Founding MBIFL was conceptualised and started in 2018 by the
Mathrubhumi group.
2025 edition The sixth edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL) was held from February 6 to 9, 2025, and centered around the theme "Currents of Change". The theme addresses contemporary social, cultural, economic, and technological developments. MBIFL 2025 included writers, scholars, and public figures from India and abroad. Speakers at the festival included Malgorzata Czyzewski, Tomica Scavina, Pramudith D. Rupasinghe,
Urszula Honek,
Yuliya Musakova, Yuriy Serebriansky, former cricketers
Syed Kirmani,
Mohinder Amarnath, and
Rajender Amarnath, Former Minister
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Director
C Premkumar, as well as film critic
Anupama Chopra alongside other participants from various fields.
2024 edition The fifth edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL) centered around the theme "Exploring Plurality." The festival aimed to comprehensively explore the promise of
plurality by embracing diverse perspectives, cultures, and identities. Held from February 8 to 11, MBIFL 2024 featured an illustrious lineup of well-known writers and thinkers from around the globe, including several prominent international and national speakers such as
Francesc Miralles,
Mansoura Ez-Eldin,
Fırat Sunel,
Subhashini Ali,
Sakshi Malik, and
Ramachandra Guha.
2023 edition The fourth edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL) was on the theme "Shadows of History, Lights of the Future", and it coincided with the centenary celebrations of Mathrubhumi. Held from February 2 to 5, 2023, the event featured speakers from around the world, including
Nobel Prize winner
Abdulrazak Gurnah,
Booker Prize winner
Shehan Karunatilaka, and Man Booker International Prize winner
Jokha Alharthi, among other prominent voices.
2020 edition The third edition of the festival took place from January 30 to February 2, 2020, under the theme "Shrinking Spaces, Transcending Letters." The festival sought to identify and celebrate the intellectual efforts to resist the ongoing challenges to democratic discourse while elevating the role of letters – an enduring inspiration for literature across cultures and civilizations. More than 350 speakers, including
Lemn Sissay,
Margaret Busby,
Dean Atta, and
Alexander McCall Smith, participated in this edition. In 2020, the inaugural "Book of the Year" award was presented to
Blue is Like Blue by
Vinod Kumar Shukla, translated into English by
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and
Sara Rai.
2019 edition The second edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL), centred on the theme 'Known Lands; Unheard Voices', was held from January 31 to February 3. The festival had speakers from
Europe, the
US, the
West Indies,
Africa,
Latin America and the
Middle East. MBIFL '19 had a large contingent of close to 50 foreign speakers including poets, novelists, graphic novelists, filmmakers and journalists. There were more than 100 speakers from Kerala in addition to the well-known Indian writers in English and other languages.
2018 edition The first edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL) was held at the Kanakakkunnu Palace, February 2–4, 2018, on the theme "For the Love of Literature". The three-day event brought together more than 100 international and Indian writers, speakers, and performers. It tapped into Kerala's young and emerging talent, allowing aspiring writers to engage with literary masters. Writers and speakers from more than 10 countries participated, offering high-profile conversations, choreographed reading sessions, augmented reality experiences, impromptu performances, and workshops by noted photojournalist
Raghu Rai. The festival also explored traditional Kerala cuisine and celebrated the region's syncretic culture, continuing the legacy of literature and its significance.
MBIFL Book of the Year == References ==