AMBALA, HARYANA: Ambala is preparing to host a literary gathering that brings together some of the country’s notable voices from diplomacy, journalism, poetry, history, and literature, as LITERARIA – Ambala LitFest 2026 gears up for its October edition.
Scheduled for October 10 and 11, 2026, the festival will be held at the historic Sirhind Club in Ambala Cantt, a heritage venue established in 1891. This year’s edition is being presented by WorldAuthors.Org, the literary platform founded by Dr. Gaurav Gulati, adding an international publishing and literary platform to an event that seeks to establish Ambala as a stronger destination for literary conversations.
The festival comes with an ambitious idea: that serious conversations about books, history, poetry and contemporary society do not have to be confined to India’s traditional literary centres. LITERARIA is looking to create that space in Ambala, bringing readers face-to-face with writers and public figures whose work has crossed the boundaries of a single discipline.
WorldAuthors.Org brings its literary platform to LITERARIA
For Dr. Gaurav Gulati, Founder of WorldAuthors.Org, the association with LITERARIA represents the platform’s continuing effort to create opportunities for authors and readers to meet and engage beyond the digital space.
“We are proud to support LITERARIA and its vision of bringing meaningful literary conversations to Ambala,” Dr. Gulati has said. “Literature has the power to connect people, ideas and generations, and we believe platforms like LITERARIA can help give authors and readers a space to come together, share perspectives and celebrate the power of words.”
WorldAuthors.Org has increasingly positioned itself around authors, books, interviews, poetry and literary conversations. Its presentation of LITERARIA 2026 extends that work into a live festival setting, bringing the platform’s focus on writers and literary voices to a physical audience in Ambala.
A speaker line-up spanning literature, diplomacy and journalism
One of the strongest aspects of LITERARIA 2026 is the breadth of its speaker line-up. Rather than limiting the festival to a single literary genre, the programme brings together figures whose careers have spanned diplomacy, academia, journalism, history, poetry and the arts.
Among the prominent voices associated with the festival is Navtej Sarna, distinguished diplomat, author and commentator who served as India’s Ambassador to the United States until December 2018. A member of the Indian Foreign Service since 1980, Sarna has also served as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ambassador to Israel, besides holding senior responsibilities in the Ministry of External Affairs. He was India’s Foreign Office spokesperson for six years, making him the country’s longest-serving occupant of that position. His diplomatic career included postings in Moscow, Warsaw, Bhutan, Iran, Washington and Geneva.
His presence adds an international and diplomatic dimension to a festival otherwise rooted strongly in literature and the written word.
Another major literary voice is Dr. Madhav Kaushik, eminent Hindi poet, author and literary scholar and President of the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. With more than 52 books to his credit, his work encompasses poetry, ghazals, short stories, criticism, children’s literature, translation and edited volumes. He has also represented India at international literary forums and received numerous literary honours.
Jitendra Srivastava, an eminent Hindi poet, critic and academic, brings another significant perspective to the festival. With around 30 books covering poetry, literary criticism, social thought, nationalism and contemporary literary discourse, Srivastava’s work reflects the changing concerns of Hindi literature and its relationship with society.
The festival will also feature Lady Kishwar Desai, an award-winning author, playwright and historian whose work has explored literature, cinema and colonial history in India and the UK. Her debut novel, Witness the Night, won the Costa Award for Best First Novel, while The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani received the National Film Award for Best Book on Indian Cinema. Her other notable works include Darlingji and Jallianwala Bagh, 1919: The Real Story.
Desai’s involvement also brings the history of Indian cinema, colonial memory and cultural heritage into the literary conversation.
For readers interested in contemporary journalism and crime writing, Jupinderjit Singh, Deputy Editor at The Tribune, Chandigarh, is another notable name on the line-up.
An investigative crime journalist, Singh has authored seven books, including his latest, Gangs of Punjab – Guns, Greed and Girlfriends. His earlier book Who Killed Moosewala is being adapted for a web series. Singh has reported extensively from Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, bringing a journalist’s perspective to stories of crime, politics and society.
His work is an example of how contemporary journalism itself has become an important form of storytelling, particularly when reporters turn years of investigation into books that document people and events beyond the daily news cycle.
The festival’s poetic dimension is represented by Kasturika Mishra, a multilingual poet known for spoken and musical poetry. She has performed at major literary festivals and poetry gatherings across India and has two poetry collections to her credit. She is also a ghazal singer and dance critic. Her professional experience includes working as an Odia-language interpreter in the Indian Parliament and as a cataloguing librarian with the United States Library of Congress and the US Parliament.
Rajwanti Mann, poet, author, historian, and Senior Academic Fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, brings an archival and historical perspective to the gathering. An expert in Archival Studies, she has served as Deputy Director of the Haryana State Archives and has been associated with the National Archives of India. She has authored and edited works in English, Hindi and Urdu, including books on India’s freedom movement, as well as several poetry collections.
Her participation is particularly relevant to a festival being held in Haryana, a region whose history is closely intertwined with the political and social transformations of northern India.
Dr. Sonika Sethi’s vision for Ambala
Behind LITERARIA is Dr. Sonika Sethi, who founded the festival with the belief that Ambala can become a place where literature and serious cultural conversations flourish.
The idea behind the festival is relatively simple but potentially significant: literary culture should not be restricted to the country’s largest cities. By bringing together established authors, poets, scholars, and readers in Ambala, LITERARIA seeks to create a recurring platform for literary exchange and to encourage younger readers and writers to participate in that conversation.
The historic Sirhind Club provides an equally distinctive setting. Established in 1891, the heritage venue connects the contemporary festival with a much older chapter of Ambala’s history.
More than a two-day literary festival
What makes LITERARIA 2026 noteworthy is the range of subjects and professional backgrounds represented by its speakers. A diplomat who represented India abroad, a senior Hindi literary scholar, a Sahitya Akademi president, an investigative journalist, a historian, an archival expert and a performing poet all arrive at the same venue with very different stories to tell.
That diversity is also what literary festivals increasingly offer their audiences: not simply discussions about books, but conversations about the society, history and people that produce those books.
For Ambala, the event could mark an important step towards developing a stronger literary and cultural identity. For WorldAuthors.Org and Dr. Gaurav Gulati, presenting the festival creates another opportunity to bring authors and readers together while extending the organisation’s work beyond its online literary community.
And for readers, LITERARIA promises something that remains difficult to replace in an increasingly digital literary world—the chance to sit in a room with the people behind the books, listen to their stories, question their ideas and discover voices they may not otherwise encounter.
With LITERARIA – Ambala LitFest 2026 scheduled for October 10–11 at Sirhind Club, Ambala Cantt, the city is preparing for two days when books, history, poetry, journalism, and ideas will take centre stage.
For a city looking to strengthen its place on the literary map, that may be the most important story of all.
