Kalinga Literary Festival 2026 will feature Booker Prize winners and 400+ global speakers, with sessions on literature, arts, policy, science, and social issues
OdishaPlus Bureau
The organisers of the Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) on Friday announced the first list of speakers to grace the 2026 edition of the event, scheduled to be held from January 8 to 11 at Mayfair Lagoon.
According to the organisers, the annual festival will host more than 400 participants across five venues. The first list of speakers announced includes prominent Booker Prize awardees Deepa Bhasthi, Banu Mushtaq, and Daisy Rockwell, along with a distinguished lineup of authors and intellectuals such as Anand Neelkanthan, Vikas Swarup, Ranjit Hoskote, Divya Dutta, Subroto Bagchi, Nila Madhab Panda, Aparajita Sarangi, MP ( Bhubaneswar), Sujit Kumar (MP Rajya Sabha) and many more.
As per the announcement, the sessions will cover themes related to literature, the arts, public policy, science, technology, and social issues. Topics listed for the 2026 edition include fiction, poetry, cinema, sustainability, geopolitics, mental health, artificial intelligence, gender, identity and translation.
Kalinga Literary Festival CEO Ashok Kumar Bal said the 2026 edition of KLF would be “a landmark event rooted in India’s literary soul yet open to global thought,” adding that the event remains a reminder that “storytelling is humanity’s most enduring technology.” Festival Co-Director Rashmi Ranjan Parida said the festival aims to facilitate exchanges between speakers from various fields.
Alongside the main festival, the organisers will conduct the 10th Kalinga Art Festival, featuring visual artists and related exhibits.