Raipur, January 22, 2026: More than 120 renowned writers from across the country and Chhattisgarh will participate in the grand three-day Raipur Literature Festival, which will be held from tomorrow, January 23 at Purkhauti Muktangan in Nava Raipur.
With the aim of providing a national and international platform to Chhattisgarh’s rich literary, cultural, and intellectual traditions, the Raipur Sahitya Utsav (Raipur Literature Festival) 2026 is being grandly organized on January 23, 24, and 25, 2026, at Purkhauti Muktangan in Atal Nagar, Nava Raipur.
This three-day festival will serve as a powerful platform for literature, culture, and intellectual discourse, with a large number of renowned writers, poets, thinkers, intellectuals, and literature lovers from across the country and the state participating.
The Raipur Literature Festival 2026 will be inaugurated on January 23, 2026, with the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Harivansh, as the chief guest.
Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai will preside over the inaugural ceremony. The special guests of honour at the inaugural ceremony will be Assembly Speaker Dr. Raman Singh with Deputy Chief Ministers Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha, Prof. Kumud Sharma, and theatre artist and actor Manoj Joshi.
In the cultural evening on the inaugural day, at 7 PM, the renowned theatre artist and Padma Shri awardee Manoj Joshi will stage his much-acclaimed play ‘Chanakya’. Through his powerful and vibrant performance, Joshi will mesmerize the audience in the role of Acharya Chanakya. This play will provide an opportunity to understand the depths of Indian literature and culture while effectively presenting contemporary problems and their solutions.
Approximately 120 renowned writers, intellectuals, and creative artists from across the country and the state will participate in the Raipur Literature Festival.
A total of 42 sessions will be organized over the three days, which will include in-depth discussions on contemporary social, cultural, and intellectual topics.
At the festival, author and journalist Shikha Varshney, writer and poet Kamlesh Kamal, Dr. Gopal Kamal, and the doyen of modern Hindi poetry, Dr. Buddhinath Mishra, will enthrall the audience with their compositions.
The literary sessions will feature Vikas Dave, Director of the Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Akademi, renowned author Ajay K. Pandey (author of the bestseller ‘You Are My Best Wife’), famous novelist Indira Dangi, writer Sonali Mishra, Hindi literature scholar Jayshree Roy, celebrated photographer and writer Dr. Kaynat Qazi, and author-speaker Anil Pandey.
Special sessions will be organized for Chhattisgarhi poetry and folk songs. Prominent poets of the Chhattisgarhi language, Rameshwar Vaishnav, Rameshwar Sharma, Meer Ali Meer, and Shashi Surendra Dubey, will be present.
In the folk song session, Dr. P.C. Lal Yadav, Shakuntala Tarar, Bihari Lal Sahu, and Dr. Vinay Kumar Pathak will present their performances.
It is noteworthy that the pavilions of the literature festival have been named after distinguished literary figures. The main pavilion will be named after the late Vinod Kumar Shukla, the only literary figure from Chhattisgarh to have received the Jnanpith Award. Other pavilions will be named after Pt. Shyam Lal Chaturvedi, Lala Jagdalpuri, and Anirudh Nirav.
A special poetry recitation will be organized on January 24 in memory of former Prime Minister Bharat Ratna late Atal Behari Vajpayee. On this occasion, Dr. Buddhinath Mishra, Ajay Sahab, Aman Akshar, Dr. Anshu Joshi, Trilok Chandra Mahawar, Harshraj Harsh, Dr. Ajay Pathak, and Rahul Awasthi will present their works.
More than 10,000 literature enthusiasts have registered for the Raipur Literature Festival so far. Those who have not yet registered can also register at the venue.
Rajya Sabha MP and eloquent speaker Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi, nationalist thinker Dr. Prabhat Kumar, and eminent intellectual J. Nandakumar will also participate in the festival and engage in discussions on various topics.
The festival will also feature the Vice-Chancellor of Wardha University, Prof. Kumud Sharma, educationist Mukul Kanitkar, Director of IIM Ahmedabad Dr. Bharat Bhaskar, former Director General of IIMC Dr. Sanjay Dwivedi, Professor Dr. Guru Prakash Paswan from Patna University, and prominent thinker Dr. Anshu Joshi from JNU will participate in the discussions.
Special sessions on journalism, cinema, and television will be held during the literature festival. Many senior journalists and filmmakers, including Anurag Basu, Manoj Verma, Rubika Liyaquat, and Harshvardhan Tripathi, will participate in these sessions.
Additionally, on January 24, sessions on the digital age and AI will feature in-depth intellectual discussions on topics such as “Authors and Readers in the Digital Age” and “From Upanishads to AI: The Journey of Literature.”