Giuseppe Aquila, CEO of Montegrappa Italia, says, ‘We are delighted to be involved with the Festival and particularly in championing new writers. We strongly support any initiative that encourages writing, and this competition is a wonderful way to discover and encourage new, talented novelists, to provide them with much-needed initial exposure to the literary world.’
Matrix Distributors, partner for Montegrappa in India, reached out to prominent literary figures, in support of two major literary festivals.
Recognised internationally as one of India’s most prestigious literary festivals, Tata Literature Live welcomed over 120 celebrated writers and thinkers from across the world, who converged at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), India’s premier cultural institution, to savour Mumbai’s most eagerky-anticipated literary festival, which included Tata Literature Live! First Book Award and Landmark Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award.
The writers and theatre personalities included Khushwant Singh – life time achievement awardee at the fest, Shobha De, Nicholas Hytner, Ian Jack and Sir Mark Tully – Padma Bhushan awardee in India.
Others notables included Vikas Swarup – author of Q & A, which inspired the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, Tavleen Singh, Sucheta Dalal, Philip Ardagh, Prasoon Joshi, Oliver Tallec, acclaimed Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah, Meghnad Desai, Martin Wright, Girish Karnad, noted sports author Boria Majumdar and Alyque Padamsee, among others.
To observe the centenary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Rabindranath Tagore, the festival proudly launched Harvard professor Sugata Bose’s new translation of Gitanjali. Psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar’s book, Young Tagore, was also released at the event.
This 3-day event, attended by over 12,000 visitors, witnessed celebrated writers from across the globe discussing provocative topics and hosting engaging workshops especially for children – a fantastic evening’s entertainment.
Panel discussions ranged from ‘Is Marriage A Word Or A Sentence?’ to ‘Is Romance Is Past Its Sell-By Date?’, debated by best-selling novelists Anuja Chauhan and Ravinder Singh. Writer Mohammed Hanif and film-maker Dibakar Banerjee chaired ‘Why Love And Violence Often Cohabit’.
Among the book launches were the controversial account of the Mumbai terror attacks, The Siege, Mary Kom’s biography, Gulzar’s Hindi For Heart and Bachi Karkaria’s book on Bombay, as part of The Times of India’s 175-year celebrations. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Ruskin Bond. The event was attended by eminent personalities including Shoba De, Chetan Bhagat, Vikas Swarup, Gulzar, Amish, Prasoon Joshi, William Dalrymple and Hanif Qureshi.
Montegrappa honoured each author with a NeroUno fountain pen at both events. During the book signing sessions, all the authors cherished the experience of signing with Montegrappa pens. Authors including Philip Ardagh, William Dalrymple, Shobha De and Anil Dharkar are proud owners of Montegrappa Parola fountain pens, which were given to them in Dubai during last year’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
Montegrappa wishes good fortune to all the aspiring writers who have submitted their entries for this year’s First Fiction Competition at Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, in Dubai.
Since 1912, for more than a century, Montegrappa has been manufacturing high-quality writing instruments in the same historic building in Bassano del Grappa, North East Italy.