The prestigious Government College University (GCU) organized a literary festival from October 11 to October 13 under the banner of its Safdar Mir English Literary Circle (SMELC). It was a three-day event, held in order to celebrate the completion of GCU’s English department’s 150 years, and strived to bring together authors, poets, professors, researchers and creative artists from all over Pakistan in order to have a collective look at what the department has attained so far, what it is currently working on and what can it do for the literary arts in the future. The panels took place both at the historic Bukhari Auditorium and the recently built Physics Seminar Hall. There was a wide range of discussions, starting with the influences of English language on the Pakistani society, tarrying on the need to address environmental catastrophes and poetic concerns through literature, and ending on the need to build a society more tolerant towards arts and literature in the face of never-ending conservatism. Notable people from both academia and literary arts joined the festival, including Dr. Waseem Anwar, Dr. Tariq Rahman, Dr. Summaira Sarfaraz, Dr. Saima Jabeen, Dr. Mahboob Ahmed, Dr. Tahir Kamran, Awais Khan, Amna Mufti, Kanza Javed, Ms. Sadia Ghaznavi, Prof. Faiza Sharif, Mina Malik, Afshan Shafi, Shahid Nadeem, Sarmad Khoosat, Manzar Sehbai, Samina Ahmad, Moneeza Hashmi, Dr. Amara Khan, Dr. Arooj Ehsan, Prof. Dr. Sajjad Ali Khan and Navid Shahzad. Professor Ayesha Jalal and poet Ilona Yusuf joined the festival virtually. The event was dotted with dramatic and musical performances and poetic recitations, and was gracefully brought to an end with one speech by SMELC’s president, Hammad Ali, and another by Dr. Sameer Ahmed, the latter dwelling on the need to revisit and reembrace GCU’s motto, “Courage to Know”. These congratulatory yet thought-provoking speeches were followed by a cake-cutting ceremony, the cake having been offered to GCU by Lahore’s historic and first professional bakery, S Mohkam-Ud-Din and Sons. Dr. Sajjad Ali Khan, the head of the institute’s English Department was joined by Naveed Shahzad and Professor Tahir Kamran in the ceremony, while in the background ran beautiful renditions of semi-classical songs by GCU’s Nazir Ahmed Music Society (NAMS).