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Kriti Literary Festival

kritifestival

About Me


Welcome to the Midwest's Only
South Asian Literary Festival!

www.desilit.org/kriti.html
DesiLit is delighted to announce the 2007 Kriti Festival, to be held in Chicago April 26-29, 2007. Mark your calendars!
Kriti will be a four-day event celebrating South Asian and diaspora literature, with panel discussions, performances, readings, music and song, storytelling for kids, and much more!
At our 2005 festival we had 30 visiting writers, editors and agents, and huge fun -- for more info on that festival, take a look at our archive .
Guest of Honor: Anita Desai
Anita Desai , award-winning Indian novelist, short-listed for the Booker Prize three times. Author of Fasting, Feasting; Baumgartner's Bombay; Clear Light of Day; and In Custody, which was made into a Merchant/Ivory film starring Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, and Om Puri. (Her daughter, Kiran Desai, recently won the 2006 Booker Prize.)
Register for the festival today!
Advance prices:
    All-Weekend Festival Pass (Thurs-Sun): $60 ($30 student/senior) Friday Day Pass: $30 ($20 student/senior) Saturday Day Pass: $35 ($25 student/senior) Voices of Resistance 6 only (Friday evening): $8

Click here to register today!
    We're also offering passes on a sliding scale. If you can't afford the full price, please email [email protected] and ask for a discount. UIC & Roosevelt Univ. students, staff, and faculty admitted FREE to most events, but you need to pre-register!

For full details, see our registration page .
Schedule
Preliminary Full Festival Schedule (.doc file, 40K)
Panel Topics & Descriptions (.doc file, 40K)
Thursday, April 26 (Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave.)
    5:00-5:30pm: Opening reception 5:30-8:00pm: Rapid-fire reading by attending panelists
    (free and open to the public)

Friday, April 27 (UIC Student Center, 750 S. Halsted)
    10:00am: Registration opens, Writing workshop 11:00am-5:00pm: Panels, readings, film screenings 5:00-5:30pm: Anita Desai reception 5:30-6:30pm: Anita Desai Keynote Speech 7:00-9:30pm: Voices of Resistance 6
    (presented in collaboration with SAPAC ) 9:30pm-1:30am: Funkadesi show at Fitzgerald's
    (separate cover charge)

Saturday, April 28 (UIC Student Center, 750 S. Halsted)
    9:00am: Registration opens, Writing workshop 10:00am-7:00pm: Panels, readings, film screenings, art show 11:30am-12:30pm: Anita Desai reading & signing 5:00-6:30pm: Rasaka Theatre performance
    (Desi Women of the Diaspora) 8:00-10:00pm: Open Mic hosted by Yesha Naik, Film screening

Sunday, April 29 (UIC Student Center, 750 S. Halsted)
    9:00am: Registration opens, Writing workshop 10:00am-3:00pm: Panels, readings, film screenings 2:00-4:00pm: Maahaul Indian classical music concert
    at Hull House Museum, 800 S. Halsted ( details here )

Film Screenings
Sancharram ("The Journey")
2004 | 107 mins
Director: Ligy Pullapally
Kiran is mortified by her growing lesbian desire for the effervescent Delilah, in an idyllic Indian village where arranged marriage is the only acceptable form of coupling. Winner of the Chicago Award for Best Film (40th Chicago International Film Festival). Malayalam with English subtitles.
Plus many more presented in partnership with
3rd I Chicago

Sponsors
Major Sponsors:
UIC Asian American Resource and Cultural Center
Roosevelt University MFA Program in Creative Writing
Thanks for support from:
3rd I Chicago
Columbia College MFA Program in Creative Writing
Northwestern University English Department
Rasaka Theatre Company
Roosevelt University Women’s and Gender Studies Program
South Asian Progressive Action Collective
Learn all about the festival at
www.desilit.org/kriti.html

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My Interests

Confirmed Panelists
(click here for full bios)
updated 4/23/07:

