"Lahore literary festival — a safe place for dangerous ideas." — The Guardian
"Rarely has an event framed around books and ideas felt so urgent." — The New York Review of Books

The Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), one of South Asia’s premier cultural events, returns to Asia Society New York for the third year. LLF in New York will explore contemporary Pakistan through artists, writers, and commentators. The festival will present American audiences with a more nuanced view of Pakistan and include discussions on fiction and nonfiction writing, art, architecture, history and politics.

For the full schedule of talks, click here.

For information on the Lahore Literary Festival Morning Session, click here. 

1:45-2:30 p.m.: Extraordinary Architecture, Everyday Lahore
What makes the city extraordinary in the hurly-burly of urban South Asia? 

• Nayyar Ali Dada, Lahore-based Aga Khan Award-winning architect and conservationist 
• Tanvir Hasan, accredited conservation architect who has worked with listed buildings for more than 20 years, both in the U.K. and abroad
• Attiq Uddin Ahmed (moderator), architect, urban designer and faculty member, National College of the Arts, Lahore

2:35-3:20 p.m.: Urdu Zubaan Ki Nai Bastiyan
Traditionally, Urdu has had its citadels in Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore and Hyderabad and, later Karachi. In a globalizing world, with South Asian migration to the West, Urdu has found new homes in New York, Chicago and Toronto, to name a few. In its Westward drift, new centers of poetry and prose circles have emerged as well as new scholarship. We address the idea of Urdu language as a means of adaptability, mobility, and anchorage for the South Asian diaspora in America. In the process, how are the creative expressions in Urdu such as the novel and poem faring?

• Tahira Naqvi, Senior Language Lecturer of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University
• Muhammad Umar Memon, scholar, translator, poet, Urdu Short Story writer, and the editor of The Annual of Urdu Studies
• Younus Sharar, poet
• Saeed Naqvi (moderator), novelist

3:30-4:30 p.m.: Ghost Wars Redux
Have we learnt nothing from history?
• Barnett Rubin, leading expert on Afghanistan and South Asia, author, and Senior Fellow and Director at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University
• Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press Senior Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and author of I Is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror
• Zahid Hussain, DAWN columnist and author of The Scorpion’s Tale 
• Moeed Yusuf (moderator), Associate Vice President of the Asia Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace and author of Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: U.S. Crisis Management in South Asia

4:45-6:00 p.m.  
Keynote Address by Ayesha Jalal: Liberalism and the Muslim Question
Jalal is the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University, with interests in South Asia, the Muslim World; Director of South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies

Followed by a discussion on: 
Pakistan at 70  
Has Pakistan come of age?

• Ayesha Jalal, MacArthur fellow and author of The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics
• Saroop Ijaz, columnist, lawyer, Pakistan representative for Human Rights Watch
• Raza Rumi, Editor, Daily Times; Faculty, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs at Cornell University
• Bilal Qureshi (moderator), culture editor and radio journalist with NPR

This program is part of Asia Society's ongoing initiative Creative Voices of Muslim Asia.

Held in conjunction with the Lahore Literary Festival.