Jaipur Literature Festival Will Assemble An International Literary Lineup In Boulder

Courtesy of the Jaipur Literature Festival
A scene from a previous year’s ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival Colorado.

The Jaipur Literature Festival returns to Boulder for a fifth year this fall.

The three-day free literary event features about 60 writers from around the world, including awarding-winning journalists, authors and essayists, who will participate in panel discussions, workshops, readings and performances. 

The first lineup of about a dozen speakers announced earlier this week for this year’s ZEE JLF Colorado festival in September include Nigerian-American writer and journalist Chike Frankie Edozien; David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota nation and an associate professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver; Fulbright scholar and novelist Maaza Mengiste; Indian sex trafficking activist and writer Ruchira Gupta; and historian Sven Beckert, who has authored a book on Harvard’s historical ties to slavery.  

ZEE JLF Colorado is an offshoot of a festival with the same name that takes place annually in Jaipur, India, which is considered one of the largest free literary events in the world.

The Boulder edition was the first JLF extension festival to take place on American soil, and recently received a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant for its literary programming. 

ZEE JLF Colorado runs at the Boulder Public Library Sept. 20 - 22, 2019.