The Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) will return for its 17th edition from February 6 to 8, 2026, at the Beach Luxury Hotel, reaffirming its standing as Pakistan’s largest literary gathering. The festival is free and open to the public.

Organised by Oxford University Press Pakistan, KLF 2026 will be held under the theme “Literature in a Fragile World,” focusing on how literature responds to social, political and cultural uncertainty.

Reflecting on the festival’s purpose, Arshad Saeed Husain, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, said, “In an increasingly fractured world, literature remains one of the last spaces where dogmas can be questioned, and humanity can speak to itself without fear.”

This year’s festival will feature more than 200 delegates from eight countries, over 90 sessions, and 28 book launches in three languages. The programme also includes two documentaries and two feature films.

Keynote speakers include Senator Sherry Rehman, Mohammed Hanif, Nasir Abbas Nayyar and Khurshid Rizvi. The lineup brings together writers, poets, critics and thinkers from Pakistan and abroad.

Among the international speakers is Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, alongside Professor Richard Susskind CBE KC (Hon), a leading authority on law and artificial intelligence; Scottish historian and filmmaker Sam Dalrymple; and novelist Laline Paull.

New additions to the festival include The Great KLF Debate, a Sindhi mushaira and an inter-school debate, underscoring KLF’s focus on youth engagement, linguistic diversity and civic dialogue.

The programme also blends literary discussion with dramatic readings, classical music, theatre, rap and qawwali.

Special sessions will mark major literary and national milestones, including the 150th birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, featuring a screening of Jinnah introduced by filmmaker Jamil Dehlavi, and a panel on the thought and legacy of Allama Iqbal.

The festival will also host a session marking the 250th birth anniversary of Jane Austen.

Young audiences remain central to the festival, with the Youth Pavilion offering storytelling, theatre and interactive workshops. The winners of the 2026 KLF-Getz Pharma Book Prizes will also be announced, recognising excellence in English fiction, Urdu prose and poetry.

With its expansive programme and broad public reach, KLF 2026 once again positions Karachi as a crossroads of ideas, linking literature to the challenges of the present while imagining more thoughtful futures.