The DC South Asian Literary Festival (DCSALF), a forum for South Asian creatives to voice their stories, will open with a discussion featuring Dr Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Indian Parliament and author of 24 books, at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville, MD.
Organized annually by the DC South Asian Arts Council Inc (DCSAACI), the festival will open on May 5, 2023 and will run in person for two days, after which it will run virtually till May 14, 2023.
The festival will host engaging conversations, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions featuring renowned authors such as Arundhathi Subramaniam, a Sahitya Academi Award recipient, Chitra Banerjee Divakurni, Rakhshanda Jalil, Dr. Anita Nahal, Dr. Ali Madeed Hashmi, Raza Mir, Naheed Phiroze Patel, Sara Chansarkar, Dr. Harish Naval, Sunanda Mehta, Narendra Chauhan, Sunayana Kachroo Bhide, Surinder Deol, Soma Bose, Lopa Banerjee, Gopal Lahiri Basudhara Roy, and Seema Sirohi, among others.
"We envision DCSALF to be a forum that stimulates important discussions about inequality, divide, immigration, LGBTQ challenges, social justice, and other South Asian Diaspora issues and challenges," the organization said in an official statement.
DCSAACI is a non-profit dedicated to hosting, producing, and promoting South Asian arts and culture programming. Started kn in 2021, the festival was opened by Javed Akhtar and in 2022 with Gulzar and Late Dr. Gopi Chand Narang.
