"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 Afternoon Session, click here. 

11:00 a.m.: Opening remarks by Asia Society; Razi Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Lahore Literary Festival; and Ambassador Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, New York

11:15-12:00 p.m.: Lahore as Palimpsest 
Exploring the Mughal Aesthetics and Progression to Progressive Artists

• Mehreen Chida-Razvi, specialist on the art and architecture of Mughal South Asia 
• Shahzia Sikander, contemporary artist and MacArthur fellow 
• Zehra Jumabhoy, art critic and art historian specializing in contemporary South Asian Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• Vishakha Desai (moderator), President Emerita of Asia Society and Senior Advisor to the President of Columbia University

12:00-12:45 a.m.: Never a Dull Moment for Fiction in South Asia 
Is New Literature From South Asians Healing and Humanizing a Region Racked by Crime and Volatility?

• Maha Khan Phillips, fiction writer and the author of The Curse of Mohenjodaro
• Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of Loss, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
• H. M. Naqvi, fiction writer and the author of Home Boy
• Sabyn Javeri (moderator), author of Nobody Killed Her

1:00-1:30 p.m.: On the Dot 
Waqas Khan’s minimalist drawings, which were recently shown at the Lahore Art Biennale, are deeply inspired by the Sufi poets of South Asia. Khan painstakingly applies with his hand renderings of multiple, minuscule dots, forming weaves and in the organic flow of drawing are disrupted by apertures, which broadly resemble patterns of biological structures and serve as a dialogue between the viewer, nature, and the cosmos. 

• Waqas Khan, contemporary artist based in Lahore and graduate of the National College of the Arts, Lahore
• Alistair Hudson (moderator), director of Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth 

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

Held in conjunction with the Lahore Literary Festival.