Sunday, September 25, 2011

'Indian English writers get fewer readers'

Writer Anita Nair inaugurated the Indian Ruminations literary festival in  Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.

Nearly 70 delegates, including writers and poets from around the country, are participating in the two-day event, organised by online Indian English writers' journal Indian Ruminations.

The theme of the festival is ‘Exploring Indian Alternatives in Reading and Writing.'

Ms. Nair said although more and more young talents were coming up, Indian English writers did not get acceptance like foreign writers in India. “I think the whole idea of contemporary Indian English writing is a misnomer. A large section of people, especially the academia, do not recognise Indian writers post 1960s. Although Indian English writers are accepted elsewhere, in our own country we have fewer and fewer readers,” she said.

Additional Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar delivered the presidential address. Mr. Jayakumar said world writers were edging native writers out of the shelf in Kerala as world literature invaded the Malayalam literary space. “The space that is taken away does not belong to established writers but the struggling young writers of Kerala,” he said. Mr. Jayakumar said that with the advent of the Internet and blogging, the hierarchies of publishing had been shaken and the publishing business had become more democratised. “Our publishers should take up the responsibility of familiarising our writers to the world. Having good translations is equally important. Translation has to be encouraged and promoted as a highly paid profession,” Mr. Jayakumar said.

Full report here Hindu

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