Laid-backLitFest
Even been to a Lit Fest that felt relaxed?
Laidback?
The folks at the Himalayan Writing Retreat felt the world needed one, and came up with this…
Zero travel. No hotels. No Parking blues.
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No queues
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One session at a time (Never miss one)
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On your screen
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Attend in your pyjamas, uncombed.
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Zero carbon footprint
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Zero travel. No hotels. No Parking blues. + No queues + One session at a time (Never miss one) + On your screen + Attend in your pyjamas, uncombed. + Zero carbon footprint +
Save on sanitiser - no germs to catch! 😊
5 PM
Every Sunday
Chat with the high priests of literature and creativity
Authors, Poets
And other deeply talented creators
Get Signed Copies
Of books by these talented folks
Attend from anywhere
All you need is a device and data
All this for less than the price of a Venti Caramel Java Chip Iced Frappuccino (yes, that’s one drink) at Starbucks.
The first Laid-back Lit Fest starts on 1st March, 2026.
Seats are limited.
No recordings.
You’ll find the detailed schedule here.
If your interest is writing, not just reading, click here.
Program
LLF - March ’26
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Deepa Bhasthi
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 for translation of Heart Lamp along with Banu Mushtaq.
Her cultural criticism, essays, columns and journalism have been published extensively in Indian and international publications, anthologies and art book projects.
We’ll talk about Indian Literature, translations, and how it feels to win an International Booker.
Purnima Tammireddy
Purnima Tammireddy is an Indian author, translator, and publisher working in Telugu and English.
She is the author of the Telugu short-story collection Emotional Pregnancy. She was a Writer-in-Residence at the Sangam House International Writers Residency (2022).
Her translation work includes Telugu translations of Manto’s Siya Hashiye and Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar. Her recent English translations include Volga’s On the Banks of the Pampa (HarperCollins) and The Fire of Defiance – Mallu Swarajyam, the memoir of the Telangana Armed Movement leader.
In 2022, she founded Elami Publications, an independent Telugu publishing house. Earlier, in 2009, she co-founded pustakam.net, one of India’s earliest platforms for book reviews.
A tech professional by training, she currently lives in Bengaluru. More about her work is available at purnimatammireddy.com.
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Dibakar Banerjee
National Award-winning director of “Khosla ka Ghosla”, LSD, Byomkesh Bakshi, “Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye”, etc.
He will be chatting with Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express Film Critic and author of two books. Shubhra also teaches this course on film appreciation at the Himalayan Writing Retreat.
We’ll chat about film, culture (and what drives what), self-censoring and much else.
(Other panelists to be confirmed) -
Panel Discussion on Ghostwriting
We’ll talk about what ghostwriting means to readers and writers. Taking credit, Limitations, Ethics, etc.
Panelists:
Narayani Basu
Narayani Basu is a historian and foreign policy analyst. A graduate in history and Chinese foreign policy from the University of Delhi, she is the author of The United States and China: Competing Discourses of Regionalism in East Asia.Namrata
Namrata is an experienced ghostwriter and editor with close to fifteen years in the field and over twenty-five ghostwritten titles. Known for her deep interviewing and editorial rigour, she specialises in transforming complex ideas into clear, compelling books.Binati Sheth
Binati is a book writer and editor who loves languages, words, and books. She works as a ghostwriter, editor and writing guide for aspiring authors.
She writes essays on the complex simplicity of the human experience (inexperience).
She blogs about things she is learning and objects that interest her.
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How India is changing:
Panel discussionPanelists:
Rahul Pandita
Rahul Pandita is a conflict writer who has reported extensively from war zones, including Iraq and Sri Lanka. He is the author of Our Moon has Blood Clots.Santosh Desai
Santosh Desai, author of the book Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India and the columnist behind the long-running column 'City City Bang Bang' in The Times of India, is regarded as one of India's leading social commentators.Vandana Vasudevan
Vandana Vasudevan has written extensively for mainstream newspapers and has been a columnist for several years for Mint and DNA. Besides OTP Please, she is also the author of Urban Villager: Life In An Indian Satellite Town and Tough Customer.
Moderator: Chetan Mahajan -
Panel Discussion:
विनोद कुमार शुक्ल जी का जीवन और उनकी रचनाएँ. (The Life and work of Vinod Kumar Shukla).
Panelists:Shailesh Bharatvasi
Shailesh Bharatwasi is the founder and editor-in-chief of Hind Yugm, one of the most popular publishing houses in Hindi. Through his conscientious editorial perspective, Bharatwasi has created a new tradition of Hindi reading and writing amongst the youth. He is also the progenitor of a new writing trend in Hindi known as Nayi Wali Hindi, through which Hind Yugm has worked to highlight and develop the literary and linguistic trends of the new century. Thanks to the ˜Nayi Wali Hindi” movement, he has brought millions of readers to the Hindi publishing hemisphere.
