Meet the Minds: Jaipur Literature Festival 2026 Speakers and Programme Schedule
For the culturally curious traveller, the real charm of the Jaipur Literature Festival emerges in the moments of connection—the shared silence during a poetry reading, the buzz which surrounds a debate, and the quiet thrill of listening to new ideas
The festival, which runs from January 15-19, 2026 is more than a gathering of ideas, it’s a global confluence. Nobel laureates, Booker Prize winners, historians, scientists, and artists gather on the lawns of Hotel Clarks Amer to share their stories.
Note: Check the JLF 2026 Dates, Venue & More.
As we start to gather momentum, the first speaker lists are: a galaxy of stalwart writers, thinkers and experts.
The Intellectual Programme: What to Expect
Although the detailed session-by-session schedule will be released closer to the festival, the overarching themes and format for the literature festival Jaipur 2026 are:
- Fiction, Poetry and Translations
- Geopolitics, Conflict and History
- Art, Science and Medicine
- Climate Action and Mental Health
With this mélange of intellect served through many formats such as readings, high-energy panel discussions and debates and book launches, every participant is encouraged to create their own enrichment journey. Register now for the Jaipur Literature Festival and start planning your intellectual journey.
Meet the Speakers at JLF 2026
1. Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry is an English actor, comedian, writer, and broadcaster and is perhaps the ultimate modern polymath. His career spans the classic comedy series Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder; to the sensitive film Wilde, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. In more recent years, Fry has also delighted readers, by enlivening a subject which might otherwise seem quite dry, the ancient world, through his books: Mythos, Heroes, and Troy. All of these engagingly retell Greek myths, laced with his charm, humour, and warmth.
2. Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum is a historian, a staff writer at The Atlantic, and a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of several major works of modern European history, including Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956, and Gulag: A History, which received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. Her latest books—both New York Times bestsellers—are Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World.
3. Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee is known throughout the world as the founder of the World Wide Web, he created the first web server and web client and designed the basic technologies used on the web today, including HTML, HTTP and the URLs that all online users rely on to locate and access resources. He began developing the Web while working at CERN between 1989 and 1991, and he worked to establish W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to develop global standards for the functionality of the Web and its technologies. In addition to his role at CERN and W3C, Tim has worked in the research and academic communities of MIT and the University of Oxford.
4. Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai, an Indian origin writer, became globally recognized when her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, won the Man Booker Prize in 2006. The novel garnered a lot of attention for Desai’s insightful, compassionate, and richly descriptive engagement with topics of post-colonialism, globalization, and immigration. After a nearly twenty-year hiatus, her third novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, came out in 2025 to much anticipation, and was shortlisted immediately for the Booker Prize, heralding the author’s return to the literary scene.
5. Sudha Murty
Sudha Murty is an Indian writer, philanthropic worker, teacher, and founder of the Infosys foundation, who has actively contributed to education, health care services, rural development, and relief from natural disasters throughout India. A prolific writer in English and Kannada, Sudha has published both novel-length books as well as collections of short stories, many of which are based on stories from real life. Some of her major stories include “A Grain of Wheat” and “The Little Drum”, among many others. In addition to her advocacy for increased access to education, Sudha remains devoted to encouraging quality publications in India. Sudha Murty has received numerous honours, including the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.
6. Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo is a French-American economist and professor at MIT. In 2019, she was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. She is the co-author of the books Poor Economics and Good Economics for Hard Times.
7. Viswanathan Anand
The world of Chess has no greater ambassador than Viswanathan Anand. Since achieving Grandmaster status thirty years ago, Anand has won five World Championships, countless international tournaments and always been counted among the best in the World. His amazing career and pioneering accomplishments have motivated an entire generation of Indian Chess players to follow in his footsteps.
8. Arvind Subramanian
Arvind Subramanian is a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He was previously a professor at Brown University, Ashoka University and Harvard University. Between 2014 and 2018, he was the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He still advises several state governments on macroeconomic, fiscal and sectoral issues.
9. Vir Das
Vir Das is an Indian comedian, actor, writer, and musician known for his sharp observational humor and global stand-up presence. Vir Das has gained fame as one of India’s leading contemporary comedy talents with three standup comedy specials on Netflix – Abroad Understanding, Losing It and the International Emmy-winning Vir Das: For India. In addition to doing Comedy, he has acted in Bollywood and international films, written opinion columns and Comedy pieces., and performed more than 100 shows around the world. With his unique blend of satire, storytelling, and cultural commentary, Vir Das has introduced modern Indian Stand-up Comedy to the world.
Again the list is long. Know more about the Jaipur Literature Festival 2026 full details here along with list of all speakers .
Programme Schedule
Coming Soon
From a Feast of Ideas to a Retreat for the Soul
Spending a day at the Jaipur Literature Festival can be a marathon for your mind. You are immersed in the crowd of engaging speakers and conversations, moving from tent to tent, absorbing ideas and seeing new frames of reference.
At the end of hours of thinking and conversation, the mind and the spirit need room to breathe—a quiet moment of stillness to contemplate and let those ideas absorb.
This is the very balance that Savista Retreat can offer. Situated in the tranquility of its village surroundings just outside of the city, our heritage hotel is a restful reprieve from the clattering crowd and one the best among countryside hotels in jaipur. As an eco-conscious hotel and destination for the eco-conscious traveller, we are built on a philosophy of living sustainably, in deep engagement with nature.
Post-festival is the time to return to your hotel, but not to just another hotel lobby but to the open expanse of our organic farm. You can take time to walk about, enjoy a meal with fresh organic ingredients in a farm-to-table restaurant, and find time for quiet reflection.
Let Savista be your moment of reflection, a grounding balance to the intellectual energy of JLF.