Vidhu Aggarwal ,
poet/writer/artist/
professor
Shobhan Bantwal ,
writer
Sita Bhaskar ,
writer
Champa Bilwakesh ,
writer
Marina Bhudos ,
writer/professor
Anita Chandwaney ,
actress/playwright/
director
Archana Chowhan ,
writer
Madhuri Deshmukh ,
professor
V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan ,
writer/journalist
Anna Ghosh ,
agent
Anjali Goyal ,
editor
Kanak Hota, Ph.D. ,
academic
Gitanjali Kapila ,
filmmaker
Asha Kasbekar ,
writer/film & drama critic
Anita Kesavan ,
writer/editor
Vijay Lakshmi ,
writer/professor
Hari Lamba ,
writer/engineer
Marina Lewis ,
magazine editor
Sharmili Majmudar ,
writer/poet
John P. Matthew ,
poet/writer
Hemant Mehta ,
writer
Anil Menon ,
writer
Mary Anne Mohanraj ,
writer/professor
Sushil Nachnani ,
writer
Sandhya Nankani ,
writer/teacher/editor
Monica Pradhan ,
writer
Ligy Pullapally ,
filmmaker
Imi Rashid ,
writer
Sankar Roy ,
poet/editor
Sarwat Rumi ,
performance poet
Mukta Sambrani ,
poet/teacher
Shyam Selvadurai ,
writer
Prema Srinivasan ,
poet/writer
Visi Tilak ,
writer
Deepak Unnikrishnan ,
writer
Alamelu Vairavan ,
writer/culinary instructor
Rachna Vohra ,
poet/writer
Naazish YarKhan ,
teacher/writer/publicist/
editor

Read our new interview in India Currents Magazine:
Uniting Desi Writers and Readers

Meet the planning team!
Festival Chair:
Mary Anne Mohanraj
Assistant Chair:
Sophia Sheikh
PR/Marketing:
Karin McKie , Ramona Gupta , Uma Dabhade, Devi Bhaduri
Design:
Satya Gummuluri
General Staff:
Shilpa Chaddha, Anu Sharma, Ritu Arora, Nikhil Trivedi

www.desilit.org/
kriti.html

Heroes:



My Blog

Thank you!

To all our friends, Thank you for all your support throughout the planning of this festival. We hope those of you who were able to join us this weekend had as much of an amazing time as we did. We're ...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:19:00 PST

4/29/07: The final day has arrived!

One more day to go, friends, and it's a good one! Here are the highlights of Sunday's schedule: 9:00am: Registration opens, plus a writing workshop 10:00-3:00: Panels, readings, film screenings 2:00-4...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:06:00 PST

4/28/07: Join us for Day 3!

Friday was exhilarating, and we can't wait for all the great events we have planned for Saturday: 9:00am: Registration opens, plus a writing workshop 10:00-7:00: Panels, readings, film screenings, art...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Sat, 28 Apr 2007 10:36:00 PST

4/27/07: Day 2 of the Kriti Festival is here!

The festival is in full swing! Today we start at 10:00am. Here's what's on the docket: 10:00am: Registration opens (your faithful MySpace manager will be working the reg. table from 10am-2pm, so come ...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:23:00 PST

Chicago Reader recommends us!

Thanks to the Chicago Reader for recommending the Kriti Festival in its latest issue: http://www.chicagoreader.com/listings/static/readings.html#1 9 We appreciate the support!  ...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:33:00 PST

4/26/07: Opening reception & Rapid-fire reading TONIGHT!

It's finally here, folks! Tonight is the opening night of the Kriti South Asian Literary Festival! Join us 5:00-8:00pm at Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., for the opening reception and a r...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:14:00 PST

4/24/07: Special Discount for our MySpace friends!

MySpace Friends, To thank you for all your support these last few months, we'd like to offer you a limited number of Kriti Festival passes at a very special discounted rate: $20 off an All-Weeken...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:51:00 PST

Voices of Resistance 6 - Friday night, April 27

Friends,   One of the highlights of this year's Kriti Festival is our collaboration with the South Asian Progressive Action Collective on   Voices of Resistance 6 an annual exploration and...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 03:51:00 PST

4/21/07: Buy your advance tickets now!

Hello, friends! We've been a little quiet here on MySpace for the last few days, but as you can imagine, we are extremely busy making the final arrangements for the Kriti Festival! Have you bought you...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:57:00 PST

4/13/07: Panelist Hemant Mehta featured in Chicago Reader

Recently announced Kriti panelist Hemant Mehta, author of I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist's Eyes, is featured in this week's Chicago Reader: http://www.chicagoreader.com/featu...
Posted by Kriti Literary Festival on Sat, 14 Apr 2007 04:11:00 PST