KathaVana is a Children’s Literature Festival organised annually by the Azim Premji University, Bangalore since 2012. This year, in 2014, it is being held between September 10th and 13th.
As the event brochure notes:
The emergence of contemporary children’s literature in India as a genre of significance to publishers, authors and illustrators is promising; but much still needs to be done both in terms of raising awareness about the role of children’s literature in elementary education, as well as to build forums for bringing stakeholders together to network, dialogue and develop this domain into a phase of maturity. It was with this idea in mind that KathaVana has been conceptualized and designed as an annual, recurring event. The event is designed as a “festival” rather than as a “conference” to emphasize that the core of this effort lies in bringing children and books together. The celebration of both children and books is therefore a critical part of KathaVana. Around this core idea, is woven the intent to generate a national network of theoreticians, practitioners and parents who could engage on a recurrent basis around conversations related to this topic as applied to diverse Indian contexts.
This year’s Festival offers a mix of panel discussions with authors, book publishers and academic experts; sessions on story telling; experience sharing by teachers of using folklore in their classrooms; various activities for children; read-aloud sessions; and meetings with illustrators and authors of children’s books. The organizations attending KathaVan 2014 include some of the leading ones in this space in India; such as Tulika, Kathalaya, Pratham Books, Bookworm and Hippocampus. Do check out the schedule for the four days below and attend the festival if you happen to be in Bangalore!
I had attended a wonderful session led by Usha Mukunda, a long-time librarian at Centre for Learning, on How to Set Up and Use a Library Effectively in KathaVan 2013, which you may wish to read about as well.