The Hay Festival Kerala begins on November 17

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In its second edition in God’s Own Country, the international literary event, Hay Festival, will feature a good number of authors from the vernacular. The opening session, a conversation between M T Vasudevan Nair and M Mukundan signals the effort on the part of the organisers to make good for the scant representation of regional writing at last year’s Hay.  With almost 25 percent of the participating authors from various parts of Kerala, it will be considerable improvement on last year’s line up, said Shashi Tharoor MP, at a press meet held on Tuesday.“It will be an opportunity to rub shoulders with stalwarts and to bathe in the literary culture,” he said. Tharoor, who has participated in the Hay Festival since 1992 and was instrumental in bringing it to Kerala, was hailed as the Father of the Hay Festival Kerala by the organisers. “I am happy that Hay has been able to contribute to the economy and tourism of Thiruvanathapuram,” the MP said.  Lynde Cook, Executive Producer of Hay Festival Kerala, said that this year there would be focus on poetry in response to the warm reception that poetry sessions enjoyed in 2010. She added that the event seeks to celebrate the languages of the world and the issues of the day by extending its accent on aspects such as films, news etc apart from literature in the basic sense.  Poems from the translation workshop involving poets from India and Wales, which came about after the last year’s festival, will be presented during the event. Poets working in languages from around the world - Spanish, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Welsh, Icelandic and English - will be seen alongside an exclusive Poetry Gala with K Satchidanandan, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Arundhati Subramaniam. Chinese author Jung Chang will be seen in conversation with Tharoor on the socio-political scenario in China. Australian author and academic Germaine Greer speak on the romantic and erotic in Shakespeare’s masterpieces and BBC World Anchor Nik Gowing will chair a debate about energy production.