The South Asia Center (SAC) recently sat down with Alka Kurian, Associate Teaching Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at UW-Bothell and co-coordinator of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) Seattle, to reflect on the inaugural year of this exciting literary festival, which was cosponsored by the South Asia Center. JLF Seattle, the newest addition to the JLF family, brought together a diverse community of writers, artists, and thinkers this September to celebrate the power of literature. As the world’s largest literary event, JLF has been creating spaces for conversations on books, culture, and ideas for years.
Can you explain what the Jaipur Literature Festival is for those who don’t know?
The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) is the world’s largest literary event that takes place annually in Jaipur over five days. Produced by Teamwork Arts (TWA), this mammoth gathering of books and ideas is a democratic, inclusive, and accessible space, attracting more than a 250,000-strong audience in person and reaching over 25 million views online. JLF Seattle is the latest addition to the global outreach of the Jaipur Literature Festival, and part of the largest series of literary festivals organized across seven nations and 12 locations — Colorado, Houston, New York, North Carolina, Toronto, Belfast, London, Adelaide, Doha, Soneva Fushi, and Valladolid — sites to which the audience flocks year after year, in person and online.
Why was Seattle chosen as the location for JLF Seattle?
As a UNESCO City of Literature and the most educated city in the United States with an over 10,000-year-old literary legacy encompassing the oral traditions of Coast Salish peoples, Seattle represents a strong commitment to literature, fostering reading in all age groups, supporting the publishing industry and literary events, and offering a platform for writers in any language to connect with passionate readers. The city boasts a vibrant literary scene with numerous independent bookstores, libraries, presses, journals, book readings, and writer’s residences throughout the year. Seattle’s status as a major hub for technological innovation has also influenced its literary landscape, expanding access to literature, and promoting reading in new ways. Seattle’s diversity fosters inclusivity, supports social justice policies, and drives environmental consciousness, creating a welcoming community and shaping its progressive values.
What were your goals going into JLF Seattle?
JLF Seattle originated with the founding of the non-profit TRASAL (Traveling South Asian Literary Festival) in 2023. Through a variety of events, its goal is to unite diverse literary voices, foster conversations on key issues in South Asia and its diasporas, showcase the richness of literature — both award-winning and underrepresented, build a sense of community and invite cross-cultural dialogue, using literature as a powerful tool to understand various cultures and ways of life. In addition, our goal is to have JLF Seattle be TRASAL’s flagship event, embodying this vision.
Ijeoma Oluo, Sonora Jha, and Devika Rege during the panel on “Fiction, Faction and Uncomfortable Truths.” Courtesy of JLF Seattle
Who were some of the featured presenters?
There were nearly 30 presenters embodying a wide variety of literary genres: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, performance artists, singers, organisers of literary non-profits, academics and chefs.
What was the most memorable part of JLF Seattle for you?
The large number of people that attended the festival, making it a stunning success. According to TWA, who have observed the audience behavior of JLF events in other parts of the world over more than a decade, it’s rare for people to stay on for nearly all the sessions for the two and a half days of the festival.
Is there anything in the works for next year that people should be expecting?
We have already started planning next year’s JLF Seattle that will take place in the second or third weekend of September 2025. We are expecting an even bigger lineup of authors whose names will be announced soon.