The festival will kick off on Saturday (Nov 9) and feature several segments, including a Children’s Corner, Book Street, Lekhakganj, a Youth Corner, and a Digital Reading Corner.

NBT's sales and marketing manager, Amit Singh, mentioned that 150 publisher stalls from across India will be featured in Book Street.

“This year’s theme focuses on celebrating various storytelling arts through events such as film festivals, puppetry, poetry, dastangoi, dance drama, and creative writing. Additionally, a Digital Reading Corner will also be included in the program,” Singh elaborated.

The festival will offer creative workshops for children and youth, alongside sessions led by well-known authors, educators, and artists. Some of the notable figures participating in the festival include filmmaker and author Muzaffar Ali, para-olympian Preeti Pal, and Sunira, dastango Himanshu Bajpai, singer Phunchok Ladakhi, authors Anand Neelkanthan and Ambalika Bhat, singer Indira Naik, and poet Chinmayi Tripathi.

“The festival aims to encourage reading among individuals of all ages. This year, we are introducing various forms of creative expression as part of the initiative,” Singh stated.

Throughout the nine days, the festival will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and cultural programs will commence daily at 6 p.m.