Delhi to Host Penguin's 'Spring Lit Fest' From March 16–24

A festival of literature, "Spring Fever," is scheduled to be held from March 16–24, 2012 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.

An annual feature of Penguin-Books India, the festival will preview several new titles by authors like Vikram Seth, Gurcharan Das, Shobhaa De, Gulzar, Shashi Tharoor, Amit Chaudhuri and Devdutt Patnaik, who will discuss their books and read from them.

The main attraction of the festival will be a sprawling open air library and sale counter of the publisher.

A special corner of books, "25 Popular Penguins" — published to celebrate 25 years of the firm in India will feature some of the most popular Penguin titles in the last 25 years including RK Narayan's "Guide," Arundhati Roy's "God of Small Things" and Shobhaa De's "Starry Nights." The anniversary corner will also host a range of Penguin merchandise and collectibles.

The festival — in its third year — will open on March 16 with a session, "The Rivered Earth," where novelist-poet Vikram Seth will talk about his new book. A discussion on March 22 will turn the spotlight on three upcoming novelists — Rahul Bhattacharya, Anjum Hasan and Anjan Sundaram — who will talk about the joys and pains of writing.

A day later, three acclaimed Indian non-fiction writers, Amit Chaudhuri, Gurcharan Das and Shashi Tharoor will open windows into their new non-fiction works, "Calcutta," "India Grows at Night" and "Pax Hindica," respectively.

The festival will close on March 25 with readings by Gulzar from his new anthology of poems.