THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When indianruminations.com was launched a year-and-a-half ago, it envisaged giving visibility and voice to local talent. With over 5,000 registered users milling up to read and contribute, the site promoters have decided to go real-time and have announced a literary festival under its banner. Adding to the crop of lit fests hosted in Thiruvananthapuram will be the Indian Ruminations Literary Festival, the first edition of which will be held in September.
The city’s own edition of the Hay Festival, the one-year-old potpourri that has journeyed down from Hay-on-Wye in Wales, and the three-year-old Kovalam Literary Festival, held in a beach side venue, have already stepped up the literary traffic in the fall season. The Ruminations Festival will stand out for its thrust on ‘Indian alternatives in reading and writing’ as opposed to the usual focus on English books in general and Indian English authors publishing outside India, the organisers said. The website also hopes to stand out among its online counterparts who hold literary festivals which give importance to non-Indian authors.
“The Festival will feature unpublished as well as established writers. We are expecting authors from outside the State too as the users of the site are spread all over India,” said Sandhya S N, managing editor of Indian Ruminations.
“The two-day event will also have a Malayalam session because we think that literature in the vernacular cannot be ignored in a literary festival hosted in Kerala. After all, the chosen language of expression should not create a barrier when it comes to literary exchanges,” she said.
The organisers have invited entries for awards to be presented to the best prose and poetry works in English and Malayalam. “Prose will include fiction and non-fiction,” she said. By promoting new and aspiring writers, the website envisions a retrieval of the space once held by vernacular writings on the literary canvas.
“The India that is portrayed in English fiction is often far removed from the authentic. To add to it, we have also cultivated in our younger generations a preference for writings in English over the vernacular. Exploring emerging writers who write in English can be a potential way of finding authentic Indian stories told from an Indian perspective,” Sandhya said.
The Literary Awards comprise of a citation and a cash prize of Rs 10,000. Submissions, including three copies of the book with a detailed profile of the author along with a photograph and the covering letter, should reach at Indian Ruminations in the address below on or before July 31 - The Managing/Chief Editor, Indian Ruminations, Anova, TC 10/1947(4), Thozhuvancode, Vattiyoorkavu PO, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala -695 013. Details of the submissions may be sent to editor@indianruminations.com. Books that have already won awards are not eligible to be submitted.