Naidu, Pawan To Inaugurate 36th Vijayawada Book Festival

: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan will inaugurate the 36th edition of the Vijayawada Book Festival, scheduled to be held from January 2 to January 12, 2026, at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation (IGMC) Stadium. While many Ministers were invited to the launch event, Minister Nara Lokesh was invited to attend the graduation program in January. 12.

With around 300 to 350 book stalls (an increase of over 30 per cent from last year), the upcoming edition will be the largest edition so far, said Vijayawada Book Festival Society (VBFS) president T. Manohar Naidu and secretary K. Lakshmaiah. The national reputation of the festival will be further strengthened with the participation of leading publishing houses from all over the country, including 21 new publishers.

They said that the festival building will be named after VBFS founding member Vadlamudi Vimala Devi. The main dais will be named after famous writer Dr BV Pattabhiram, while children’s events will be organized under the banner of Jayant Narlekar.

As part of the festival, a Book Lovers’ Padayatra will be held on January 5 from PB Siddhartha College of Arts and Sciences to the IGMC Stadium, where thousands of readers, writers and litterateurs are expected to attend.

The 10-day festival will also include birth centenary celebrations of Mandali Venkata Krishna Rao, a memorial meeting for Kolluri, a permanent member of VBFS, and a series of literary discussions and seminars on Rayalaseema, Uttarandhra, Coastal Andhra and Telangana literature, translation studies, children’s literature and contemporary literary issues.

Organizers said the Vijayawada Book Festival remains the only major book festival in the country that offers free entry to visitors.