Sunshine On Hay
Litfests in India have so far not dared to charge entry tickets but Hay-on-Wye, the world’s most famous paid litfest, is now eyeing the growing market for litfests in India. Talks are on for bringing the Hay Festival to Kerala this November. The three-day festival, with some 50 writers, hopes to attract decent crowds. As a beginning, there are plans of 20 per cent free tickets for students. There was talk of a tie-up with Binoo John’s infant Kovalam litfest, but Binoo didn’t want “to be swallowed up” by the bigger festival. So Kerala will play host to two litfests running almost back-to-back (Kovalam litfest from October 1-3 and Hay Festival from November 12-14).
Waiting to Cross
By the time you read this, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize will have been announced, and Chowringhee by Bengali novelist Shankar may or may not have won it. The prize itself is not much but the international prestige generated for Shankar has heartened Indian language writers who hope to make it to the international market. Chowringhee is the first Indian language novel to be on the prize shortlist—or possibly the longlist. But with major publishers here in the race to include Indian novels in translation on their lists, it won’t be long before they appear among prize-winners.
Reading to Sell
Time was when writers complained that they had to put away a year of their writing lives for extended book tours. But it’s been over two years now since Daniyal Mueenuddin’s debut In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was out and he’s still touring—this time he’s off to Latin America to promote the Spanish translation.
