KathaVana is an annual bilingual children’s literature festival hosted by Azim Premji University since 2012 with active involvement from Field institutes across Karnataka. 

It believes that children’s literature — oral, performative and written — has the capacity to welcome children into the world of pleasure, imagination, emotions, creativity, curiosity, different cultures, play with language, empathy with human lives, and an understanding of self. 

A few key questions motivate KathaVana:

  • Can young children be introduced in meaningful ways to literature?
  • Can teachers be introduced to (and convinced about) its power and relevance to the lives of their young students?
  • Can this be accomplished in the context of government schools?
  • Can we produce useful materials — children’s books, teacher resources — to support teachers’ use of literature in the school context?

Based on these questions, each edition of KathaVana offers a variety of forums where children, teachers and community members can engage deeply with literature— through book exhibitions, storytelling and read aloud events, puppet shows, meet-the-author and illustrator sessions, professional development workshops for teachers, and forums for different kinds of stakeholders to come together and discuss pertinent issues related to literature. 

Each edition of KathaVana takes up a theme and explores issues related to that theme more closely.

The theme for KathaVana 2022 – 2023 is Nurturing Children’s Response to Literature.

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Previous editions and themes of KathaVana:

  • KathaVana 2021: Neem-jaggery: Stories from the time of COVID-19
  • KathaVana 2020: Libraries Supporting Foundational Literacy
  • KathaVana 2019: Rejuvenate Children’s Literature in Kannada
  • KathaVana 2018: Teachers as Writers
  • KathaVana 2017: Understanding Writing for Children
  • KathaVana 2016: Creating Spaces for Readers
  • KathaVana 2015: Teachers as Readers
  • KathaVana 2014: Children’s Voices in Literature
  • KathaVana 2013
  • KathaVana 2012

Glimpses from Kathavana 2020 – 21

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Kathavana 2019 - a glimpse →