Koraput: Come April 7 and 8, the tribal-dominated Koraput district, which often hit headlines for wrong reasons like Maoists violence and starvation deaths, will saw the presence of top literary figures under one roof on the occasion of first edition of Kalinga Literary Festival in Koraput.

The literary festival, organised by the Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF), will bring leading Odia and local literary legends to one platform to discuss local culture, festivities and traditions.

Addressing a press meet here today, Debashis Samantaray, Coordinator of KLF in Koraput, said: “The local culture, festivities and oral traditions in the Koraput Valley will be the highlight in the event. He said Kalinga Literary Festival is keen to sustain this platform for an ongoing dialogue between authors, writers, poets and performers of Odisha.”

Leading names in the Odia literature worl such as Haldhar Nag, Sumani Jhodia, Debiprasanna Pattanaik, Hrushikesh Panda, Debadas Chhotaray, Hussain Rabi Gandhi , Achuyt Das,  Mahendra Mishra , Jyoti Nanda, Bipin Nayak, Narayan Panda , Surya Mishra , Rakhyak Nayak, Biyot Projna Tripathy , Gourhari Das ,  Jalandhar Swain ,Jagabandhu Samal ,Laxmikanta Padhi,Alok Kumar Baral ,Sushanta Nayak Chandrakanta Biswal,Dwiti Chandra Sahu, Pritidhara Samal ,Madhuri Panda Kedar Mishra  among others will attent the two-day event.

On this occasion, Koraput Literary Award, a life time achievement award will be given to few including youth and seniors from the Koraput Valley and have made inspiring contribution to literature.

Besides, the organizer has decided to confer the KLF Koraput Sahitya Samman on 8 literary personalities from the Koraput valley. They are Krushna Chandra Singh  (veteran freedom fighter social worker bhudan karmee) , Er Dasarathi Nanda ( literary critic and essayist) , Narayan Panda (fictionist),  Chandrama Balia , Chakrapani Parichha (noted poet), Laxaman Mandra (from Malkangiri research personality for Banda community and language),  Mahendra Mishra ( lingustic expert and resource person for tribal language and folklore ), Satyanarayan Gantayat ( literary activist and sattire writer from Rayagada) .

“Kalinga Literary Festival in Koraput is an initiative to reach out to different regions of Odisha in order to get access to life and culture, language and literature, performers and writers. Kalinga Literary Festival in Koraput reaches out to entire Koraput valley and Southern Odisha, the region rich with art, culture, and natural beauty,” said Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Founder of Kalinga Literary Festival.