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JLF USA 2025: Celebrating books, ideas & culture
Come September, the Jaipur Literature Festival USA will return with a five-city tour crisscrossing the continent, presenting literary and artistic luminaries including Shekhar Kapur, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Kiran Desai and William Dalrymple, to name a few. Presented by Teamwork Arts, producer of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival and JLF International Festivals, JLF USA will take place from 5-27 September. Kicking off in Houston, Texas, the festival will travel to New York, Boulder (Colorado), Seattle and North Carolina.
JLF USA, a multi-city festival of books, ideas and perspectives, has been a key part of Teamwork Arts’ international offerings for over a decade. Having concluded successful editions of JLF Valladolid, Spain and London in June 2025, they now look ahead to weaving more worlds with words in their upcoming U.S. journey. Each edition is a stage for powerful conversations, robust discourse, and cultural dialogue with writers, thinkers, historians, scientists, and artists from across the world.
This year’s festival in the U.S. will explore a wide range of themes, including diasporic identities, migration and displacement, gender, democracy, medicine, filmic adaptation, memoir writing, and the sacred verse. Some of the key speakers this year include Shekhar Kapur, Amish, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Sonora Jha, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Kiran Desai, Prajakta Koli, William Dalrymple, Kal Penn, Neal Katyal, Meenakshi Ahamed, Ruby Lal, Vikram Vij, and Maneet Chauhan.
“JLF USA platforms voices from across the world, and champions their coming together to celebrate the written word, explore innovative ideas, and uphold the spirit of dialogue, diversity, and shared understanding,” said Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts.
The festival is known for its open, welcoming atmosphere and a deep sense of community, showcasing South Asia’s unique multilingual literary traditions while fostering shared narratives with the wider world. Each city promises an immersive experience, featuring powerful sessions, eclectic performances, and engaging conversations.
JLF USA offers unparalleled exposure to the world’s top professionals, thinkers, authors, nation-builders, business leaders, distinguished professors from prestigious universities, and senior research students. Typically, almost 80 percent of the festival’s attendees are aged between 30 and 60 years, and are based in the United States.
The festival is being held in association with the Consulate General of India in Houston, New York, and Seattle, and the City of Boulder in Colorado. JLF North Carolina is supported by UNC’s Carolina Asia Center, the Modern Indian Studies Initiative, the College of Arts and Sciences, Carolina Performing Arts, and other public and private partners across the state.
Houston
Dates: September 5th–7th, 2025.
Locations: Asia Society Center, Rothko Chapel, Eternal Gandhi Museum, Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. This edition will be in association with Houston’s literary arts nonprofit, Inprint.
New York
Dates: September 8th–10th, 2025.
Locations: Asia Society, the National Arts Club, and the Center for Fiction.
Boulder, Colorado
Dates: September 13th–14th, 2025.
Locations: Boulder Public Library.
Seattle
Dates: September 19th–21st, 2025.
Locations: Seattle Asian Art Museum and Town Hall Seattle.
North Carolina
Dates: September 26th, 27th, and 28th, 2025.
Locations: University of North Carolina. This edition is sponsored by UNC’s Carolina Asia Center.