Bhubaneswar, Nov. 28: More than one hundred leading poets, writers, novelists, translators, thinkers and theatre and media personalities from across the country will converge at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University here where the two-day 3rd SOA Literary Festival is poised to kick-off on Saturday.
The festival, which has the theme ‘Culture, Creativity and Artificial Intelligence’, will be inaugurated by Odisha governor Dr. Hari Babu Kambhampati in the presence of legendary poet, lyricist, scriptwriter and social thinker Padma Bhushan Javed Akhtar on Saturday while the state’s chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi will grace the festival on Sunday.
The SOA Sahitya Samman, instituted this year, will be presented to Akhtar during the inaugural ceremony for his outstanding and lifelong contribution to Indian cinema and literature.
The award, which carries a cash prize of Rs. 7 lakh, a citation, a shawl and a silver idol of Goddess Saraswati, will be conferred on a distinguished Indian litterateur every year.
The inaugural ceremony, to be presided over by SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, will be graced by Dr. K.Sreenivasarao, former Secretary, Sahitya Akademi, and Saswati Das, Vice-President of SOA who will be guests of honour. Dr. Gayatribala Panda, Head, SOA Centre for Preservation, Propagation and Restoration of Ancient Culture and Heritage of India (PPRACHIN), will welcome the guests and participants.
The SOA Yuva Sahitya Purashkar, also instituted this year, will be presented to young writer Suryasnata Tripathy, for his collection of short stories ‘Thia Puchi Naranga’ on the second day of the festival.
The sessions will include ‘The Future of Publishing: Print, Digital and Beyond’, ‘The Machine as Muse: AI in Art, Music and Literature’, ‘Odia as a Classical Language: Tradition, Identity and Future’, ‘The Future of Story Telling: Tradition and Transformation’, ‘Mother Tongue or Market Tongue? Writing for Truth or Trend’, ‘Myth, Magic and Machine: Reimagining Tradition in the Age of AI’, ‘Cinema and AI: Lights, Camera, Algorithm: The Future of Filmmaking’, ‘Translation in the Age of AI Tools’, ‘The Morality of Machines: Ethics, Law and Responsibility in AI Creativity’, ‘Dialogues of Time: From Palm Leaves to Instagram Posts’ and ‘Tribal Culture: The Heritage We Must Preserve’.
