The Jaipur Literature Festival will expand its North American presence in 2026, with JLF USA and JLF Toronto bringing the festival to seven cities across the United States and Canada from September 11 to October 4.
Produced by Teamwork Arts, the 2026 program will include established editions in North Carolina, Seattle, Colorado, New York and Houston, while Los Angeles and Toronto join the festival network for the first time. The expanded program will bring together writers, historians, artists, entrepreneurs and other cultural voices for discussions spanning literature, geopolitics, technology, business, history and the arts.
Among the prominent participants are Shashi Tharoor, Shekhar Kapur, Yann Martel, Scott Anderson, Priya Anand, Vijay Seshadri, Tanya Talaga, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Kai Bird and Caroline Elkins.
READ: JLF Los Angeles examines the New World Order (August 13, 2026)
The wider lineup includes Manil Suri, Mahmood Mamdani, Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, John Vaillant, Martin Puchner, Sam Dalrymple, Vinita Gupta, Vikram Vij, Devesh Kapur, Arvind Subramanian, Lakshmi Puri, Daniel Peña, Kanwal Rekhi, Sonia Reemes and Nitin Seth.
The 2026 conversations will examine some of the major issues shaping contemporary society, including artificial intelligence, technology, geopolitics, migration, diaspora, climate change, Indigenous rights, faith, entrepreneurship, art and food.
Tharoor, Bird and Elkins will bring historical and geopolitical perspectives to the program, while Martel, Anderson, Seshadri and Divakaruni will contribute literary perspectives. Talaga will bring Indigenous perspectives to the Colorado edition.
The festival said each edition will be shaped by the character and cultural communities of its host city. Local partnerships and venues will form an important part of the programs, making each stop a locally rooted cultural event.
In New York, the festival will take place across venues including Asia Society, The National Arts Club and The Center for Fiction. Toronto will host the festival’s first Canadian edition on September 25 and 26. Los Angeles will host JLF for the first time from September 14 to 16. The new Toronto edition further expands the festival’s reach beyond the United States.
READ: JLF brings global literary dialogue to Los Angeles (June 6, 2026)
The seven-city schedule begins with North Carolina from September 11 to 13, followed by Los Angeles from September 14 to 16, Seattle from September 17 to 20, Colorado from September 22 to 23, Toronto from September 25 to 26, New York from September 29 to 30, and Houston from October 2 to 4. The program will also feature a traveling visual art exhibition by documentary photographer Vicky Roy in Los Angeles and Seattle.
The North American expansion comes ahead of the 20th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival in Jaipur, scheduled for January 14-18, 2027. JLF USA is part of the festival’s broader international presence, which also includes programs in the UK, Ireland, Spain and other locations.