Colombo Literary Festival opens today Trilingual Literary Festival with literature, cinema, music under one roof

Team behind the CLF and related events

• Going beyond literature, the festival will have an evening of music comprising of curated musical segments
• The Colombo Literary Festival brings together stories from across the island and beyond our shores, with a simple intention

Opening a new chapter in the Sri Lankan literary landscape and book publishing, the first ever Colombo Literary Festival (CLF), will be opened today (July 24) and will go on till July 29 with multiple events including discussions, talks, music and cinema at the Independence Arcade Premises Colombo 07, and at the Goethe Institute. 

The special feature of this festival is that it will run as a Trilingual Literary Festival and would bring all communities with events taking place in all three languages Sinhala, Tamil and English under one roof. 

Organised by Colombo Literary Festival (Pvt) Ltd, headed by five leading publishers in the country, the six-day long festival will open gtom  9 AM till till 9 PM daily. 

Going beyond an ordinary book fair, Sri Lanka literary and art lovers at this festival will have the opportunity to listen to a vast array of renowned local and international authors, critics, and scholars. 

The CLF will feature a series of deep discussions and intellectual dialogues exploring current trends in literature, socio-political impacts, and its future direction.

“The Colombo Literary Festival brings together stories from across the island and beyond our shores, with a simple intention: to spark a deeper love for reading, film, music, and creative expression,” the organisers stated.

Intellectual dialogues and panel discussions: Thought-provoking sessions steered by local and foreign scholars, driving conversations across diverse themes, book exhibition, an opportunity to read and purchase high-quality local and international publications under one roof would be the key features of the Festival.

Going beyond literature, the festival will have an evening of music comprising of curated musical segments designed to complement and add vibrance to the literary experience.

The CLF will be opened by the chief guest, one of India’s bestselling authors and author of twenty-eight books, both fiction and non-fiction --  Dr Shashi Tharoor. 

The CLF is organised under the leadership of renowned publisher Janaka Inimankada, the founder of Vidarshana Publishers who serves as  chairman,  while a group of leading publishers and entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka - Chandu Haputhanthri as Managing Director of Sarasavi Bookshops, Dinushi Abeywickrama Weeraman, a Director of Samayawardhana Bookshop and Managing Director of Samayawardhana Publishers, Pradeep Samaranayake,  Director of Expographic Books (Pvt) Ltd, and Darshana Ralapanawe is the Director of Darshana Marketing Enterprises serves as directors of CLF. 

More details on the festival could be obtained by logging  in to https://colombolitfest.lk/