The third edition of the Chinar Book Festival will be held at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), Srinagar, from July 18 to 26. The festival is being organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), India, under the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the District Administration Srinagar and the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL).
Lieutenant Governor of UT of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha will inaugurate the festival on July 18 in the presence of senior officials from the district administration, the School and Higher Education Departments, NCPUL and NBT.
More than 200 publishers will participate in the festival, showcasing books in English, Urdu, Kashmiri, Hindi and several other Indian languages. The nine-day event will feature literary discussions, author interactions, book launches, workshops, storytelling sessions, children’s activities, Mushairas and cultural performances.
Ahead of the festival, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Akshay Labroo flagged off a ‘Shikarathon’ on Dal Lake and unveiled the festival’s tagline, “Together We Read, Together We Lead” (Mil Kar Padhenge, Mil Kar Badhenge).
Among the major highlights of this year’s festival are the release of 24 bilingual Gojri books developed through the 2025 Gojri Translation Workshop, the first set of novels under the Rajtarangini Samvad initiative, and two new publications—The City of Seven Bridges and An Indian Muslim Speaks.
The festival will also host an Innovators’ Meet featuring student innovators from SKUAST-K, IUST and the University of Kashmir, besides introducing a 5K Reading Run as part of Shiksha Saptah 2026. Visitors will also have access to the Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya digital library.
