HYDERABAD: Come December 7 and the city will host Women Writers’ Fest organised by SheThePeopleTV which will see writers, poets, bloggers, playwrights, and authors from the city talk about poetry, narratives, food, digital media, feminism and more. The one-day literary festival is being held at The Park, Somajiguda. Firebrand poet Volga will be in conversation with prof TV Kumar talking about feminism in her writing.
Noted model-actor and food writer Tara Deshpande will be there in a panel on food trends 2020 moderated by city-based food writer and blogger Shivani Mohan. Shivani shares, "Food trends define the evolution of dining habits across cutures. Cuisines are evolving to make way for new lifestyles, physical conditions, climatic changes, environmental concerns and more. That’s how we are going to talk about Keto to intermittent fasting, veganism to organic food and rediscovery of millets." Other panels include talks by a health guru, women’s writing in a digital world and more.
The day concludes with a poetry panel of six poets from the city focussing on their journey through their verses. Janani Rao, a 21-year-old poet who is part of the panel says, "I came into writing seeking healing as I have gone through abuse at the hands of my father. It’s poetry which fills me with peace and eases my pain as I sit down to pen down the words." Shaili Chopra, the founder of SheThePeople.TV and Women Writers’ Fest speaks to us:
How did you conceptualise the idea of ‘women-only’ writers festival?
As India’s first and only festival of women writers, it’s to celebrate works by women. It connects women who want to write to those who have written and opens a world of resources to get published. We are over 17 editions and counting, and adding new cities every year. In 2019 we added Hyderabad and Lucknow to a calendar of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Pune. We have hosted the fest at IIM Ahmedabad as well. In the first quarter of 2020 we are going to Bhopal and Patna too.
This festival creates a support group of women who know there are others out there in a journey to write, who are struggling and succeeding with storytelling, drumming up ideas and finding ways to publish and market. That they are not alone.
This Writers’ Fest also lifts to focus important subjects skipped by regular literary festivals that tend to spotlight politics and controversial news. For example self help, business, mental health, self publishing, writings on food, motherhood, city storytelling, women of history and many such. We also aim to put emphasis on regional, local writing efforts. There are stellar works in languages outside of English. So much excellent work is being done here that we must push to mainstream these.
We have also conducted pop-ups at many festivals including Times Lit Fest Mumbai and Delhi, Kala Ghoda Festival, LitoFest and more. The WWF also brings together women from different genres of writing, be it novelists, poets, journalists, screenplay writers, recipe writers, bloggers, playwrights or critics. It is a melting pot of wordsmiths of the print and digital age.
Do you think just a one-day festival meets the requirements of the overall theme?
It is held for two days in some cities and just for a day in some. We hope to expand this to two days in all cities by end of 2020. On digital however the SheThePeople Book Club and the Women Writers Group ensures year long conversations on the subject of writing and reading with real time support for and by members.
Which other cities do you plan to take the festival to?
We have Patna, Bhopal, Jaipur, Chennai, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, and Bhubaneswar are on our list.
Have you thought of including performance(s) by the writers/poets?
This fest celebrates storytelling in many beautiful ways and that includes certain types of performances. In Delhi, we hosted a poetry collective and a young girl Sonal Sharma did a spoken word performance which has garnered over 15 million views over eight months.
What else do you plan to add to the festival?
There is a dearth of good workshops for women writers by peer and established authors. We also expect to add more spoken word performances, genre specific writing skills, and author power breakfasts.