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Since 2013 · Lucknow Expressions Society

Made in Lucknow.
In conversation with the world.

Metaphor has always been made in Lucknow.

The city shapes the festival's language, its audiences and the questions it chooses to ask. What arrives on stage may come from anywhere, but the conversation that follows belongs unmistakably to the place in which it is being held.

Thirteen editions in, that remains the idea at the centre of Metaphor.

2013

It began here.

The first edition of Metaphor Lucknow Litfest opened in 2013 with Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

What began in a hall in Lucknow has since grown across thirteen editions, bringing to the city voices from literature, cinema, music and public life.

The scale has changed over the years. The reason for gathering has not.

To create a space where an idea can be heard properly, questioned freely and carried beyond the room in which it began.

How Metaphor Works

A few things have remained constant.

  1. 01 — Entry stays free.

    Metaphor has remained free to attend since its first edition. Registration helps us plan capacity and keep the festival accessible without turning entry into a transaction.

  2. 02 — Language belongs to the conversation.

    English, Hindi and Urdu have always shared Metaphor's stages. A session may remain in one language or move naturally between them. The point is not to programme language as heritage, but to let people speak in the language in which the thought arrives most truthfully.

  3. 03 — Young writers get a real stage.

    Metaphor gives new writers the opportunity to present their own work before an audience. They are not placed at the edge of the festival. Their writing is read, heard and discussed with the same seriousness that makes any literary gathering worthwhile.

  4. 04 — Conversation comes before ceremony.

    Metaphor invites people not simply to appear, but to engage. The most memorable sessions have often been the ones in which the audience changed the direction of the conversation, a question opened another question, or the discussion continued beyond its allotted hour. That exchange is part of the festival.

The Strands

Many ways into the same conversation.

Metaphor has never treated literature as a sealed room. Books lead naturally into cinema, history into public life, poetry into music and the city into all of them.

Explore Edition XIV
  • Poetry
  • Cinema
  • Ideas & Public Life
  • History & Heritage
  • Literature & Fiction
  • Music & Performance
  • The City
  • Young Metaphor
  • 2013Founded in Lucknow
  • 13Editions completed
  • 14thEdition in 2026
  • Free EntrySince the beginning

Who runs it

Lucknow Expressions Society

Lucknow Expressions Society was founded in 2013 with the belief that Lucknow deserved a cultural platform equal to the depth of its literary life.

The Society organises Metaphor Lucknow Litfest as a not-for-profit cultural initiative, bringing together writers, artists, audiences and institutions through conversations that remain open to the city.

Each edition is made possible by the people who work on it, the volunteers who give it their time and the partners who choose to support access to culture.

Volunteer with Metaphor Partner with us

Partners & Supporters

The organisations behind the festival.

Metaphor has been made possible across thirteen editions with the support of institutions, healthcare leaders, media networks and patrons of the arts.

Metaphor Lucknow Litfest Logo

FOURTEENTH EDITION · 28–29 NOVEMBER 2026

Where stories come alive.

The line has travelled with Metaphor since its first edition.

After thirteen editions, it still says what we mean.

A story may arrive through a book, a film, a poem or a memory. At Metaphor, it becomes something else when it meets a room willing to listen.

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