New York will host some of India's most prominent literary, academic and business voices this month as the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) Literary Festival 2026 brings together writers, thinkers and business leaders for two days of conversations on literature, identity and global issues.
Scheduled for November 14-15, the festival will feature Padma Bhushan awardee and Jnanpith laureate Dr. Pratibha Ray, Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan, economist Arvind Subramanian and several other distinguished participants.
The discussions will explore India's emergence as a global economic force, American leadership, climate change, water scarcity and migration. The program will also examine how literature connects cultures and offers perspectives on social and economic change.
"Literature has never belonged within borders. The great questions of our time, identity, economic power, climate, migration and the human condition, are shared across continents," IAAC vice chairman Rakesh Kaul said in a statement on Thursday (5).
He added that the council wanted Indian and American voices to engage in conversations that build bridges between cultures and ideas.
One of the festival's key attractions will be a special three-hour Odisha Literary Festival celebrating the eastern Indian state's literature, language and culinary heritage. The showcase will be anchored by Ray, who was recently conferred the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship.
Her session, titled My Life, My Time: A Literary Journey, will look back at a career spanning more than five decades. Ray's writing has challenged assumptions about gender, caste, identity and social justice. Her acclaimed novel Yajnaseni (The Story of Draupadi) retells the Mahabharata through the perspective of its central female character.
India's economy and American leadership in focus
The festival will also bring business leaders and economists together to discuss global finance and India's development journey.
Ken Chenault, former chairman and CEO of American Express and current chairman and managing director of General Catalyst, will discuss his memoir, Equal to the Task: A Life Forged Between America's Promise and Its Truth.
Another major discussion will focus on A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey, a book by Devesh Kapur, Starr Foundation Professor of South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Subramanian, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
They will be joined by Chip Kaye, chairman of Warburg Pincus, and Venkatakrishnan for a wide-ranging discussion on India's economic progress and its emergence as a global economic force.
Climate change, fiction and cultural heritage
Environmental concerns will feature through Kaul's climate-fiction thriller, WaterFire Day Zero. He will discuss the book with Rajendra Singh, internationally known as India's "Waterman" and recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and Stockholm Water Prize.
The novel combines a contemporary ecological crisis with stories about sacred water traditions, exploring what happens when humanity loses its relationship with water.
The program will also feature Manil Suri, author of The Death of Vishnu, discussing his memoir A Room in Bombay. National Book Award finalist Karan Mahajan will discuss his novel The Complex.
Brooklyn-based chef and food writer Rachel Gurjar will open the festival with East to East: Recipes and Stories from Mumbai to New York, a book exploring food, memory and cultural belonging.
Other sessions will include a poetry panel featuring Preeti Parikh, Subhashini Kaligotla and Sudeep Sen, alongside discussions on the Ellora cave temples, Indian political thought and the legacy of Indian arts scholar and historian Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan.
Festival Director Preethi Urs said the program was designed to create unexpected connections between literature, business, history and environmental issues.
The IAAC is a New York-based nonprofit that promotes Indian and Indian diaspora arts and culture to audiences in the city. Its flagship programs include the New York Indian Film Festival and the Erasing Borders Dance Festival.
