The 9th edition of JLF Houston will return to celebrate the culture, diversity and energy of the multi-faceted Bayou City, known as a center for education, art, music, commerce, science, and medicine. JLF Houston, presented in partnership with the Consulate General of India, Houston; Inprint; Asia Society Texas; Rothko Chapel; Eternal Gandhi Museum Houston; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will be held October 2-4, 2026.
The Jaipur Literature Festival, held annually in the historic Pink City of Jaipur in India’s vibrant state of Rajasthan, is hailed worldwide as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’. In January 2026, the 19th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival reaffirmed the power of books and ideas through a remarkable line-up of speakers and sessions. The Festival’s indomitable energy and spirit travels across the world, in its international JLF editions, to several countries that include the US, UK, Canada, Spain, the Maldives, and Australia, seamlessly merging the rich multilingual literary traditions of South Asia with the unique essence of the host regions.
Saturday, October 3, 2026
10:30 am
Opening Remarks
11–11:50 am
The Complex
Karan Mahajan in conversation with Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan
A family vies for power as a nation builds itself. In The Complex, National Book Award finalist Karan Mahajan crafts a family saga that unfolds alongside the rise of modern India. The fictional family of the deceased S.P Chopra, politician and statesman, competes to take the patriarch’s place in history. With his trademark wit and panoramic vision, Mahajan reveals how the fortunes of a single family can mirror the aspirations and contradictions of a country coming into its own. In conversation with Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, he reflects on the craft and contours of his narrative.
12–12:50 pm
The Places We Become
Daniel Peña and Suketu Mehta in conversation with Tayyba Kanwal
What does it mean to belong? What is learned and unlearned in the pursuit of refuge? Daniel Peña and Suketu Mehta weave together reportage and personal reflection to explore the fault lines of belonging and identity. Pulitzer finalist Suketu Mehta’s This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Maifesto is an “impassioned defence of global immigration” based on his own family’s story migrating from India to the West. Pushcart Prize-winning author Daniel Peña crafts an intensive and disquiet portrait of the American propensity for cruelty, the power to resist, and the struggle to belong in How To Look Away. In conversation with Tayyba Kanwa about conscience, storytelling, and our shared humanity, they consider the power of literature to illuminate what is unseen.
1–1:50 pm
Human Edge in the AI Age: Eight Timeless Mantras for Success
Nitin Seth in conversation with Rakesh Agrawal
The onset of a new digital age driven by AI has propelled, displaced, and strengthened industries anew, calling for newer paths of innovation and collaborative thinking. Human Edge in the AI Age highlights the potential of co-intelligence as offered by Nitin Seth, Cofounder and CEO of Incedo Inc. Drawing from years of leadership, Seth offers a manifesto for success within the changing tides of a world equipped with one of the most powerful tools humanity has seen — artificial intelligence.
2–2:50 pm
The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community
Salil Tripathi in conversation with Sree Sreenivasan
In The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community, journalist and author Salil Tripathi offers an expansive portrait of one of India’s most far-reaching diasporas. Tracing the journeys of Gujaratis across India and the world, he explores the histories of migration, enterprise, food, faith, language, and family that have shaped the community, while looking beyond familiar stereotypes to its many contradictions and complexities. A story of movement and belonging, ambition and adaptation, The Gujaratis explore how a community carries its identity across borders and how it changes in the process.
3–3:50 pm
Writing the Past
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Lakshmi Puri in conversation with Sreya Chatterjee
Two writers chronicle the past through narratives of sisterhood, set against the tumultuous times of India’s independence in 1947. Exploring love and sorrow, loss and forgiveness, best-selling writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Independence is a profound saga of the strife for freedom and its many costs, told through the lives of three sisters Priya, Jamini and Deepa. Lakshmi Puri‘s Swallowing The Sun follows young Malati, a girl from a village in Maharashtra and her uncharted journey as she and her sister become the first women in their family to go to college. In conversation with Sreya Chatterjee, they discern what is gained and what is compromised while relaying the past through fiction.
4–4:50 pm
The Dissenters
Benjamin Moser in conversation with Sree Sreenivasan
Benjamin Moser‘s Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History uncovers a long-overlooked tradition of Jewish thinkers, writers, rabbis, and activists who challenged Zionism across generations and continents. Tracing lives marked by courage, exile, and dissent, Moser re-examines the relationship between Judaism, nationalism, and identity, offering a provocative and deeply researched perspective on one of today’s most contested debates.
5–5:50 pm
The Groundbreaker
Kanwal Rekhi in conversation with Sunjay R. Devarajan
In The Groundbreaker: Entrepreneurship, the American Dream, and the Rise of Modern India, legendary entrepreneur Kanwal Singh Rekhi traces his path from being a young immigrant arriving in America to becoming the first Indian-American founder to take a venture-backed company public on NASDAQ. A pioneering entrepreneur, investor, and mentor, this memoir is a riveting account of how Rekhi helped shape the technology industry while opening doors for generations of founders who followed.
For October 2 and October 4 schedules, click here.
Karan Mahajan is the author of The Association of Small Bombs, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. He has been selected as one of Granta‘s Best Young American Novelists, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair. He is an associate professor of literary arts at Brown University.