The second edition of Ananke’s much celebrated Women In Literature Festival 2022 (#WLF2022) is all set to take place digitally on March 31st and April 1st, 2022. The two-day, online event plans to celebrate independent publishers, writers, poets, literary agents as well as connoisseurs of the written word especially from the Global South.
With the theme, Rethinking Paper, Ink & Gender, the event offers a unique window not just into women’s lived as well as imagined experiences, it opens up dialogue on publishing and the written word at the intersections of gender, feminist literary activism, innovation, biases, sustainability, linguistic identity, corporatization in publishing, the Metaverse and more.
Talking about her participating and the importance of events such as the festival, UAE-based author and filmmaker, Saba Karim Khan said: “I am so excited about the upcoming Women in Literature Festival. This is such a phenomenal platform for storytellers from all walks of life; theatre, art, poetry, novels – you name it. And I think it is an example of something that is really democratizing the space for storytellers all over the world and especially from the Global South. You know a lot of times, we sit and say what is our little bit going to do, what is our voice going to do? This is the first step towards reclamation, just popping your little brick into the wall to eventually come up.”
The festival plans to highlight, promote and celebrate independent publishers who have not just carved a niche for themselves against the backdrop of the Big Five (in publishing), they have brought some of the most groundbreaking works of literature into the market.
“Every time, I go to a bookstore I witness the absence of some amazing works produced by independent publishers. Why is that? Yes there are major distribution challenges, especially outside their home countries, which need to be sorted and because of that I think book lovers globally are not even aware of what they are missing. It is high time we change that. Celebrating these amazing and change-making outfits such as Seagull Books, Readomania, Zuka Books, Zubaan Books, Yoda Press, Ala Books and Authors, Reverie Publishers, Kitab and more, is the first step. The idea is to showcase them and bring them closer to their audience. There is a huge appetite for the written word especially from the Global South and we need to leverage the power of technology to address this,” opined Ananke’s Executive Editor and WLF2022 organizer, Sabin Muzaffar.
The event will be livestreamed on Ananke’s Facebook page with the option of attending the festival via Zoom as well. Zoom registrations will commence on March 10th, 2022.
Organizing partners and collaborators include (in alphabetical order) Ala Books and Authors, Authors Alliance Pakistan, Readomania, Seagull Books, The Gender Security Project, Zubaan Books, Zuka Books, with confirmed guests: Ameena Hussein, Arshia Sattar, Arpita Das, Dr. Amina Yaqin, Dr. Ammara Maqsood, Annie Zaidi, Aysha Baqir, Emil Hasnain, Ikroop Sandhu, K Vaishali, Kehkashan Khalid, Kirthi Jayakumar, Laaleen Sukhera, Meena Kandasamy, Mehr F Husain, Myriam Tadasse, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, Naima Rashid, Naveen Kishore, Nilofer Qazi, Nilanjana Bhowmick, Piyusha Vir, Radhika Maira Tabrez, Saba Karim Khan, Sabyn Javeri, Sana Malik, Sara Naveed, Shereen Melherbe, Sidra Sheikh, Taiba Abbas, Tarun Saint, Usman T Malik, Vijyalakshmi Harish, Wanjikū Wa Ngūgī and more.
Watch this space for more updates on confirmed speakers and partners.
Image Courtesy: Photo by Rey Seven on Unsplash
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