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Festival co-directors William Dalrymple; Namita Gokhale; a Nagada performance at the Jaipur Literature Festival curtain-raiser in the city on Tuesday

The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), literally the largest spectacle of its kind announced its final line-up for its 2015 edition at a curtain-raiser function at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi on Tuesday. Scribes of all persuasion jostled with publishers and editors at the event, which saw a panel discussion and a Nagada performance. Moderated by festival producer Sanjoy K Roy, the discussion, which included as panelists politician Shashi Tharoor, author and advertising honcho Anuja Chauhan, diplomat and writer Navtej Sarna and publisher Urvashi Butalia, tackled the age-old debate of fiction vs non-fiction as well as the future of the latter in India. Festival co-directors William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale spoke about their expectations for the upcoming edition (the festival having started in 2006) and announced the line-up, which includes 234 speakers and 117 musicians. Besides authors from across the subcontinent and abroad, there’s cinema thespians Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi; Chief Editor of The Indian Express and author Raj Kamal Jha; Irani author Sahar Delijani; and Chinese authors-in-exile Jung Chang and Ma Jian, among others. Better start reading up.

JLF is on from January 21 to 25.