Asia’s largest literature festival, the Kerala Literature Festival is a joyous celebration of literature and performative arts held annually on the beach at Kozhikode. An ancient city, renowned for its contributions to Kerala’s culture, UNESCO awarded Kozhikode the nomenclature as India’s first ‘City of Literature’, with the Kerala Literature Festival playing a significant role in the awarding of this honour.

Organised by the DC Kizhakemuri Foundation, the festival aims to bring together people from diverse facets of life onto a single platform and engage in aesthetic and intellectual conversations, a confluence of the arts, humanities and social sciences, staging exhibitions, exhaustive discussions and talks, film screenings and performances – a veritable festival of ideas.

Welcoming over half-a million attendees over four days, the festival features an eclectic array of speakers, a line-up that includes Nobel laureates, Booker Prize and Oscar winners, authors of acclaim and thought leaders. A cultural meeting pot and a global platform for literary and cultural symbiosis, over the years the festival has brought together contemporary artists, actors, activists, celebrities, writers and thinkers to engage in dialogue and discourses on art, cinema, culture, dance, environment, literature, science and technology.  Entirely committed to inclusivity, KLF is a vibrant platform for socio-cultural expressions that welcomes audiences to partake of the festival’s  dazzling array of entertainment and intellectual stimulation.

Set amidst stunningly beautiful and lush mountain slopes of the Western Ghats mountains fringing the western seaboard of Kerala, DC Book’s literary residency is conducted at the DC School of Management and Technology campus in Vagamon. The program is the perfect getaway for writers seeking refuge from the swirling tides of daily life and singularly devote attention to their craft.

A bio-diversity hotspot declared a ‘UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE’ in 2012, the dense forests that drape the mountains of the Western Ghats are  home to a fascinating diversity of flora and fauna, including 325 endangered species, for most part endemic.  The campus at Vagamon is spread over 32 acres and exquisitely landscaped, offering infrastructure that consists of comfortably furnished accommodations, a well stocked library, a dining area and cafeteria, a dedicated laundry service, a supermarket and an amphitheater to rehearse performative expositions. Numerous serene nooks spread across the grounds and beside the pathways that wind across the mountain slopes,  secluded spots where writers may seek inspiration and work in solitude.

Typically a DC Books residency program extends between four weeks and three months, with the duration being evaluated on a need based requirement. Residences are available for all types of writers engaged in literary creation, regardless of their language of choice. While priority is accorded to writers and translators, we are also open to other disciplines as long as literature forms the core of their project.

DC Books will assess applications based on the literary quality of a project, an applicants professional credentials as an author and whether the proposed duration of residence aligns with the scope of the project.

• There are no age or nationality restrictions.
• Unpublished authors are accepted. Their applications are assessed based on the quality of the project and the motivations they are able to convey in their application. Authors are only allowed to submit one application per year.
• Former residents are not allowed to reapply.