Jaipur Literature Festival which is frequently described as “The greatest literary show on earth” will turn ten this January. JLF that began a decade ago has played host to over 1300 esteemed speakers in the past years. This time the festival will take place between 19 and 23 January in its beautiful home at the historic Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur.

This season, the Festival expects to welcome over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians, journalists, and popular culture icons.

So to commemorate its 10^th anniversary, Jaipur Literature Festival this time will announce ten speakers every week for ten weeks every Tuesday at 6.00pm.

For the curious ones, here’s the list of first 10 speakers appearing at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2017:

Alice Walker makes her first visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival this time. A critically acclaimed American novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist, she made history by being the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Walker has also won the National Book Award in 1983 for her novel The Color Purple. Other well-known works include Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland.

For more of her work: http://alicewalkersgarden.com/

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni will return to the Jaipur Literature Festival after a gap of six years. A bestselling author, poet, activist and teacher based in the United States of America, several of her works have been converted into films and plays. Among her best-known works, is Arranged Marriage, which won an American Book Award, while Mistress of Spices was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

EkaKurniawan, a TV scriptwriter by profession, became the first Indonesian to be nominated for a Man Booker International Prize and won the 2016 Emerging Voices Award.  Kurniawan’s debut novel Beauty is a Wound was included in a list of 100 notable books by The New York Times. His second book is titled Man Tiger while his third novel, Love and Vengeance, is due to be released next year.

SL Bhyrappa is widely celebrated as one of modern India’s foremost novelists. A Kannada writer, his works are popular within his native state as well as across India and in the United States. In 2016, he was awarded the Padma Shri.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb came to wide public attention when he predicted the 2008 global financial crisis. The Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, and risk analyst focuses his research and writing on probability, uncertainty, and randomness. His book The Black Swan was described in a review by TheSundayTimes as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II. Taleb refuses all honors and anything that “turns knowledge into a spectator sport.”

Mark Haddon, the British novelist who writes for both children and adults, will make his maiden visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival. He is best-known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which won many laurels. His latest work, The Pier Falls: And Other Stories, is his first collection of short stories and has been widely praised.

Sir David Hare, the well-known English playwright and screenwriter, a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Hours and The Reader will be a part of the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2017.

Alan Hollinghurst, the author of The Line of Beauty, The Stranger’s Child, has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award, James Tait Black Memorial Prize and in 2004, etc. This will be his first visit to JLF.

Richard Flanagan has a host of acclaimed novels to his name, including Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and The Unknown Terrorist. Hailed as one of Australia’s finest writers, his most recent novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, won the 2014 Man Booker Prize. This will be his 2^nd visit to JLF.

NoViolet Bulawayo blasted onto the literary scene in 2013 with her debut novel We Need New Names, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, making her the first black African woman and the first Zimbabwean to do so.