Bhuabneswar, Dec 8: The seventh Odisha State Book Festival has commenced at the IDCO Exhibition Ground, Bhubaneswar, featuring a joint stall set up by Prameya, News-7, and SOA PPRACHIN. A daily quiz competition will be held at Stall Numbers F-2/7 and 8 starting Monday. Winners of the contest will receive attractive prizes, and the event will continue until the 17th of this month.

This year’s festival hosts around 550 stalls from within and outside the state, showcasing a wide range of books. Large crowds of young readers were seen thronging the stalls, especially those offering works by eminent authors such as the late Manoj Das, Fakir Mohan Senapati, and Jnanpith awardee Pratibha Ray. Spiritual books from the Gita Press, Gorakhpur stall also drew significant attention from adult readers.

To cater to the interests of the younger generation, several leading publishing houses have introduced a variety of new titles this year. Notably, readers have shown strong interest in ‘Thia Puchi Naranga’ by Suryasnata Tripathy, recipient of the SOA Youth Literature Award and the Sahitya Akademi Youth Award, as well as ‘Kanupriya’ by Dharmaveer Bharati.

Among other popular titles at the festival are ‘Akasha Na Heli Nahin’ by Sumit Panda, ‘Meghaku Darpana Kari’ by Swagatikā Mishra, ‘Grey’, a collection of stories by Shubhashree Maharana, ‘Pade Ghungura’, the debut novel of Soumya Mahapatra, and the poetry collection ‘Chihna Chalisha’. These books have been witnessing strong demand throughout the event.