44th New Delhi World Book Fair to focus on women writing

44th-new-delhi-world-book-fair-to-focus-on-women-writingNEW DELHI: The 44th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair that is set to begin on January 7 here, will be themed ‘Manushi’, focusing on “writings on and by women”.

The 9-day-long fair, organized by National Book Trust (NBT) in association with India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO), will aim to show and project the diversity of writings by women writers.

The fair will be inaugurated by Mahendra Nath Pandey, MoS for Human Resource Development (Higher Education), on January 7 at Pragati Maidan here.

Eminent Odia writer and Jnanpith awardee Pratibha Ray will be Guest of Honour and Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to India will be the Special Guest on the occasion.

“There has been the tradition of women writers as well as scholars since ancient times in India. Many of them have set examples of morality through their literary works and have played a vital role in promoting modern thoughts. Therefore, we wanted to provide a special space to them at the fair.

“Since writings ‘on women’ are as much a part of this exhibition as those ‘by women’, hence the theme presentation does not intend to project writings ‘by women’ as a special genre in themselves,” Baldeo Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust (NBT) said.

While books on different genres will form the main ingredients of this exhibition, posters and panels of some of the eminent representative women scholars of ancient and medieval India, and women pioneers of modern Indian literature, will be on display.

The fair will also celebrate 60 years of National Book Trust (NBT) at the Special Pavilion, that will feature an exhibit titled, “This is No Looking Back!”.

“It will be exciting for youngsters to see the exhibit that will showcase NBT’s journey of promoting the culture of reading in last six decades,” Sharma said.

‘Archival Photos/ Materials’ will offer a glimpse of noted personalities including Presidents and Prime Ministers of India, writers, readers, publishers, and artists who have patronized NBT’s mandate of creating a culture of reading.

There will also be a display of NBT’s bestsellers, besides an ‘Illustrator’s Wall’ showcasing works of eminent Indian Illustrators like Mickey Patel, Pulak Biswas, Mario, Miranda, Ravi Paranjpe, Jagdish Joshi among others. –PTI