Bengaluru: The third edition of the Book Brahma Literature Festival has been launched in Bengaluru, bringing all literature lovers and professionals together from all over India in a grand fest of books, languages and cultures.

The literary main event of the festival will take place from August 21 to 23 at the St. John’s Auditorium Complex in Koramangala after the one-week-long cultural festival that was initiated on August 14.

Organized by the Book Brahma Foundation, the festival has become an important literary forum for Indian-language literature. The festival's programming encompasses various perspectives from Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and English literature.

The 2026 edition will feature well over 400 participants including writers, speakers, artists, publishers and more, with close to 200 discussion sessions in nine venues planned at once. Various topics, ranging from literature, society, history, culture, publishing, translation and many others will be discussed.

Some of the key participants of the 2026 edition include writers and cultural personalities such as Ramesh Aravind, Anita Agnihotri, Arunava Sinha, Benyamin, Perumal Murugan, Salma, Imayam, K.R. Meera, T.M. Krishna, Paul Zacharia and Girish Kasaravalli and others.

Various literary spaces in the nine venues have been created, each of which features a unique theme and target audience. This includes the central Mantapa stage, Angala (literature in the language of Kannada), Akshara, Mathana, Mukha Mukhi, NewGen, Anavarana, Chinnaraloka (children’s literature) and PoeTTree (dedicated to poetry).

At the same time, the festival is not confined solely to discussions on literary matters. There are such venues as the BBLF Book World that unites books and publishers, as well as flea and handicrafts markets and the food court.

Special programs and cultural events have also been lined up for the event in addition to the festival itself. These include talks by filmmaker Natesh Hegde and screening of Vaghachipani on August 21, sitar and Carnatic vocal concerts on August 22, and Hindustani and Yakshagana concerts on August 23.

Awards in literary categories form an integral part of this year’s festival. The awards to be conferred at this festival include Book Brahma Kadambari Puraskara, Book Brahma Swatantrotsava Katha Sparde, Book Brahma – Bookworm English Fiction of the Year Award and Book Brahma Literary Award.

The Book Brahma-Bookworm English Fiction of the Year Award was initiated in 2026, and it celebrates a work of fiction that has been initially written in a South Indian language and then translated into English. This award comes with a cash prize of ₹1 lakh to be equally divided between the original author and the translator.

The Book Brahma Literature Festival was founded in 2024 in order to give a special literary platform to Indian-language literature. These festivals have already gathered hundreds of authors and speakers and become known as an essential meeting place for literature fans.

The fact of attention to several Indian languages, translations, and intercultural exchange makes the 2026 festival a step forward. With the intention of showing the diversity and richness of India's current literary culture, it unites different literary traditions which usually do not meet in one place.

Attending the Book Brahma Literature Festival is free, but registration is necessary.