The Jaipur Literature Festival is set to expand its North American presence next month, bringing more than 100 writers, thinkers, historians, artists, entrepreneurs and cultural voices to cities across the United States and Canada. The 2026 editions will run from September 11 to October 4, marking what organisers have described as the festival’s biggest North American programme so far.

JLF USA and JLF Toronto will travel across seven cities, beginning in North Carolina from September 11 to 13. The festival will then move to Los Angeles, Seattle, Colorado, Toronto, New York and finally Houston, where the programme will conclude on October 4. Los Angeles and Toronto will host the festival for the first time.

The international editions are designed to carry the spirit of the Jaipur Literature Festival beyond India while adapting to local audiences. Since JLF first expanded internationally in 2014 with an edition in London, it has developed programmes across several regions, including North America, Europe, Australia, Ireland and West Asia.

The 2026 line-up includes several prominent names from literature, academia, film, diplomacy and public life.

Among those scheduled to participate are author-politician Shashi Tharoor, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Kai Bird, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, Booker Prize-winning novelist Yann Martel, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, author Sam Dalrymple, diplomat-author Lakshmi Puri, economist Arvind Subramanian, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri and Indian-American businessman Kanwal Rekhi.

The presence of authors alongside economists, filmmakers and public intellectuals reflects the festival’s broader approach to what a literary gathering can include.

AI, Geopolitics and Climate Change On The Agenda

The programme will range well beyond conventional literary discussion. Sessions are expected to address artificial intelligence, technology, geopolitics, history, empire, Indigenous rights, climate change, faith, migration, diaspora, entrepreneurship, art and food.

Organisers have said that discussions will examine how AI is changing work, culture and society, while other sessions will focus on shifts in global power and the political questions shaping contemporary life.

Sanjoy K Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts, which produces the Jaipur Literature Festival, said the international editions are intended to create space for debate, discussion and dissent while encouraging knowledge and innovation.

Rather than reproducing exactly the same programme in every location, JLF plans to shape each edition around the character of its host city.

Roy said programming would differ according to local institutions, venues and audiences. Organisers are also working with cultural organisations in each location, making the seven-city run a collection of locally shaped events rather than a single programme simply transported from place to place.

Around 35 per cent of the overall programming is expected to focus on fiction, while approximately 65 per cent will centre on non-fiction subjects such as history, politics, mathematics, science, philosophy, gender, sociology, food and migration.

The programme will also include a travelling visual-art exhibition by documentary photographer Vicky Roy, whose work will be shown in Los Angeles and Seattle.

The North American programme arrives as the Jaipur Literature Festival moves towards another milestone. The flagship Jaipur edition is preparing to mark its 20th edition in 2027.

What began as a literary gathering in Rajasthan has gradually become an international platform where fiction sits beside politics, science, technology and cultural debate. The 2026 US and Canada editions underline that transformation, with a programme built not only around books, but around the ideas currently shaping public life.