The Story
OrganizerFor decades, the story told about Jammu and Kashmir has been dominated by tourism and natural beauty on one hand and political tension on the other. The Kashmir Literature Festival was created to add another dimension to that story: a Valley deeply connected to literature, ideas and dialogue. A flagship initiative of the Srikula Foundation, which frames its mission around empowerment through knowledge and imagines Kashmir as a powerhouse of wisdom, KLF held its first edition in December 2024 and has grown quickly since.
Staged in Srinagar, with recent editions at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre between the Dal Lake and the Zabarwan ranges, the festival unfolds over two days as a dense programme of more than fifty sessions: panel discussions and thematic debates, book and cover launches, literary dialogues, storytelling and poetry recitals, open-mic and podcast events, and cultural performances by Kashmiri folk and Sufi musicians and classical dancers. It draws writers, poets, academics, journalists, bureaucrats, diplomats and artists from across India and beyond, and is organised in partnership with institutions including the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
Across its first three editions (December 2024, October 2025 and May 2026), KLF has established itself, in a remarkably short time, as one of the most significant intellectual and cultural assemblies in Jammu and Kashmir: a meeting ground of minds, cultures, poetries and histories that both celebrates Kashmiri traditions and connects them to national and plural conversations. As an emerging festival still finding its scale, it represents a growing appetite within the Valley for spaces dedicated to ideas and creativity.
The Kashmir Literature Festival is significant as an emerging platform that broadens the cultural narrative around Jammu and Kashmir, foregrounding the region's literary and intellectual life alongside its more familiar images. By creating a space for books, ideas and dialogue in Srinagar, and by pairing national participation with Kashmiri folk, Sufi and classical performance, it fosters cultural exchange, gives the Valley a serious literary gathering, and reflects a growing local appetite for spaces devoted to creativity and thought. As a young festival rising quickly to prominence, it marks the arrival of a dedicated literary platform in a region that has lacked one.
Visit the Kashmir Literature Festival to encounter Jammu and Kashmir through its writers and ideas, beyond the familiar frames of scenery and conflict. An emerging platform that broadens the region's cultural narrative, it gathers poets, novelists and thinkers to reclaim Kashmir's rich literary heritage and give voice to its contemporary creativity in its own setting.
