dramatic readings, book launches, author signings, performing arts, book fair, and much more.

Some of the exciting sessions planned for the ILF are: Judiciary and the Common Man; A Tribute to Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi; The Blood-Stained Dawn of Freedom; Social Media: The New Power of Words; Music and Today’s Technology; Small Screen Intimacy and Big Screen Splendour; Gender Violence, Law, and Power in Pakistan; Living through Seasons of Fear: Iftikhar Arif; and Uljhay Suljhay Anwar.

Ameena Saiyid has invited the people of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and the entire region to attend ILF and join in the festivities. .=DNA

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