Envisioning and chairing the session, publisher Ala Books and Authors and author, Taiba Abbas said: “Longing and Loneliness. You unravel one and find yourself in the coils of the other. Together, they represent the canvas on which we live out our lives and paint our truest moments. There is no separating them. I’m fascinated by the way stories of fiction and non-fiction are shaped out of these two primal stimulants and predicaments – their impact resonating far and wide, speaking to and for a multiplicity of lived experience. This is a conversation you don’t want to miss.”
The event will be live-streamed on Ananke’s Facebook page – @anankemag with the option to participate in all live sessions via Zoom. To attend the session, email: media@anankemag.com (please write: Zoom registration in the subject line).
Panelists include, author and film-maker Annie Zaidi and Shrayana Bhattacharya.
Annie Zaidi is the author of City of Incident; Prelude to a Riot; and Bread, Cement, Cactus: A memoir of belonging and dislocation. She is also the editor of Unbound: 2000 Years of Indian Women’s Writing, and Equal Halves. Other books include Gulab; Love Stories # 1 to 14; Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales, The Good Indian Girl and Crush.
She received the Tata Literature Live Award for fiction (2020), the Nine Dots Prize (2019), and The Hindu Playwright Award (2018) for Untitled 1. Her radio script ‘Jam’ was named regional (South Asia) winner for the BBC’s International Playwriting Competition (2011). Her work has appeared in several anthologies and literary journals including The Griffith Review, The Aleph Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Charles River Journal, The Missing Slate and Out of Print. She has also written and directed several short films and the documentary film, In her words: The journey of Indian women.
Shrayana Bhattacharya trained in development economics at Delhi University and the Harvard Kennedy School. Since 2006, she has worked on research projects with the Institute of Social Studies Trust, SEWA and Centre for Policy Research on gender and labour. At present, she is a Senior Economist at the World Bank. Her first book of non-fiction Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh : India’s Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence was published by HarperCollins India in November 2021 and by Liberty Books in Pakistan in August 2022. Shrayana recently won the Atta Galatta BLF Book Prize for Best Non Fiction for 2022. She has also won the Times of India JK Paper AutHer Prize for Best Non-Fiction Author for 2022 and the SKOCH Economic Forum Prize for literature.
Taiba Abbas is an author, teacher, and the founder of Àla Books and Authors. She is the co-author of The Night In Her Hair – a collection of fictional retellings of legends and folk tales from the subcontinent. Born in Pakistan, she grew up in Italy, and holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature from SOAS, University of London. Her teaching career spans over a decade, having taught courses in English literature, Film, Italian, and Cultural studies at universities and schools in Lahore and Islamabad.
Partners of the event include Zubaan Books, Seagull Books, Zuka Books, Neem Tree Press, Yoda Press and Readomania. More partners and collaborators will be announced soon.