Astronaut Sunita Williams to participate in Kerala Literature Festival 2026
Sunita is expected to reflect on her journeys beyond Earth and speak on science, exploration, leadership, resilience and the enduring power of human curiosity
Astronaut Sunita Williams will take part in the ninth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF), beginning on January 22, the organisers announced on Tuesday (December 30).
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Williams, 60, who has spent more than 300 days in space, is expected to reflect on her journeys beyond Earth and speak on science, exploration, leadership, resilience and the enduring power of human curiosity.
Record-breaking space mission
“The Kerala Literature Festival has always believed in expanding the idea of the festival to include science, discovery, leadership and the human spirit. Sunita Williams embodies the courage to explore the unknown and the discipline required to push human boundaries,” the organisers said.
"She has also been a well-wisher of DC Books and KLF, which makes her presence at the festival especially meaningful. Her participation will inspire audiences across generations," said Ravi DeeCee, Managing Director of DC Books and chief facilitator at KLF.
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On her third mission to the International Space Station in June last year along with Butch Wilmore, which lasted for 286 days, Williams created history by setting a record of most time spent spacewalking by a woman.
Sunita's Indian roots
A former US Navy captain, Sunita Williams was born to a Gujarati father Deepak Pandya hailing from Jhulasan in Mehsana district and Slovenian mother Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, on September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio.
She was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and she underwent training at the Johnson Space Center. She also worked in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency on the Russian contribution to the International Space Station.
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KLF 2026 will host over 500 speakers from across the world and will feature Germany as the guest nation for this year’s edition.
The festival’s speaker line-up include Nobel Laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah, Olga Tokarczuk and Abhijit Banerjee, Booker Prize-winning writer-activist Banu Mushtaq, Olympian Ben Johnson, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, artist Cheyenne Olivier, economist Arvind Subramanian as well as noted writers Gabriela Ybarra, Peggy Mohan, Shobhaa De and Amish Tripathi.