(Other panelists to be confirmed)
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Rana Dasgupta (to be confirmed)
On his latest book, After Nations.He will be chatting with Chetan Mahajan. In addition to his new book “After Nations”. We’ll also talk about the business of awards, and how it feels to win multiple awards across genres, and what he plans to teach in the Himalayas this October (Know More about the course).
Bookstore
You can buy your favourite author’s books. We’ll have the book signed and shipped to your home address. No extra fee will be charged – only the MRP.
Signed books may take from 7 to 14 days, so order now.
We have partnered with Kunzum to get these signed copies to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The Laid-back Lit Fest has been created for the same reason as any other lit fest - for the love of reading. In waiting areas, airports and metros we see fewer people reading books. We believe the more conversations and attention that literature and authors get, the better.
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Yes, we know that India has a huge number of Lit Fests. In fact, we made a list here.
The fest is online for many reasons:
Some people are unable to travel because of personal reasons like jobs, exams and caregiving.
Others are unwilling - they don’t want to deal with the hassle of travel
Yet others abhor the crowds and chaos of physical Lit Fests (like the quiet mountain dwellers at the Himalayan Writing Retreat [Link]).
Lit fests explode in winter's glow ❄️📚—3-4 months — then BAM! A literary Sahara sucks the fun dry till next season. 🏜️ (at least for those unwilling to travel to the mountains. Or the southern Hemisphere)
Online means fewer flights and a smaller carbon footprint.
The Laid-back Lit Fest allows everyone to engage online with Artists and talented craftspeople throughout the year, irrespective of the weather, without ever leaving their home. You chat with authors who have done research and understand things deeply, and many others.
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Life is full of tough choices already. Concurrent sessions are yet another difficult choice one. We want to reduce FOMO, so we don’t want anyone to miss out on anything.
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At this point, no. We are open to any suggestions or ideas you may have. You can send us your suggestions here.
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We had to start somewhere. We are open to any suggestions or ideas you may have. You can send us your suggestions here.
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We just figured that will be a good frequency. We are open to any suggestions or ideas you may have. You can send us your suggestions here.
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No. There is a preselected set of books that we have available that we will have signed and shipped. There may be some (but not all) books by a particular participating author in our store.
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We have tied up with two Indie Bookstores across India to start with. These bookstores will have our authors sign copies, and then will ship them to your home.
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No. You cannot sign up for individual sessions.
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No. We offer no discounts.
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Flipkart and Amazon are incredible conveniences. However, we love traditional bookstores and want to encourage them.
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Please reach out to Utkarsh Srivastava from Kunzum, on this number 9205777295.
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No
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Yes. We welcome your inputs. You can send us your suggestions here.
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The Himalayan Writing Retreat has started this Lit Fest. Click here to know more about us.
Created in 2016, The Himalayan Writing Retreat is today a favoured destination for readers looking for solitude and like-minded people. It is also a second home to writers, poets and other creators looking for learning and inspiration. The retreat is a residential facility located in the Kumaon region of the Indian Himalayas. The retreat is consistently rated 5-star. It was co-founded by published authors Chetan Mahajan and Vandita Dubey. The Himalayan Writing Retreat caters to domestic as well as International audiences. While it hosts most of its courses in the Himalayas, in 2025 it also hosted events in the UAE and Mongolia. The domestic courses include poetry, creative writing, non-fiction writing, Hindi writing, translation, storytelling, script-writing, film-appreciation etc. Our faculty members, in alphabetical order, include Annie Zaidi, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Devdutt Pattanaik, Dibakar Banerjee, Gurcharan Das, Jerry Pinto, Manav Kaul, Ranjit Hoskote, Shekhar Kapur, Varun Grover and others. International Faculty members include Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Erika Krouse, Kathleen Rooney and others from the USA, Rana Dasgupta and Jacqui Lofthouse from the UK, and Kelly Rigby from Australia.
Many of our Alums have gone on to study overseas. The Himalayan Writing Retreat is also one of the selected partners for the French Residency under the “Villa Swagatam” initiative of the French Institute. Our Charitable initiative, the First Draft Club, supports the NGO-run Chirag School and early-stage writers. We raise approximately 1/3 of the school’s annual budget through the First Draft Club and other fundraising activities.
To support writers, we run the Himalayan Emerging Writers Residency andalso the HWR Khozem Merchant non-fiction fellowship.
Our Book Club with 550+ members is also free.
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Most physical Lit Fests have sponsors and, therefore, are able to subsidise the participant fees. The Laidback Lit Fest has no sponsor, and so we charge a nominal amount of INR 500 from our participants to make this Lit Fest possible.
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The funds collected through the small fee we charge go into organising the list fest. Any leftover amount goes to support aspiring authors by way of the residencies and subsidised events that HWR offers.
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That is probably because it is not readily available now. Hopefully, the author in question turns up at an event / physical list fest, and you have it signed there.
