Chennai’s fourth annual literary festival Lit for Life begins today, with this year’s event themed with the slogan ‘Beyond Words’.

Held on the same weekend as the Chennai Book Fair, the festival features a who’s who of Indian and foreign writers publishers, including Aravind Adiga, Jim Crace, Abraham Verghese, Ashwin Sanghi, Ravi Subramanian, Anita Nair and Naresh Fernandes. Festival partner The Hindu reports that Romila Thapar and William Dalrymple will also present lectures, while Naomi Wolf, Barkha Dutt, Mamang Dai, Nandini Krishnan, Ira Trivedi and Madhuri Banerjee will all discuss the condition of women in modern India.

Jugal Mody in conversation with Lalita Iyer at last year’s Lit for Life Festival (Image: Ashwin R., Facebook)

Music lovers will also be catered for, with carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna in conversation with chairman of cultural academy Kalakshetra, Gopal Krishna Gandhi. Rounding out the weekend of culture, and one year on from the controversy surrounding his movie Vishwaroopam, Kamal Haasan and K. Hariharan will discuss the moral pressures facing Indian cinema.

Monday will see the announcement of the winner of 2014’s The Hindu Prize for Fiction. This esteemed prize is awarded yearly, recognising the contribution of Indian writers to literary culture. The shortlist for this year’s prize includes The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph, Foreign by Sonora Jha, Roll of Honour by Amandeep Sandhu, Vanity Bagh by Anees Salim and Another Man’s Wife and Other Stories by Manjul Bajaj.

Journalist Angela Saini, author Mukul Deva and writer Anuja Chauhan at the New Delhi event of last year’s Lit for Life festival (Image: Rajeev Bhatt, The Hindu)

The Hindu Lit for Life Festival is being held at the Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall in Chetpet today, tomorrow and on Monday. On 8th February it will appear for one day in the capital Delhi. For more information, go to The Hindu Lit for Life Festival’s website.