10th Karachi Literature Festival from March 1.

The 10th edition of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) will be held on March 1, 2 and 3 at Beach Luxury Hotel in which more than 220 Pakistani and 15 international speakers will take part.

This was announced by Managing Director Oxford University Press Arshad Saeed Husain at a press conference at the Arts Council on Thursday evening.

Mr Husain first shed light on the objectives of the event, some of which are: to create intellectual space and intra-cultural harmony, to promote Pakistani and international literary talent and to reclaim cultural space. The theme of this year's festival is 'The focus is tomorrow' - keeping in mind the burgeoning young population of the country.

Mr Husain said the event is open to all with free entry. This year the Pakistani and international speakers will be participating in more than 80 sessions and 20 book launches. When the event began a decade back, 5,000 people visited the venue while last year, 200,000 came to the event. In the 10th edition, 11 countries will be represented.

Mr Husain said among international speakers Anita M. Weiss, Anna Suvorara, David Waterman and Leila Aboulela will be seen expressing their views at different sessions while from Pakistan writers and poets such as Iftikhar Arif, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Atiya Dawood, Anwar Maqsood and H.M. Naqvi etc will be...