Books have different genres and every genre has its own readership. Books on sports too have their share of fans and readers in our country. Good books on sports and sports personalities also create euphoria like any sports event. Unfortunately, while the number of books written on sports has increased manifold, not only in India but across the world, there is hardly any platform that reaches these books to their targeted readers – let alone give an opportunity to the readers to interact with their sports icons.
Bhubaneswar will host its first-ever sports literary festival titled ‘Ekamra Sports Literary Festival’ (ESLF) November 2 to 3 with a view to fulfill these twin objectives. The upcoming literary festival will aim to bring together the written word with the burgeoning world of Indian sport.
Talking about sports literature, Sundeep Misra of Emerging Sports, which is organising the firs-of-its-kind sports literary fest in Asia in collaboration with Odisha government, told Orissa POST, “Sports literature is still in its infancy in India. If you look at the scenario in the United States and Europe, you will find that every year hundreds of books are being published on sports and sports personalities. Any sportsperson worth his/ her name has a biography or autobiography written after retirement.”
Misra went on to add, “Now, the situation in India is changing and we are trying to facilitate this change by organising the Ekamra Sports Literary Festival. We intend to bring the sports personalities, writers and the readers on one platform. This will not only enhance sports lovers’ interest in books on different sports genres and sportspersons, but also encourage publishers to come forward and bring out books on varied sports related topics.”
This year the organisers had planned a session with publishers but the idea fizzled out as most publishers backed out for want of time. “This is the first year, so we are not able to implement all that we had planned. From next year, the festival will not only be bigger, but also be held for four to five days. And then we will be able to implement all our plans,” Misra said.
“In fact, from next year we plan to have an equal number of authors and sports personalities attending the festival. This will strike a balance. Moreover, we will arrange for a publishers’ meet to promote sports literature in the country.”
This year, the organisers will display the books that will be discussed in different sessions. Readers can also buy these books if they don’t have them in their collection yet. “We also have some surprises for the sports literary fans on the second day,” he signed off.
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