New Delhi | Around 400 writers from nine countries will come together by the beach of Kozhikode in Kerala to take part in the seventh edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF), starting January 11.

The four-day festival, organised by DC Kizhakemuri Foundation and co-promoted by DC Books, will witness an array of authors, actors, thinkers, and activists participate in sessions and discuss on a range of topics, including science and technology, literature, art, gender, cinema, culture and environment.

"The seventh edition of the Kerala Literature Festival is expected to be a grand celebration of literature and culture with Turkey as the guest country of honour, featuring their literature and art forms. The UK, Wales, Spain, Japan, USA, Malaysia, Spain, and France will be the other participating countries," said the organisers in a statement.

Politician-author Shashi Tharoor, historian William Dalrymple, Booker Prize-winner author Arundhati Roy, ad guru Prahlad Kakar, former diplomat-politician Mani Shankar Aiyar and award-winning playwright-author Catherine Ann Jones are among the authors attending the festival.

Besides literary sessions, the festival will also host concerts by TM Krishna and Vikku Vinayakram along with surbahar and sitar concerts by Padmabhushan Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee.

Touted to be one of Asia's largest literature festivals, KLF claimed it witnessed around 5 lakh footfalls in its last edition.