WRITE ASSAMESE. WRITING, TRANSLATING AND PUBLISHING REGIONAL LANGUAGES

Write Assamese. Writing, translating and publishing regional languages

Reading and Discussion on 14.10.2024

With: Bikash Dihingia, Harsita Hiya and Riddhi Maitra 
Moderation: Lucy Hannah

Every two years, on the monday before the Frankfurt book fair, KfW Stiftung offers the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into our literature programme. This year, we will look back on Write Assamese (2022) with the event "Write Assamese. Writing, translating and publishing regional languages".  Bikash Dihingia (author), Harsita Hiya (translator), Riddhi Maitra (editor, BEE Books) and Lucy Hannah (Untold Narratives CIC) will join us for a panel discussion on writing, networking, publishing and translating in marginalised languages. In addition, Bikash Dihingia will read from his short story A Wagtail's Song, which was published as part of the programme in the anthology A Fistful of Moonlight, Stories from Assam (BEE Books/India and Hachette UK/MacLehose Press, 2023).

Since 2020, KfW Stiftung has been working with Untold Narratives CIC initiative to develop programmes for marginalised writers by supporting the development of local literary infrastructures. In workshops consisting of four components - writing, networking, publishing and reading - authors are given the opportunity to further develop their writing in their own language and present it to an international audience. On 14 October 2024, we will focus on Northeast India and the regional language Assamese. The 2022 Write Assamese project focussed on new, unpublished Assamese writers and building the capacity of new, local literary translators. Following the programme, the stories were published in the anthology A Fistful of Moonlight, Stories from Assam (BEE Books/India and Hachette UK/MacLehose Press, 2023). Write Assamese was a cooperation between Untold Narratives CIC, the British Council, BEE Books and KfW Stiftung. 

The event will be held in English.

Biographies

Bikash Dihingia started school under the name Bikash Dihingia, which he has used for writing since childhood and which has become his pseudonym. He was selected as a PM YUVA author, one of 75 authors under the age of 30 from across India. His selected book Gamadhar - Swadhinata Andolanar Baatkoteeya Gamadhar Konwarar Atmakatha (National Book Trust/India, & Indian Ministry of Education) was launched by Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux at the 2023 World Book Fair in New Delhi. His short story A Wagtail's Song, translated from Assamese by Harshita Hiya, appeared in the anthology A Fistful of Moonlight, Stories from Assam (BEE Books/India and Hachette UK/MacLehose Press, 2023). 

Harsita Hiya, currently pursuing a PhD in English Literature at the Faculty of Arts, Delhi University, is a writer and translator from the city of Nagaon in Assam.  Her work has been published in Words Without Borders, Muse India and the Little Journal of North East India.  She was one of the translators of the Write Assamese project wich culminated in the 2022 anthology A Fistful of Moonlight, Stories from Assam (published by Bee Books/India and Maclehose Press/UK, 2023). Her first book of short stories, The Forest That Ate People and Other Not-so-scary Stories, was published by The Antonym in October 2023. Two of her short stories were published in Riverside Stories, published by Zubaan Books in summer 2024.

Riddhi Maitra is the Managing Editor of BEE Books in Kolkata, where she works on a variety of manuscripts across fiction, non-fiction and picture books. A lover of world literature, she currently spends her time curating anthologies of short stories from around the world. In 2022, Maitra was selected as a fellow for the British Council's International Publishing Fellowship. A former student of the Seagull School of Publishing in Kolkata, she works with publishers in India and the US. Maitra has also published three books of translations from Bengali into English: The Last Few Days of the Blue God (2020), 3 Stories:Rabindranth Tagore (2020), Bheeshma: The Unvanquished Kuru Patriarch (2021), published by BEE Books.

Lucy Hannah is the founder and director of Untold Narratives. A social entrepreneur, editor and author, she has worked with writers in the UK and worldwide to develop and promote their work. Other initiatives Hannah has established include Commonwealth Writers, Out of the Gate and BBC Writers. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College, London, and a director of the Bocas LitFest in Trinidad.

With music from Bridges Kammerorchester

Salim Salari (tar) and Ramin Rahmi (percussion and vocals) of the Meyjana Trio will accompany the reading and conversation with their music. They take up their own musical traditions and combine them into something new and thereby fuse sounds from Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Syria and the Balkans, among others, as well as elements of European classical music. The artistic expression covers a wide spectrum: from melancholic, moving and energetic to light-hearted, exuberant and joyful.

The Meyjana Trio is one of twelve transcultural ensembles of the Bridges Kammerorchester The musicians of the chamber orchestra are active in ensemble and educational formats, which are characterised by the interplay of instruments from various regions of the European, Asian and American continents, incorporating the musical cultural backgrounds of the participants.

Image Credits: 

01. Book Cover A Fistful of Moonlight, New Fiction from Assam, published by BEE Books