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We host reading retreats 3-4 times every year. During these reading retreats, participants come to the retreat to find solitude, silence and read. They also find like-minded people and excellent hospitality.
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All writers stumble. Many of us hit the same roadblocks. Writers – like all humans - benefit from community. It helps us to know that we didn’t stumble alone. That our struggles are not unique.
The First Draft Club is a community of writers, poets and authors. Some are first-timers, others are published and have won awards. But nobody is alone. In the FDC, we share challenges and discuss writerly topics. Some of us edit, some compose, and many write.As a part of the FDC, you also automatically get to attend the Laidback Lit Fest.
The FDC is probably India’s most interactive support group for writers. To learn more, click here.
Speakers
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Binati Sheth
Binati Sheth is a book writer and editor who loves languages, words, and books. She works as a ghostwriter, editor and writing guide for aspiring authors.
She writes essays on the complex simplicity of the human experience (inexperience).
She blogs about things she is learning and objects that interest her.
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Deepa Bhasthi
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 for Heart Lamp.
Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and literary translator based in Kodagu, southern India. Her cultural criticism, essays, columns and journalism have been published extensively in Indian and international publications, anthologies and art book projects.
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Dibakar Banerjee
Dibakar Banerjee started his career in advertising, being a feature filmmaker, he still continues to be an ad-filmmaker.He also runs his own film production company.
As a filmmaker, he is known for Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, both of which won National Film Awards.His next film was the experimental Love Sex Aur Dhokha. It was followed by the political drama Shanghai and Bombay Talkies, which was made as a celebration of the centenary year of Indian cinema. He has also created Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, Titli, Ghost Stories and Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar Hai.
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Namrata P
Namrata is an experienced ghostwriter and editor with close to fifteen years in the field and over twenty-five ghostwritten titles.
Known for her deep interviewing and editorial rigour, she specialises in transforming complex ideas into clear, compelling books.
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Narayani Basu
Narayani Basu is a historian and foreign policy analyst.
A graduate in history and Chinese foreign policy from the University of Delhi, she is the author of The United States and China: Competing Discourses of Regionalism in East Asia. She writes extensively on foreign policy for several acclaimed international journals while remaining actively involved with her parent discipline—modern Indian history.
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Purnima Tammireddy
Purnima Tammireddy is an Indian author, translator, and publisher working in Telugu and English. She is the author of the Telugu short-story collection Emotional Pregnancy. She was a Writer-in-Residence at the Sangam House International Writers Residency (2022).
Her translation work includes Telugu translations of Manto’s Siya Hashiye and Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar. Her recent English translations include Volga’s On the Banks of the Pampa (HarperCollins) and The Fire of Defiance – Mallu Swarajyam, the memoir of the Telangana Armed Movement leader.
In 2022, she founded Elami Publications, an independent Telugu publishing house. Earlier, in 2009, she co-founded pustakam.net, one of India’s earliest platforms for book reviews.
A tech professional by training, she currently lives in Bengaluru. More about her work is available at purnimatammireddy.com.
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Rana Dasgupta
Rana Dasgupta is an English novelist and essayist.
In 2010, The Daily Telegraph called him one of Britain's best novelists under 40. In 2014, Le Monde named him one of 70 people who are making the world of tomorrow. Among the prizes won by Dasgupta's works are the Commonwealth Prize and the Ryszard Kapuściński Award.
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Rahul Pandita
Rahul Pandita is a conflict writer who has reported extensively from war zones, including Iraq and Sri Lanka.
His vast experience in reporting on India's Maoist insurgency has resulted in two books: Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement and The Absent State. He is also the author of the best-selling memoir on Kashmir, Our Moon has Blood Clots. He is the recipient of the International Red Cross Award for conflict reporting.
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Santosh Desai
Santosh Desai, author of the book Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India and the columnist behind the long-running column 'City City Bang Bang' in The Times of India, is regarded as one of India's leading social commentators.
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Shailesh Bharatvasi
Shailesh Bharatwasi is the founder and editor-in-chief of Hind Yugm, one of the most popular publishing houses in Hindi.
Through his conscientious editorial perspective, Bharatwasi has created a new tradition of Hindi reading and writing amongst the youth. He is also the progenitor of a new writing trend in Hindi known as Nayi Wali Hindi, through which Hind Yugm has worked to highlight and develop the literary and linguistic trends of the new century. Thanks to the ˜Nayi Wali Hindi” movement, he has brought millions of readers to the Hindi publishing hemisphere.
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Vandana Vasudevan
Vandana Vasudevan has written extensively for mainstream newspapers and has been a columnist for several years for Mint and DNA.
She studied in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and had worked in the corporate sector for many years. She shifted career tracks and became a development sector professional, consulting for various national and international organisations after obtaining a PhD in urban development from the University of Grenoble, France. Besides OTP Please, she is also the author of Urban Villager: Life In An Indian Satellite Town and Tough Customer.