Highlights of the Vizag Junior Lit Fest

Vizag hosted the eagerly anticipated 6th edition of Vizag Junior Literary Fest, organized by the LitLantern Culture and Literature Society, on 08 and 09 November 2025 at Hawa Mahal on Beach Road. Aimed at fostering literary creativity and imagination among young learners, the event featured storytellers, cartoonists, illustrators, artists, and authors. Activities included puppet shows, theatre, storytelling, performance art, book stalls, author interactions, and reading corners for kids.

The event fostered reading, imagination, and interactive learning among children aged 4-16 years while offering over 100 planned sessions, including age-specific workshops for children, parents, and teachers. Workshops for children included storytelling, creative writing, puppet making, theatre, illustration, talks, and caricature and cartoon workshops. While adults participated in workshops on storytelling games, bonding with children, and building reading habits. General open sessions included yoga, theatre, and storytelling for all. Each day concluded with stage performances. The first day had The Tempest, and The Sound of Music was performed on the second day. The event also had a food court where they had a variety of both veg and non-veg options, which included biryani, dry snacks, mixtures, and Indo-Chinese options as well.

Vizag Junior Literary Fest 2025’s key focus was inclusivity. The Chief Guest of the event was Mr. Krishna Devarayalu Lavy, and the Guest of Honour was Mr. M. Sribharat. The directors of the event, Sonal Sarda, Priya Uppalapati, and Sandhya Godey, led the event with the help of sponsors and local partnerships. Vikram Sridhar, a renowned storyteller, conducted sessions in various schools, including government schools and Sunflower Special School, where he conducted special sessions for differently-abled kids to spread the word about the event.

Nishita Mohta, an author, design educator, and design consultant, who also took part in conducting one of the workshops with adults, described this event as the best she’s ever participated in and appreciated how it was conducted.

The lineup this year included some of the leading authors and storytellers, including Asha Nehemiah, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, Nandita da Cunha, Devika Cariapa, Vaishali Shroff, Abhishek Talwar, Ajit Narayan, Ameen Haque, Ankit Dwivedi, Nupur Aggarwal, and twins Bob and Bobby, who are illustrators among many others.

In its 6th edition, the Vizag Junior Literary Fest attracted thousands of enthusiastic attendees of all ages, with schools proactively involving their students. Parents and children alike looked forward to the annual event. Vizag is already looking forward to next year’s Junior Lit Fest.